Corpse Magic: Echoes Active in the Slayer-Slain Nexus

by Michael Taussig

Corpse Magic examines beliefs about vengeance the slain magically enact on their killers, focusing on lethal violence in Colombia and the United States.



Corpse Magic is a response to the global ubiquity of violence. In this bracing new work, the influential anthropologist Michael Taussig puts killings in Colombia, by gangs and guerrillas, police and the military, and agents of agribusiness, in conversation with mass shootings and police killings, disproportionately of Black people, in the United States. In both contexts, he examines the effects of violent killing on its victims, its perpetrators, and those who witness and relive it through media footage.



Drawing from literature, religion, philosophy, and anthropology, Taussig traces the idea that the act of killing “infects” the killer and spreads outward,  then connects this concept of contagion to beliefs in Colombia and elsewhere that the souls of the slain possess those of their slayers and that magic can be used to empower or thwart corpses as agents of vengeance. In this powerful and imaginative work, Taussig asks what kind of power the dead continue to have; what kinds of magic can manage that power; and what, if anything, can stop seemingly endless cycles of violence.

 

301 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Michael Taussig (born 1940) earned a medical degree from the University of Sydney, received his PhD. in anthropology from the London School of Economics and is a professor at Columbia University and European Graduate School. Although he has published on medical anthropology, he is best known for his engagement with Marx's idea of commodity fetishism, especially in terms of the work of Walter Benjamin.

Reviews

[Joe Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is incredibly hard to review a life time of work and thought in one paragraph, but in the most simplistic way, Taussig’s work is extraordinary. Reading Corpse Magic not only reveals the inner mechanisms and techniques of Taussig and the individuals featured throughout the book, but imbues the reader with the magic in question, bringing them into the Nuer Effect itself. This effectively ruins your day and places the evil and despair at the heart of our nation directly in front of you. No lens and no narrative to avert the ugly truth. A writer like Taussig is an incredibly rare talent, he avoids no image, no words, and no subject for the sake of comfort. Corpse Magic brings you into a system of assassination that you witness everyday and do not even realize it. I could go on for ages, but Corpse Magic is, in short, amazing, horrible, and impactful on a level that will follow you the rest of your life. I would recommend again and again. I plan to reread this after my next book. And again after the one after that.