In this classic book, Michael Taussig explores the social
significance of the devil in the folklore of contemporary
plantation workers and miners in South America. Grounding his
analysis in Marxist theory, Taussig finds that the fetishization of
evil, in the image of the devil, mediates the conflict between
precapitalist and capitalist modes of objectifying the human
condition. He links traditional narratives of the devil-pact, in
which the soul is bartered for illusory or transitory power, with
the way in which production in capitalist economies causes workers
to become alienated from the commodities they produce. A new
chapter for this anniversary edition features a discussion of
Walter Benjamin and Georges Bataille that extends Taussig's ideas
about the devil-pact metaphor.
