Allegory and Anthropology

Michael Taussig’s study “The Language of Flowers” is positioned in the discursive context of Medical Anthropology. Taussig evidences the logical schemes of analysis of this academic discipline. At he same time however, Taussig deviates and subverts anthropological convention through his use of content, and form of writing.

Taussig prefaces his essay “History as Sorcery” with a quotation of Walter Benjamin:
Allegories are, in the realm of thoughts, what ruins are in the realm of things (87).

What strikes me here is Taussig’s validation of allegory within anthropological study. Here allegorical representation; the figurative; the symbolic; the emblem, seems to be framed as a fertile and legitimate method of mapping socially and culturally embedded structures. In his study “The Language of Flowers” Taussig draws on peripheral narratives such as The Flower Vase Cut, the Mandrake, and the Acéphale. These narratives are proposed as critical vantage points on Western socially and culturally bound understandings, of violence, humour and art.

Taussig validation of the allegorical is also reflected in the forms of writing he employs. In “The Language of Flowers” Taussig uses juxtaposition, metaphor, pop culture references and self-effacement. These forms are used in such a way as to tentatively claim “I do not understand this. Perhaps I am not meant to. But what I do know…”forms an intellectual montage (191). Subsequently, while engaging in high level Anthropological research Taussig’s writing denies cohesive interpretation and meaning making.

Lastly, as a creative practitioner Taussig’s citation of artists such as Juan Manul Echavarria and George Bataille is enlivening. Taussig’s engagement with their cultural production legitimates their often peripheral work as anthropologically relevant to the academic discourse.

Taussig, Michael. “History as Sorcery.” Representations 7 (1984): 87-109. Web

Taussig, Michael. “The Language of Flowers.” Walter Benjamin’s Grave. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006. 189-218. Print