Fetishism

:This article concerns the concept of fetishism in anthropology. Separate articles are devoted to sexual fetishism and the Marxist concept of commodity fetishism.

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A fetish (from French f?tiche; from Portuguese feiti?o; from Latin facticius, "to make") is a natural object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular an object created by people that has power over people.

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The concept was coined by Charles de Brosses in 1757, while comparing West African religion to the magical aspects of Ancient Egyptian religion. He and other 18th century scholars used the concept to apply evolution theory to religion. In de Brosses' theory of the evolution of religion, he proposed that fetishism is the earliest (most primitive) stage, followed by the stages of polytheism and monotheism, representing a progressive abstraction in thought.

Anthropology: Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, "human") consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. A primary trait that traditionally dist...

Sexual fetishism: Sexual fetishism, first described as such by Alfred Binet in his Le f?tichisme dans l?amour, though the concept and certainly the activity is quite ancient, is a form of paraphilia where the object of affection is a specific inanimate object or part of a person's body. The term arose from fetishism...

Commodity fetishism: In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is an inauthentic state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, where social relationships are confused with their medium, the commodity. The term is introduced in the opening chapter of Karl Marx's main work of political econom...