Magical Capitalism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Magical Capitalism: An Introduction

   • Brian Moeran, Timothy de Waal Malefyt

   Pages 1-44

3. Magical Contracts, Numinous Capitalism

   • David A. Westbrook

   Pages 45-63

4. Exorcising Leverage: Sleight of Hand and the Invisible Hand in Islamic Finance

   • Daromir Rudnyckyj

   Pages 65-87

5. Trickster’s Triumph: Donald Trump and the New Spirit of Capitalism

   • Jakob Krause-Jensen, Keir Martin

   Pages 89-113

6. Fetish, Magic, Marketing

   • Eric Arnould, Julien Cayla, Delphine Dion

   Pages 115-136

7. Magical Names: Glamour, Enchantment, and Illusion in Women’s Fashion Magazines

   • Brian Moeran

   Pages 137-161

8. The Magic of Paradox: How Advertising Ideas Transform Art into Business and the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

   • Timothy de Waal Malefyt

   Pages 163-189

9. The Business of Inspiration: A Magical Technology of Prefiguration

   • Kasper Tang Vangkilde

   Pages 191-213

10. The Magic Trick of Creative Capital: Competition, Confidence, and Collective Enchantment Among “Starchitects”

    • Aina Landsverk Hagen

    Pages 215-238

11. Anthropology as Science Fiction, or How Print Capitalism Enchanted Victorian Science

    • Peter Pels

    Pages 239-268

12. The Magic of Mass Publicity: Reading Ioan Couliano

    • William Mazzarella

    Pages 269-287

13. Occult Economies, Revisited

    • Jean Comaroff, John L. Comaroff

    Pages 289-320

14. The Enchantment Effect: A Semiotics of Boundary and Profit

    • Greg Urban

    Pages 321-342

15. Back Matter

    Pages 343-349

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This volume of essays examines the ways in which magical practices are found in different aspects of contemporary capitalist societies. From contract law to science, by way of finance, business, marketing, advertising, cultural production, and the political economy in general, each chapter argues that the kind of magic studied by anthropologists in less developed societies – shamanism, sorcery, enchantment, the occult – is not only alive and well, but flourishing in the midst of so-called ‘modernity’. Modern day magicians range from fashion designers and architects to Donald Trump and George Soros. Magical rites take place in the form of political summits, the transformation of products into brands through advertising campaigns, and the biannual fashion collections shown in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Magical language, in the form of magical spells, is used by everyone, from media to marketers and all others devoted to the art of ‘spin’.


While magic may appear to be opposed to systems of rational economic thought, Moeran and Malefyt highlight the ways it may in fact be an accomplice to it.

• Economic anthropology
• Economics of magic
• Economics of the occult
• Contemporary capitalism
• Occult economies
• Islamic finance
• Law and anthropology
• World Economic Forum meeting at Davos
• Fashion studies
• Marketing and consumer behaviour
• Occult Practices in Political Economy
• Ritual in Economy, Business, Law and Politics
• Magic capitalism
• Animism
• Shamanism
• Technologies of enchantment
• Central banking
• Austin’s theory of speech
• Magical language
• Occult practices in contemporary economies

• University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

  Brian Moeran

• Gabelli School of Business Fordham University, New York, NY, USA

  Timothy de Waal Malefyt

Brian Moeran is an anthropologist who specialises in cultural production and Japan. He has, in his time, been a helicopter pilot in Her Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy, a television comedian in Japan, and the first social scientist appointed to a Chair Professorship in language and literature at a UK university.


Timothy de Waal Malefyt is Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing at Gabelli Business School, Fordham University, USA. He is a corporate anthropologist who worked for 15 years in advertising agencies, including BBDO and D’Arcy. He blends consumer insights with anthropological theories, and is a former ballet dancer at the Joffrey. 

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