Michael TaussigPalma Africana

In Palma africana, Australian anthropologist Michael Taussig explores palm oil production in Colombia. As palm oil invades everything from crisps to nail polish, the author examines the ecological, political and social consequences of this exploitation.
Although the list of horrors induced by palm oil cultivation is long, our usual terminologies no longer capture the realities they describe. Through this anthropo-poetic wandering in the heart of the Colombian swamps, the author questions language. Like William Burroughs, for whom words are as alive as animals and do not like to be kept on the page, Michael Taussig wishes to cut the pages and return them to their freedom.
Informed by a lifetime of philosophical and ethnographic exploration, Palma africana seeks to counter the banality of the world’s destruction and offers a penetrating vision of our human condition. Illustrated with photographs taken by the author and written with the anthropologist’s own experimental verve, this book is Michael Taussig’s Tristes Tropiques for the 21st century.