My Cocaine Museum

360 Pages·2004·2.798 MB·English

by  Michael Taussig

My Cocaine Museum
my cocain
My Cocaine Museum
Michael Taussig
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
e museum
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2004 by Michael Taussig
All rights reserved. Published 2004
Printed in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-79008-8 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-79009-6 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taussig, Michael T.
My cocaine museum / Michael Taussig.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-226-79008-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN
0-226-79009-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Indians of South America—Colombia—Santa María
(Cauca)—Social conditions. 2. Indians of South America—
Colombia—Santa María (Cauca)—Economic conditions. 3.
Indians, Treatment of—Colombia—Santa María (Cauca). 4.
Slavery—Colombia—Santa María (Cauca)—History. 5. Gold
mines and mining—Colombia—Santa María (Cauca). 6.
Cocaine industry—Colombia—Santa María (Cauca). 7. Drug
traffic—Colombia—Santa María (Cauca). 8. Santa María
(Cauca, Colombia)—Social conditions. 9. Santa María (Cauca,
Colombia)—Economic conditions. I. Title.
F2269.1.S24T28 2004
986.1'53—dc22
2003021831
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re-
quirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For Joyce Monges
Right from the start, the great collector is struck by the confusion,
by the scatter, in which the things of the world are found.
—Walter Benjamin
Author’s Note: A User’s Guide, ix c
Gold, 1
o
My Cocaine Museum, 13
Color, 23
Heat, 31
n
Wind & Weather, 43
Rain, 51
Boredom, 59
Diving, 69
t
Water in Water, 77
Julio Arboleda’s Stone, 87
e
Mines, 97
Entropy, 109
Moonshine, 117
n
The Accursed Share, 121
A Dog Growls, 129
The Coast Is No Longer Boring, 139
Paramilitary Lover, 149 t
Cement & Speed, 159
Miasma, 173 s
Swamp, 189
The Right to Be Lazy, 197
Beaches, 217
Lightning, 227
Bocanegra, 239
Stone, 245
Evil Eye, 255
Gorgon, 263
Gorgona, 271
Islands, 283
Underwater Mountains, 297
Sloth, 303
Afterword, 311 Acknowledgments, 317
Bibliography, 319 Index, 329

author’s note: a user’s guide
You can find it when you face the sun, close your eyes, and watch the colored
lines dance. Follow them, follow the heat, and you’ll get there like I did, all the
way to My Cocaine Museum.Not that there wasn’t what you might call a proto-
type, a most clear and definite and beautiful prototype, spooky in its own way
too, the famous, the world-famous, the extraordinary Gold Museum itself.
Not that it needs that sort of hype. No way. For this is no vulgar carnival
sideshow. This has science behind it and a lot of soft lighting as well, not to
mention big money and something even bigger than money: the image of
money, which, as you know, was there in gold all along. And still is—as you
see when you go downtown Bogotá, Colombia, and climb to the second floor of
the Banco de la República offCarrera Séptima and there enter the glittering
residues of the time before time when only the Indians were here, happy, so it
ix