Virtual 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...