Virtual War and Magical Death: Technologies and Imaginaries for Terror and Killing [Ed. Neil Whitehead & Sverker Finnstrom]

[Virtual War] [Magical Death] [Conflict Anthropology]

Virtual War and Magical Death: Technologies and Imaginaries for Terror and Killing

Ed. Neil Whitehead & Sverker Finnstrom

Duke University Press, NC. 2013. First edition paperback. There's a few minor dings to the edges of the cover, but otherwise in excellent condition.

From the publisher:

"irtual War and Magical Death is a provocative examination of the relations between anthropology and contemporary global war. Several arguments unite the collected essays, which are based on ethnographic research in varied locations, including Guatemala, Uganda, and Tanzania, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the United States. Foremost is the contention that modern high-tech warfare—as it is practiced and represented by the military, the media, and civilians—is analogous to rituals of magic and sorcery. Technologies of "virtual warfare," such as high-altitude bombing, remote drone attacks, night-vision goggles, and even music videos and computer games that simulate battle, reproduce the imaginative worlds and subjective experiences of witchcraft, magic, and assault sorcery long studied by cultural anthropologists."

I am proud to offer a work that was at least edited by Dr. Neil Whitehead. I had the pleasure of meetings Dr. Whitehead in my time as an anthropology student and he had such an impact on me. A weird guy for sure, he did some kinda insane nu-metal x Sleep Chamber sounding industrial as Blood Jewel which to this day is a real pain in the ass to track down. But he was also the world's premier anthropologist with regards to "black magic", or magic meant to harm. This is the guy who created the vastly underused term "Assault Sorcery". A true freak, who once was tracked and tormented by a dark shaman known as a "kanaima" in Papua New Guinea. I think his book on that incident, "Dark Shamans" may be the greatest work of horror verite of the 20th century.

But yea, this book is a great collection of essays on the intersection of magic, technology, and terror. Utterly prescient in many ways. Of particular interest may be the chapter "The Soundtrack to War" on nu-metal aesthetics bleeding into the US military.