The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America

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Exploring the role of the devil in South American folklore, Michael Taussig analyzes its social significance among plantation workers and miners through a Marxist lens. He connects the traditional devil-pact narratives, where souls are exchanged for fleeting power, to the alienation experienced by workers in capitalist economies. This anniversary edition includes a new chapter discussing Walter Benjamin and Georges Bataille, further enriching Taussig's exploration of the devil-pact metaphor and its implications for understanding human objectification in modern production.