What Color Is the Sacred?

MICHAEL TAUSSIG

WHAT COLOR IS THE SACRED?

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Michael Taussig

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COLOR

THE UNIVERSITY

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OF CHICAGO

t n e s acn e n? PRESS,

Chicago and London

Michael Taussig is professor of anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books, including My Cocaine Museum and Walter Benjamin's Grave, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2009 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN-13:978-0-226-79005-3 (cloth) ISBN-13:978-0-226-79006-0 (paper) ISBN-IO:0-226-79005-3 (cloth) ISBN-IO:0-226-79006-1 (paper)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Taussig, Michael T. What color is the sacred? I Michael Taussig. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13:978-0-226-79005-3 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-13:978-0-226-79006-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-IO:0-226-79005-3 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-IO:0-226-79006-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.Color. 2. Color (Philosophy) I. Title. QC495.3.T398 2009 390-dC22

2008040243

@ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American

National Standard for Information Sciences- Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSIZ39.48-1992.

For Santiago and Olivia

If one of the most "sacred" aims that man can set for himself is to acquire as exact and intense an understanding of himself as possible, it seems desirable that each one, scrutinizing his memories with the greatest possible honesty, examine whether he can discover there some sign permitting him to discern the colorfor him of the very notion of sacred. MICHEL

LEIRIS

From "The Sacred in Everyday Life," a lecture to the College of Sociology, Paris, January 8,1938

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