Essay on Fetishism – Fetishism has been defined both as religion and as magic.
In origin, it is the most primitive form of religion. It endows objects with supernatural or mystical powers for good or evil. The person who possesses the fetish can ward off bad luck and will have good fortunes. Hence it is nothing but the adoration of material things because of their mysterious power.
Though the Portuguese explorers used the term ‘fetishes’ to refer to the wooden images of the West African Negroes, the term is not necessarily restricted to denote artificial things.
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A leaf, a feather, a horn, a stone or any such thing with unusual shape is adored in the same manner as a carved figure. “Most fetishes are inanimate objects whose alleged powers are based on the naive belief, or superstition, that events that happen together or sequentially, are causally related and will continue to happen together”. [Leslie, Larson and Gorman] Further, one of the two elements, cause or effect, is believed to have special power.
The mysterious power that is attributed to inanimate objects has been called by some primitives “mana “. The Melanesians and Maoris, for example, employed the term ‘mana’ to signify such a power. The term ‘mana’ was first used by the anthropologist R.H. Codrington. The belief in ‘mana’ has been referred to by R.R. Marett as ‘animatism’.
Hence this theory is also known as “Animatistic theory”. The belief in ‘mana’ or some fetish is found to be universal among primitive people. Anthropologist Lowie described the mysterious power as kind of “electric fluid that could charge persons and things and be diverted from one to another”.
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Fetishism or animatism is a very personal form of religion compared to most other belief systems that are group forms. Fetishism locates power in inanimate objects whereas most other religions locate it in animate ones. (The Americans who attach special power to a rabbit’s foot which is believed to bring good luck, is an example of fetishism).