Michael Taussig is emeritus professor of anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author of many books, including And the Garden Is You and Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

“This is pure Taussig. In his latest, he ruminates and loops through the vicissitudes of corpse magic and the many forms it takes in Colombia and beyond—a subject as important and underexplored as it is uncanny.”

• List of IllustrationsMethod in the Madness and Vice VersaThe Living and the Dead1. Thickening2. Hollowing3. Some Anthropology of SlayingThe Break-In4. The Break-In5. Fetishistic Fastidiousness6. Who Does the Killing?7. Realignment of Landscape8. God Spots and the No-Go Zones9. From Corpse Magic to Corpse MontageHence the Problem Facing the Writer10. How to Kill a Corpse11. Reenchantment12. Corpse and Temple13. The Funeral March14. Disappearance of the Death Watch15. State Execution16. Vengeance and RepentancePreposterous Equations17. A Jesuit Seminar Room in Bogotá18. Gun Fetishism19. Statistical Legerdemain20. Auto-Mobilized Death-Space21. Killing Animals versus Killing Humans22. The Taboo on Portraying Killing23. Nuer-Effect: Present or Absent or Both?NotesIndex

Michael Taussig is emeritus professor of anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author of many books, including And the Garden Is You and Mastery of Non-Mastery in the Age of Meltdown, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

“This is pure Taussig. In his latest, he ruminates and loops through the vicissitudes of corpse magic and the many forms it takes in Colombia and beyond—a subject as important and underexplored as it is uncanny.”

• List of IllustrationsMethod in the Madness and Vice VersaThe Living and the Dead1. Thickening2. Hollowing3. Some Anthropology of SlayingThe Break-In4. The Break-In5. Fetishistic Fastidiousness6. Who Does the Killing?7. Realignment of Landscape8. God Spots and the No-Go Zones9. From Corpse Magic to Corpse MontageHence the Problem Facing the Writer10. How to Kill a Corpse11. Reenchantment12. Corpse and Temple13. The Funeral March14. Disappearance of the Death Watch15. State Execution16. Vengeance and RepentancePreposterous Equations17. A Jesuit Seminar Room in Bogotá18. Gun Fetishism19. Statistical Legerdemain20. Auto-Mobilized Death-Space21. Killing Animals versus Killing Humans22. The Taboo on Portraying Killing23. Nuer-Effect: Present or Absent or Both?NotesIndex