Art Effects

Carlos Fausto is a professor of anthropology at the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a Global Scholar at Princeton University. He is the author of Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia and coeditor, with Michael Heckenberger, of Time and Memory in Indigenous Amazonia: Anthropological Perspectives. David Rodgers has been based in Brazil for twenty years, working as a translator of academic texts, including numerous books in anthropology.

• List of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowledgmentsOrthographic ConventionsIntroduction: The Smirk1. Body-Artifact2. Wild Mysteries3. Whirlwinds of Images4. The Pronominal Effigy5. A Chief’s Two BodiesConclusion: Masters of DeceitSource AcknowledgmentsNotesWorks CitedIndex

“Art Effects is clearly a must-read for Americanists, who will find in it valuable syntheses, acute ethnographic analyses-particularly of Xinguanan and Parakana rituals, and a wealth of suggestive ideas. Beyond this specialized readership, anyone interested in the question of what art is and what it does will profit from reading this highly intelligent and engaging book.”-Anne-Christine Taylor, Journal of Anthropological Research “[Art Effects] opens enormous comparative possibilities and understanding of other South American areas, helping us to unravel ethnological complexes and features of great breadth. . . . [It] constitutes a solid step in the forging of that comparative dialogue between Amerindian peoples of the vast South America that we so badly need.”-Juan Javier Rivera Andia, Anthropos “The ethnographic depth and analytical richness of Fausto’s Art Effects are remarkable. The book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through processes of image- and artifact-making among a number of Lowland South American societies.”-Paolo Fortis, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory “This is the book we have been waiting for. If perspectivism and the ontological turn brought Amazonia in from the cold to enter mainstream anthropology, Fausto’s Art Effects moves the debate forward. . . . Fausto takes us beyond philosophizing and back to the real-life world of masks, musical instruments, and painted images at the heart of Amerindian culture.”-Stephen Hugh-Jones, author of The Palm and the Pleiades: Initiation and Cosmology in Northwest Amazonia “A liberating text for all those seeking to escape the anthropomorphic bias of image theory. Carlos Fausto’s immersion in two different Amazonian societies allows him to upend some of the reigning models of figuration, mimesis, and presence. Critically engaged, his writing is lucid and engaging.”-Z. S. Strother, author of Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende “[An] enriching and thought-provoking book. . . . Fausto establishes a constant dialogue between the interpretation of ethnography and the current debates in social anthropology, art history, aesthetics, and philosophy. A great achievement.”-Carlo Severi, author of The Chimera Principle: An Anthropology of Memory and Imagination