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{{Short description|Human attribution of special powers or value to an object}}
{{confused|sexual fetishism}}{{Other uses}}
A '''fetish''' is an object believed to have [[supernatural]] powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has [[Undue influence|power over others]]. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent non-material value, or powers, to an object. [[Talisman]]s and [[amulet]]s are related. Fetishes are often used in spiritual or religious context.

== Etymology ==
The word ''fetish'' derives from the [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|fétiche}}, which comes from the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|feitiço}} or ''fetisso'' ("spell"), which in turn derives from a [[Latin]] root. However, there is some disagreement regarding ''which'' Latin root. William Pietz points to {{lang|la|facere}} ("to make").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pietz |first=William |title=The problem of the fetish |last2=Pellizzi |first2=Francesco |last3=Geroulanos |first3=Stefanos |last4=Kafka |first4=Ben |date=2022 |publisher=The University of Chicago press |isbn=978-0-226-82181-8 |location=Chicago (Ill.)}}</ref>  On the other hand, philosopher [[Charles de Brosses|Charles De Brosses]], who is cited as the source of the term "fetishism," traces the etymology to the various Latin roots ''fatum, fanum,'' and ''fari''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo246290782.html |title=Critical Terms for Religious Studies, Second Edition |publisher=University of Chicago Press |editor-last=Hammerschlag |editor-first=Sarah |series=Critical Terms |location=Chicago, IL |language=en}}</ref> Some scholars suggest that "the instability in its linguistic origins is symptomatic of the concept's ambivalence, its lack of distinction between that which is enchanted and that which is fabricated or artificial."<ref name=":0" />

==Historiography==
[[William Pietz]], who, in 1994, conducted an extensive ethno-historical study<ref name="pietz">{{Cite thesis |last=Pietz |first=William |title=The origin of fetishism: A contribution to the history of theory |date=1988 |type=Ph.D. diss. |publisher=University of California, Santa Cruz |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303717649 |id={{ProQuest|303717649}}}}</ref> of the fetish, argues that the term originated in the coast of [[West Africa]] during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Pietz distinguishes between, on the one hand, actual African objects that may be called fetishes in Europe, together with the [[Emic and etic#Definitions|indigenous theories of them]], and on the other hand, "fetish", an idea, and an idea of a kind of object, to which the term above applies.<ref name="MacGaffey 1994">{{cite journal |last=MacGaffey |first=Wyatt |date=Spring 1994 |title=African objects and the idea of fetish |journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics |volume=25 |pages=123–131 |doi=10.1086/RESv25n1ms20166895 |s2cid=191127564}}</ref>

Thus, the term ''fetish'' has evolved from an idiom used to describe a type of object created in the interaction between European travelers and Native West Africans in the early modern period to an analytical term that played a central role in the perception and study of non-Western art in general and African art in particular. 

Initially, the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] developed the concept of the fetish to refer to the objects used in religious practices by West African natives.<ref name="Pietz 1985" /> The contemporary Portuguese {{Lang|pt|feitiço}} may refer to more neutral terms such as ''charm'', ''enchantment'', or ''[[abracadabra]]'', or more potentially offensive terms such as ''[[juju]]'', ''[[witchcraft]]'', ''witchery'', ''[[Conjuration (summoning)|conjuration]]'' or ''bewitchment''. The wide range of objects referred to as fetishes led to a dilution of the term’s meaning. Often, objects were classified as fetishes indiscriminately because, from a European perspective, they did not fit into any other category.<ref>Sebastian-Manès Sprute, « Le chaos au musée. Inventaire et ordre des savoirs ». In: Collective (ed.), [https://www.static.tu.berlin/fileadmin/www/10002011/Forschungsprojekte/Aktuelle_Forschungsprojekte/Umgekehrte_Sammlungen_KAM/ATLAS_DE_L_ABSENCE_version_francaise.pdf Atlas de l'absence. Le patrimoine culturel du Cameroun en Allemagne], Berlin 2023, (english working translation [https://www.static.tu.berlin/fileadmin/www/10002011/Forschungsprojekte/Aktuelle_Forschungsprojekte/Umgekehrte_Sammlungen_KAM/ATLAS_DER_ABWESENHEIT_EN_DeepL.pdf online]) Berlin 2023, p. 275-306, here p. 283-284</ref>

According to Pietz, the [[post-colonial]] concept of "fetish" emerged from the encounter between Europeans and Africans in a very specific historical context and in response to African material culture.

He begins his thesis with an introduction to the complex history of the word:

<blockquote>My argument, then, is that the fetish could originate only in conjunction with the emergent articulation of the ideology of the commodity form that defined itself within and against the social values and religious ideologies of two radically different types of noncapitalist society, as they encountered each other in an ongoing cross-cultural situation. This process is indicated in the history of the word itself as it developed from the late medieval Portuguese {{Lang|pt|feitiço}}, to the sixteenth-century pidgin ''Fetisso'' on the African coast, to various northern European versions of the word via the 1602 text of the Dutchman Pieter de Marees... The fetish, then, not only originated from, but remains specific to, the problem of the social value of material objects as revealed in situations formed by the encounter of radically heterogeneous social systems, and a study of the history of the idea of the fetish may be guided by identifying those themes that persist throughout the various discourses and disciplines that have appropriated the term.<ref name="Pietz 1985">{{cite journal|last=Pietz|first=William|author-link=William Pietz|date=Spring 1985|title=The Problem of the Fetish, I|journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics|publisher=The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology|volume=9|issue=9|pages=5–17|doi=10.1086/RESv9n1ms20166719|jstor=20166719|s2cid=164933628}}</ref></blockquote>

Stallybrass concludes that "Pietz shows that the fetish as a concept was elaborated to demonize the supposedly arbitrary attachment of West Africans to material objects. The European subject was constituted in opposition to a demonized fetishism, through the disavowal of the object."<ref name="Stallybrass 2001">{{cite book|last=Stallybrass|first=Peter|title=Consumption : critical concepts in the social sciences|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0415242673|edition=1. publ.|author-link=Marx's Coat|editor=Daniel Miller}}</ref>

This pattern of demonized fetishism continued into the modern period. The concept was popularized in Europe circa 1757, when [[Charles de Brosses]] used it in comparing West African religion to the [[Magic (paranormal)|magical]] aspects of [[ancient Egyptian religion]]. Later, [[Auguste Comte]] employed the concept in his theory of the [[evolution theory|evolution]] of [[religion]], wherein he posited fetishism as the earliest (most primitive) stage, followed by [[polytheism]] and [[monotheism]]. However, [[ethnography]] and [[anthropology]] would classify some artifacts of polytheistic and monotheistic religions as fetishes.

The eighteenth-century intellectuals who articulated the theory of fetishism encountered this notion in descriptions of "Guinea" contained in such popular voyage collections as Ramusio's ''Viaggio e Navigazioni'' (1550), de Bry's ''India Orientalis'' (1597), Purchas's ''Hakluytus Posthumus'' (1625), [[Awnsham Churchill|Churchill]]'s ''Collection of Voyages and Travels'' (1732), [[Thomas Astley|Astley]]'s ''A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels'' (1746), and Prevost's ''Histoire generale des voyages'' (1748).<ref name="Pietz 1987">{{cite journal|last=Pietz|first=William|author-link=William Pietz|date=Spring 1987|title=The Problem of the Fetish, II: The Origin of the Fetish|journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics|volume=13|issue=13|pages=23–45|doi=10.1086/RESv13n1ms20166762|jstor=20166762|s2cid=151350653}}</ref>

The theory of fetishism was articulated at the end of the eighteenth century by [[G. W. F. Hegel]] in ''[[Lectures on the Philosophy of History]]''. According to Hegel, Africans were incapable of abstract thought, their ideas and actions were governed by impulse, and therefore a fetish object could be anything that then was arbitrarily imbued with "imaginary powers".<ref name=Astonishment&Power>{{cite book|last=MacGaffey|first=Wyatt|title=Astonishment & Power, The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi|year=1993|publisher=National Museum of African Art}}</ref>

==Practice==
[[File:Voodo-fetischmarkt-Lomé.jpg|thumb|300px|A voodoo fetish market in [[Lomé]], [[Togo]], 2008]]
The use of the concept in the study of religion derives from studies of traditional West African religious beliefs, as well as from [[West African Vodun|Vodun]], which in turn derives from those beliefs.

Fetishes were commonly used in some [[Native American religions]] and practices.<ref name="NM">{{Cite magazine |date=August 2008 |title=Animals: fact and folklore |magazine=[[New Mexico Magazine]] |pages=56–63}}</ref> For example, the [[bear]] represented the [[shaman]], the [[American Bison|buffalo]] was the provider, the [[mountain lion]] was the warrior, and the [[wolf]] was the pathfinder, the cause of the [[war]].<ref name=NM />

== Japan ==

{{ill|Katō Genchi|ja|加藤玄智}} (1873–1965), a [[Shinto]] priest and scholar of comparative religion, applied the term "fetish" to the historical study of traditional Japanese religion. He cited jewelry, [[Katana|sword]]s, [[Bronze mirror#Japan|mirror]]s, and [[Obiage|scarves]] as examples of fetishism in Shinto.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hylkema-Vos |first1=Naomi |title=Katō Genchi: A Neglected Pioneer in Comparative Religion |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |date=1990 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=375–395 |doi=10.18874/jjrs.17.4.1990.375-395 |jstor=30233418 |issn=0304-1042|doi-access=free }}</ref> In rural areas of Japan, he said he could find many traces of [[animism]], [[totemism]], fetishism, and [[phallicism]].<ref name="holtom">Dr. Genchi Kato's monumental work on Shinto, Daniel C. Holtom. 明治聖徳記念学会第47巻、昭和12年	1937/04/ p7-14</ref> He also maintained that the {{ill|Ten Sacred Treasures|ja|十種神宝}} were fetishes and the [[Imperial Regalia of Japan]] retained the same traits, and pointed out the similarities with the ''[[Pusaka]]'' heirlooms of the natives of the East Indies and the sacred ''[[Tjurunga]]'' of the Central Australians.<ref name="Katu">A Study of Shinto: The Religion of the Japanese Nation, By Genchi Katu, Copyright Year 2011, ISBN 9780415845762, Published February 27, 2013 by Routledge, Chapter III Fetishism and Phallicism</ref> He noted that the divine sword {{Transliteration|ja|[[Kusanagi no Tsurugi]]}}, which was believed to provide supernatural protection ('blessings'), was deified and enshrined (at what is now the [[Atsuta Shrine]]).<ref name="Katu" /> [[Amenohiboko|Akaruhime no Kami]], the female deity of {{ill|Hiyurikuso Shrine|ja|比売許曽神社}}, was said to have originally been a red ball before transforming into a beautiful woman.<ref name="Katu" /> The jewel around [[Izanagi-no-Mikoto]]'s neck was deified and called {{Transliteration|ja|[[List of mythological objects#Jewelry|Mikuratana-no-kami]]}}.<ref name="Katu" />

The Anglo-Irish diplomat and scholar [[William George Aston]] (1841–1911) also maintained that {{Transliteration|ja|Kusanagi no Tsurugi}} could be seen as an example of fetishism. Originally an offering, the enshrined sword became a {{Transliteration|ja|mitamashiro}} ({{literal translation}} 'spirit representative', 'spirit-token'), more commonly known as the {{Transliteration|ja|[[shintai]]}} ({{literal translation}} 'god-body'; a sacred object containing the {{Transliteration|ja|[[kami]]}} or 'spirit').<ref name="wga">SHINTO (THE WAY OF THE GODS) BY W. G. ASTON, C.M.G, D.Lit., LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY, 1905, p.65-75, p.73, p.159</ref> Aston observed that people tended to think of the {{Transliteration|ja|[[mitama]]}} ('spirit') of a deity first as the seat of his or her real presence, and secondly as the deity itself. In practice, the distinction between {{Transliteration|ja|mitama}} and {{Transliteration|ja|shintai}} was fluid, and {{Transliteration|ja|shintai}} even came to be identified as the god's body.<ref name="wga" /> For example, the cooking furnace ({{Transliteration|ja|[[kamado]]}}) itself was worshiped as a deity.<ref name="wga" /> Given the vagueness of such distinctions – further accentuated by the restricted usage of images (e.g., in painting or sculpture) – there was a tendency to ascribe special virtues to certain physical objects in place of the deity.<ref name="wga" />

In modern times, the American linguist [[Roy Andrew Miller]] (1924–2014) observed that the pamphlet of the nationalistic {{Transliteration|ja|[[Kokutai#World War II usage|Kokutai no Hongi]]}} proclamation (1937) and the [[Imperial Rescript on Education]] (1890) were also often worshipped as "fetishes", and were respectfully placed and kept in household altars ({{Transliteration|ja|[[kamidana]]}}).<ref name="klaus">KOKUTAI - POLITICAL SHINTÔ FROM EARLY-MODERN TO CONTEMPORARY JAPAN, Klaus Antoni, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen: Tobias-lib Tübingen 2016, p259</ref>{{refn|In his discussion of the [[Nihonjinron|Japanese identity myth]] surrounding the national language ({{Transliteration|ja|[[Nihongo]]}}), Miller described ''{{Transliteration|ja|[[kotodama]]}}'' (the 'spirit' of the language) as "the single most important fetish term in the entire modern myth of Nihongo."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chew |first1=John J. |title=The Japanese Language in the Eyes of Postwar Japan – A Review Article |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=1984 |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=475–480 |doi=10.2307/2055759 |jstor=2055759 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2055759 |issn=0021-9118|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |group= n}}

== Philippines ==
In the [[History of the Philippines (900–1565)|pre-colonial]] Philippine context, '''[[Anito]] fetishes''' were central to the animistic beliefs of the early Filipinos. These objects, often human-made, served as physical representations of spiritual entities or ancestral spirits. Their role in rituals, worship, and daily life illustrates the rich spiritual tradition of the early Austronesian peoples who inhabited the Philippine archipelago. Anito fetishes refer to objects imbued with spiritual significance, often crafted to house or represent spirits collectively known as '''Anito'''. These were usually '''Ancestor Spirits''' also called Anito The souls of deceased relatives who provided guidance, protection, or blessings to their descendants. Anito fetishes were typically carved from wood, stone, or bone, and they served as both a focus of worship and a conduit for spiritual energy. Anito fetishes were placed in shrines or sacred areas where offerings such as food, drinks, or animal sacrifices were made. These offerings were meant to appease or gain favours from the ancestor spirits and spirits of the dead and deities and celestial beings called '''[[Diwata (disambiguation)|Diwata]].''' The term Anito is deeply rooted in Austronesian linguistic heritage, with similar terms found across related culture Proto-Malayo-Polynesian: qanitu (spirit of the dead) Proto-Austronesian: qaNiCu (ancestor spirit) Indonesian and Malaysian: Hantu or Antu (spirit or ghost) Polynesian: Atua or Aitu (ancestral ghost  or spirit)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Apostol |first=Virgil Mayor |title=Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions |date=2012 |publisher=North Atlantic Books |isbn=978-1-58394-597-1 |location=Berkeley}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Baldick |first=Julian |title=Ancient religions of the Austronesian world: from Australasia to Taiwan |date=2013 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-0-85773-357-3 |series=International library of ethnicity, identity and culture |location=London New York}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Funk |first=Leberecht |title=Entanglements between Tao People and Anito on Lanyu Island, Taiwan |date=2014 |work=Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond |pages=143–159 |editor-last=Musharbash |editor-first=Yasmine |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137448651_9 |access-date=2025-01-22 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137448651_9 |isbn=9781137448651 |editor2-last=Presterudstuen |editor2-first=Geir Henning|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Royle |first=Stephen |date=2018-11-30 |title=Tips from the blog XI: docx to pdf |doi=10.59350/fkbwr-efa03 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Anito—widely understood today by [[Filipinos]] in the [[Philippines]] in contemporary as referring to ancestor spirits or spirits of the dead, evil spirits and the wooden idols and fetish that represent them.<ref>{{Cite journal |first1=John M. |last1=Morse|date=July 2001 |title=Lessons in On-Line Reference Publishing''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary''. Merriam-Webster''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus''. Merriam-Webster''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia''. Merriam-Webster |url=https://doi.org/10.1086/603287 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=392–399 |doi=10.1086/603287 |issn=0024-2519|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Kudasov |first=Nikolai |title=Free Monads, Intrinsic Scoping, and Higher-Order Preunification |date=2025 |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=14843 |pages=22–54 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_2 |access-date=2025-01-22 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-74558-4_2 |isbn=978-3-031-74557-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Safiullina |first=Gulshat Rafailevna |date=2021-04-30 |title=Principles of Compiling the Tatar-English Online Dictionary of the Glosbe Project at Macroand Microstructure Levels |journal=Philology. Theory & Practice |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=1120–1124 |doi=10.30853/phil210135 |issn=1997-2911|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Joseph |first1=Anito |last2=Bryson |first2=Noel |date=1997 |title=W-efficient partitions and the solution of the sequential clustering problem |url=https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018934824176 |journal=Annals of Operations Research |volume=74 |pages=305–319 |doi=10.1023/a:1018934824176 |issn=0254-5330|url-access=subscription }}</ref>'''''Anito''''' In [[Philippine mythology]], refers to [[Veneration of the dead|ancestor spirits]], [[Soul|spirits of the dead]], [[Demon|evil spirits]] and the wooden idols that represent or house them. In contrast, within the context of [[folk religion]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Royle |first=Stephen |date=2018-11-30 |title=Tips from the blog XI: docx to pdf |doi=10.59350/fkbwr-efa03 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anito |first1=Bekelech Freneh |last2=Ali |first2=Wondwosen Tesfamichael |last3=Ayele |first3=Zeleke Arifich |date=2025-01-01 |title=Effects of Task-Based Language Teaching on Improving Grade 11 Students' Essay Writing Skills |journal=Journal of Language Teaching and Research |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=23–32 |doi=10.17507/jltr.1601.03 |issn=2053-0684|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Funk |first=Leberecht |title=Entanglements between Tao People and Anito on Lanyu Island, Taiwan |date=2014 |work=Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond |pages=143–159 |editor-last=Musharbash |editor-first=Yasmine |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137448651_9 |access-date=2025-01-23 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137448651_9 |isbn=978-1-349-50129-8 |editor2-last=Presterudstuen |editor2-first=Geir Henning|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==DR Congo==
Made and used by the [[Kongo people|BaKongo]] of western [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]], a ''[[nkisi]]'' (plural {{Lang|kg|minkisi}}) is a sculptural object that provides a local habitation for a spiritual personality. Though some {{Lang|kg|minkisi}} have always been anthropomorphic, they were probably much less "naturalistic" or "realistic" before the arrival of the Europeans in the nineteenth century; Kongo figures are more naturalistic in the coastal areas than inland.<ref name="MacGaffey 1994" /> As Christians tend to think of spirits as objects of worship, idols become the objects of idolatry when worship was addressed to false gods. In this way, European Christian colonialists regarded {{Lang|kg|minkisi}} as idols on the basis of religious bias.

The foreign Christians often called {{Lang|kg|nkisi}} "fetishes" and sometimes "[[Cult image|idols]]" because they are sometimes rendered in human form or semi-human form. Modern anthropology has generally referred to these objects either as "power objects" or as "charms".

In addressing the question of whether a {{Lang|kg|nkisi}} is a fetish, William McGaffey writes that the Kongo ritual system as a whole,

<blockquote>bears a relationship similar to that which Marx supposed that "political economy" bore to capitalism as its "religion", but not for the reasons advanced by Bosman, the Enlightenment thinkers, and Hegel. The irrationally "animate" character of the ritual system's symbolic apparatus, including {{Lang|kg|minkisi}}, divination devices, and witch-testing ordeals, obliquely expressed real relations of power among the participants in ritual. "Fetishism" is about relations among people, rather than the objects that mediate and disguise those relations.<ref name="MacGaffey 1994" /></blockquote>

Therefore, McGaffey concludes, to call a {{Lang|kg|nkisi}} a fetish is to translate "certain Kongo realities into the categories developed in the emergent social sciences of nineteenth century, post-enlightenment Europe."<ref name="MacGaffey 1994" />

==See also==
*[[Boli (fetish)|Boli]]
*[[Commodity fetishism]]

==Notes and references==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{wiktionary-inline|fetish}}
* {{commons-inline|Category:Religious fetishism}}
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06052b.htm The Catholic Encyclopaedia: Fetishism] pp.&nbsp;147–159.

{{Amulets and talismans}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anthropology of religion]]
[[Category:Religious objects]]
[[Category:Amulets]]
[[Category:Talismans]]
[[Category:Cult images]]