Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses

Rating:
Summary: Challenging, powerful, unsettling...
Review: An unsettling and hallucinatory ride through the history of image-making, from the point of first contact between the Old and New Worlds, to the present day. Taussig is among the most original and challenging anthropologists of our time, forcing readers to radically rethink their notions of not only anthropology and the nature of academic inquiry, but of the human condition itself.

A must read!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I first read this text in undergraduate studies - to this day it remains one of my favourite books.

It is distinguished by Taussig's ability to both blend sharp anthropological insight with nuanced reading of philosophical theory. This strengthens his anthropology and adds to the understanding of key Critical Theory exponents.

He adds rigour to anthropological practice and substance to philosophical theory - both difficult tasks.

A text of great import to the humanities generally.