Taussig, Michael (1940—)
Marxism cultural anthropologist. Born in Papua New Guinea and educated in Australia and the UK, Taussig studied medicine at undergraduate level but did not pursue a career as a general practitioner. Instead he completed a PhD in medical anthropology. He is best known, however, for his accounts of magical beliefs in South America, particularly his seminal work The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America (1980). Based on extensive fieldwork amongst tin-miners in Columbia, Taussig showed the way pagan beliefs adapt to accommodate changes in society, such as the advent of capitalism. A highly prolific author, Taussig has written several important books: Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing (1987), Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses (1993), and Law in a Lawless Land: Diary of a Limpieza in Colombia (2003).