I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely My Own

187 Pages·2011·1.62 MB·English

by  Michael Taussig

DRAWINGS IN FIELDWORK NOTEBOOKS,
NAMELY MY OWN
Michael Taussig
the university of chicago press
Chicago and London
michael taussig is the Class of 1933 Professor of
Anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author
of ten books, including What Color Is the Sacred?, Walter
Benjamin’s Grave, and My Cocaine Museum, all published by
the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2011 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2011.
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978-0 - 226- 78982- 8 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978-0 - 226- 78983- 5 (paper)
isbn- 10: 0-2 26- 78982- 9 (cloth)
isbn- 10: 0-2 26- 78983- 7 (paper)
Library of Congress C ataloging- in- Publication Data
Taussig, Michael T.
I swear I saw this : drawings in fi eldwork notebooks, namely
my own / Michael Taussig.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn- 13: 978-0 - 226- 78982- 8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn- 13: 978-0 - 226- 78983- 5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0-2 26- 78982- 9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0-2 26- 78983- 7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Anthropology—
Fieldwork. 2. Anthropological illustration. 3. Anthropology—
Methodology. I. Title.
gn34.3 .f53t398 2011
301.072’3—dc23
2011025411
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi / niso
z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
For Ayesha Adamo
Put all the images in language in a place of safety
and make use of them, for they are in the desert,
and it’s in the desert we must go and look for them
GENET, PRISONER OF LOVE
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
CHAPTER 1 1 CHAPTER 10 79
CHAPTER 2 11 CHAPTER 11 91
CHAPTER 3 21 CHAPTER 12 95
CHAPTER 4 33 CHAPTER 13 103
CHAPTER 5 47 CHAPTER 14 111
CHAPTER 6 55 CHAPTER 15 117
CHAPTER 7 67 CHAPTER 16 123
CHAPTER 8 71 CHAPTER 17 129
CHAPTER 9 75 CHAPTER 18 133
CHAPTER 19 137
Afterthoughts 141
Acknowledgments 153
Notes 155
Bibliography 165
Index 171

ILLUSTRATIONS
1 I Swear I Saw This 2
2 Aguas Negras 8
3 Drawing of a Maori head (2007), artist unknown; copyright
Rouen Museum 12
4 Alan Ginsberg, The Great Being 14
5 Alan Ginsberg, The Vomiter 15
6 The Wolf Man’s Dream 16
7 My magic of the state 17
8 Cable cars, Medellin 18
9 My legs as viewed from my hammock 19
10 Domingo, Agosto 23 (soldier behind writing) 29
11 Julio Reyes’s phantom boat 30
12 Carmen Albers’s fat giraffe 36
13 Carmen Albers’s skinny giraffe 37
14–16 Burroughs’s and Gysin’s scrapbook images; pages from The Black
Scrapbook, c. 1964–65 40–42
17–18 Images from T arahumara- land 57–58
19 The Sorcerer, by Juan Bosco 83
20 A wild and desperate angel 87
21 Bosco’s mother’s image (Rosario’s image) 88
22 La Pola 92
23 Photograph of three women standing 93
24 Espantos coming up and down through the mist 94
25 Benjamin’s hashish drawing: “Sheep my little sleep
sheep . . .” 97
26 Benjamin’s hashish drawing: “Veritable sorceresses” 98