Description: Focusing on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Dutch relations with Indonesians, Margaret J. Wiener examines how the concept of magic emerged out of historical struggles between Europe and the rest of the world.
Review Quotes: "Margaret J. Wiener gives the concept of magic, long central to but recently dormant in anthropology, new relevance. She shows how magic is relational and highlights its importance in colonizing projects, where worlds are remade through denunciations of fetishes and fanaticisms in the name of European realism and modernism. I cannot think of any other work that constructs this particular argument so thoroughly. Magic's Translations is an inspiring book."--Stephen Muecke, Emeritus Professor of Ethnography, University of New South Wales
"Margaret J. Wiener's Magic's Translations offers a reading that changes for history what magic is and what it has never been. At the crossroads of actor network theory and postcolonial studies, she boldly reconceptualizes magic; in the process, she adds historical and political nuance to the former and challenges the latter beyond the comfort zones of historical interpretation and epistemology. Magic's Translations will have enormous staying power in feminist studies and decolonial studies and will appeal to scholars of science and technology studies, history, philosophy, and literature. It will also appeal to readers and the public beyond any disciplinary walls."--Marisol de la Cadena, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Davis