The word Fetishism has been so misused of late that ethnologists are apt to view it askance and hesitate to employ it in religious classifications. It has been stretched to such an extent in various directions that it has lost the definition and precision necessary for a scientific term. Starting from a humble origin, referring in its native land (Portugal) to the charms and amulets worn ‘for luck,’ and to relics of saints, ‘fetish’ grew to such amazing proportions when transplanted to West African soil, that at last there was nothing connected with West African religion to which it was not applied. De Brosses introduced FÉtichisme as a general descriptive term (8), supposing the word to be connected with chose fÉe, fatum. Comte[1] employed it to describe the universal religious tendency to which Dr. Tylor has given the name of Animism (71, chaps. xi.-xvii.). Bastholm claimed ‘everything produced by nature or art, which receives divine honour, including the sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, with rivers, trees, stones, images and animals, considered as objects of divine worship, as Fetishism;[2] and Lippert (46) defines Fetishism as ‘a belief in the souls of the departed coming to dwell in any thing that is tangible or visible in heaven or earth.’

Although Miss Kingsley (39, 139) expresses regret that the word Fetish ‘is getting very loosely used in England,’ she scarcely helps forward the work of distinction and arrangement when a few lines further on she announces ‘When I say Fetish, or Ju Ju, I mean the religion of the natives of West Africa.’ Subsequently she overstepped her own definition, describing the secret societies as ‘pure fetish’ (41, 139), although they ‘are not essentially religious,’ but ‘are mainly judicial.’

The Rev. R. H. Nassau perpetuates this vague use of the word, grouping under the name of Fetishism all native customs even remotely connected, as everything is in West Africa, with religious or magical beliefs, until the ejaculation uttered when one sneezes or stumbles receives the sounding title, ‘fetish prayer’ (53, 97).

These ‘lumpings’ are all the more to be regretted since Miss Kingsley and the Rev. R. H. Nassau are among the chief authorities on West African Fetishism in its most characteristic forms, and a clear definition of the use of the word, with a rigid adherence to its proper meaning, would have done great service in preventing many misconceptions.

The meaning of any word depends upon its definition, and it may be defined in three ways: 1. etymologically; 2. historically; 3. dogmatically.

1. The word fetish is derived through the Portuguese feitiÇo from the Latin facticius—facere = to do. This shows the original conception at the root of the word.

2. The historical definition shows the growth or evolution of the meaning of the word, starting from its original conception. Dr. Tylor has pointed out how magic has appropriated to itself the derivatives of ‘to do,’ such as feitiÇo in Portuguese, fattura in Italian, faiture in Old French, and many more, thus claiming to be ‘doing’ par excellence (70, 135). This tendency is already noticeable even in classical times (‘potens et factiosus,’ possessed of power and influence, Auct. Her. 2, 26, 40), and is well marked in Plautus, who uses various derivatives of facere to mean ‘powerful’ or ‘influential,’ especially with reference to influence due to family connection or to riches (factiones, Aul. II. i. 45; factiosus, ib. II. ii. 50; factio, Cist. II. i. 17, etc.). From this sense of potent politically, later Latin developed the meaning of potent magically, as seen in facturari, to bewitch, factura, witchcraft, from which latter is descended the Old French faiture, witchcraft, and perhaps our slang word ‘fake.’ Fetish as derived from the passive form facticius, meaning made by art, artificial, was probably first applied to images, idols or amulets made by hand, and later included all objects possessing magical potency, i.e. bewitched or ‘faked.’[3]

3. The dogmatic definition of a word is the meaning attached to it by individuals of authority.

Fetishism is defined as ‘the worship of inanimate objects,’ the worship of stocks and stones, ‘the religious worship of material objects’ (61, 61), ‘tangible and inanimate objects worshipped for themselves alone’ (15, 196), and a fetish is defined as ‘differing from an idol in that it is worshipped in its own character, not as the symbol, image, or occasional residence of a deity’ (New English Dictionary, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1901).

The account of the native of Fida given by Bosman (54, xvi. 493) is often quoted as the classic example of fetishism:—

Bosman goes on to say:—

A sceptic is scarcely likely to give a sympathetic report of a religion he has discarded, and Bosman’s negro is no exception to the rule. He describes the outward tangible aspect of fetishism, but ignores its spiritual interpretation, and the dogmatic definitions above follow in the same path of error.

Fetishism and the fetish, as thus defined, do not exist, except in ‘incomplete observations’; they certainly are nowhere to be found in West Africa, the typical land of fetishism.

‘Every native with whom I have conversed on the subject,’ writes Ellis, ‘has laughed at the possibility of it being supposed that he could worship or offer sacrifice to some such object as a stone, which of itself it would be perfectly obvious to his senses was a stone only and nothing more’ (15, 192). So the Maori wakapakoko were only thought to possess virtue or peculiar sanctity from the presence of the god they represented when dressed up for worship; at other times they were regarded only as bits of ordinary wood (69, 212), and Brinton affirms that ‘nowhere in the world did man ever worship a stick or a stone as such’ (6, 131).

All cases of Fetishism, when examined, show that the worship is paid to an intangible power or spirit incorporated in some visible form, and that the fetish is merely the link between the worshipper and the object of his worship. Any definition therefore which takes no account of the spiritual force behind the material object is seen to be incomplete and superficial, as it ignores the essential conception of the worship.

Dr. Tylor enlarges the scope of the word, classing Fetishism as a subordinate department of Animism, and defining it as the doctrine of spirits embodied in, or conveying influence through, certain material objects. He includes in it the worship of stocks and stones, ‘and thence it passes by an imperceptible gradation into idolatry’ (71, ii. 144).

It is these imperceptible gradations which blur all the outlines of the rigid systematist, and make an exclusive classification impossible. Encouragement is found in the reflection that exclusive classifications are almost unknown to science, and, where met with, are generally due to ignorance, waiting for greater knowledge or further research to provide the intermediate links which everywhere blend class with class, species with species. But when the group is studied in its area of characterisation, certain features stand prominently forward, and by a study of these the essential characteristics of the whole class can be determined.

II. ESSENTIAL CHARACTERS OF FETISHISM

The characteristic features of fetishism, and particularly of West African fetishism, are as follows:—

The fetish may consist of any object whatsoever, but the object chosen is generally either a wonderful ornament or curiosity, a symbolic charm with sympathetic properties, or a sign or token representing an ideal notion or being. It is credited with mysterious power, owing to its being, temporarily or permanently, the vessel or habitation, vehicle for communication, or instrument of some unseen power or spirit, which is conceived to possess personality and will, and ability to see, hear, understand, and act. It may act by the will or force of its own power or spirit, or by force of a foreign power entering it or acting on it from without, and the material object and the power or spirit may be dissociated. It is worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, talked with, and petted or ill-treated with regard to its past or future behaviour. In its most characteristic form a fetish must be consecrated by a priest.

1. A fetish may be any object whatsoever, but there is always a reason for its choice.

The simplest reason is that it attracts attention (61, 61) (71, ii. 145), and anything that attracts attention at once acquires an exaggerated value, and appeals to that natural instinct of human nature, found also among some birds and animals, the love for collecting.

‘In the love of abnormal curiosities there shows itself a craving for the marvellous, an endeavour to get free from the tedious sense of law and uniformity in nature’ (71, ii. 145).

So the fetish consists of a queer-shaped stone, a bright bead, a stick, parrots’ feathers, a root, claw, seed, bone, or any curious or conspicuous object.

In Benin they take everything which seems extraordinary in nature for a god, and make offerings to him, and each is his own priest, in order to worship his gods in what manner pleases him best (54, xvi. 530).

Or the object may have attracted attention by its behaviour.

A visitor to a fetish hut took up a stone about as big as a hen’s egg, and its owner told its history. ‘He was once going out on important business, but crossing the threshold he trod on this stone and hurt himself. Ha, ha! thought he, art thou here? So he took the stone, and it helped him through his undertaking for days’ (71, ii. 158).

Sometimes the object to be chosen is revealed to a man in a dream, as among the natives of the Gold Coast, where a dead relation will return to direct a man to go to a certain spot and there select a certain stone, or piece of a tree, which he is to bring home with him, and guard and reverence as the habitation of a protecting deity (15, 90).

This connects the fetish with the guardian spirits of the North American Indians, which appear to young men in dreams, or visions, after prayer and fasting. The vision generally takes the form of some tangible object, often an animal, a portion of which is preserved by the man as his most precious possession, and if not, some concrete form is taken to represent the subject of the vision. A guardian spirit differs, however, from a fetish, in that it is a life-long possession, some men are not privileged to obtain one, and no man could possess more than one; while any man could obtain a fetish, and could discard one and adopt another if it proved to be unavailing.

2. It consists of a symbolic charm with sympathetic properties. ‘There is a relation between the selected substances and the object to be obtained: to give the possessor bravery or strength, some part of a leopard or an elephant; to give cunning, some part of a gazelle; to give wisdom, some part of a human brain; to give courage, some part of a heart; to give influence, some part of an eye,’ etc. etc. ‘These substances are supposed to lure some spirit (being in some way pleasing to it) which thenceforward is satisfied to reside in them and to aid the possessor in the accomplishment of some specific wish’ (53, 82).

For convenience of carriage these substances are put into snail-shells, nut-shells, or the small horns of gazelles, or of goats, and the whole then forms the fetish.

Bosman describes the way in which a fetish, consisting of a pipe filled with various substances, was generally made on the Guinea Coast in 1705.

‘They have a great wooden pipe filled with earth, oil, blood, bones of dead men and beasts, feathers, hair, and to be short, all sorts of excrementitious and filthy trash, which they do not endeavour to mould into any shape, but lay it in a confused heap in the pipe’ (54, xvi. 398).

‘Human eyeballs, particularly of white men, are a great charm. This, I fancy, is to secure the man “that lives in your eyes” for the service of the village’ (40, 305).

Sometimes there is a tangible connection between the object chosen for the fetish and the spirit occupying it. Thus among the Gold Coast natives the object which is entered by the subordinate spirit of Sasabonsum must be taken from the habitat of a Sasabonsum, from a place, that is, which is marked with red earth, where the red earth marks the blood of the victim of a Sasabonsum (15, 109).

3. It may consist of a sign or token representing an ideal notion or being, and here it is difficult to draw any distinction between fetishism and idolatry, ‘for a small line and a few streaks of colour may change a fetish into an idol’ (61, 77). Certainly the lower forms of idolatry present the aspect of fetishism, but the true fetish is not shaped to resemble the spirit it represents, and the true idol is only the symbol, not the vessel, vehicle, or instrument of deity. At the same time, an image may be worshipped as a fetish, and regarded as a material body provided for a spirit; or a fetish, being regarded merely as the symbol or representative of a spirit, seems to develop the earliest form of idolatry (71, ii. 169). The distinction lies in the attitude of mind in which the objects are worshipped, and no objective differentiation is possible, for the object will be a fetish for one worshipper and a pure symbol of a spirit to another.

Stone worship is often pure fetishism, the stone being regarded as the tangible sign or token of a spirit or power to which worship is addressed. But it advances beyond the limits of fetishism if a general spirit, or a god of a community, while worshipped in the form of a stone, is also believed to animate other objects. The animating force of a fetish must be individual, and cannot animate more than one object at a time. When the spirits of the suhman charms (15, 99) are considered to be individual spirits dependent upon Sasabonsum they are fetishes; if the spirit of Sasabonsum were supposed to animate all the suhman charms they could not properly be called fetishes.

4. A fetish is credited with mysterious powers owing to its being the habitation, temporary or permanent, of a spiritual being.

This sounds like a definition of the principle of animism, and so it may be, for fetishism is animism, seen, as it were, from the other end and seen in detail. Animism sees all things animated by spirits; fetishism sees a spirit incorporated in an individual object.

But there is this distinction, that the spirit which is believed to occupy the fetish is a different conception from the spirit of the animistic theory; it is not the soul or vital power belonging to the object, and inherent in it, from which the virtue is derived, but a spirit or power attracted to and incorporated in it, while separable from it. The spirit of the fetish is also distinct from a god, as it can animate one object only, while a god can manifest his power in various forms.

Thus in Bosman’s account of the Benin fetish quoted above, he talks of ‘the pipe where the idol is lodged,’ that is the material habitation into which the spirit has been lured by some means of attraction. Miss Kingsley, describing a fetish or juju, says ‘it is not a doll or toy, and has far more affinity to the image of a saint, inasmuch as it is not venerated for itself, or treasured because of its prettiness, but only because it is the residence, or the occasional haunt, of a spirit’ (40, 287).

The material objects which form the tutelary deities or Bohsum of the natives of the Gold Coast are not symbols of gods which usually reside elsewhere; each is the actual receptacle or ordinary abiding-place of an indwelling god. One may be a wooden figure, another a stone, a third a covered calabash or an earthen pot, containing a mixture of blood and earth (15, 80).

The best example of this class is provided by the suhman.

The man who wants a suhman takes some objects, it may be a rudely cut wooden image, or a stone, a root of a plant, or some red earth placed in a pan, and then he calls on a spirit of Sasabonsum (‘a genus of deities, every member of which possesses identical characteristics’) to enter the object prepared, promising it offerings and worship. If a spirit consents to take up its residence in the object a low hissing sound is heard, and the suhman is complete. It receives a small portion of the daily food of its owner, and is treated with reverence, and mainly used to bring evil on some one else (15, 100-101).

5. Sometimes the fetish is merely the vehicle or means by which the spirit communicates with his worshippers, and only acquires a temporary personality when thus inspired. This is the character of the New Zealand fetishes, wakapakoko, or images.

‘A small image was used about 18 inches long, resembling a peg, with a carved head. The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers under the god’s chin, which was called his pahau or beard; when this was done it was taken possession of by the atua, whose spirit entered it; the priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it in the air, whilst the powerful karakia (charm, prayer) was repeated, or he tied a piece of string, formed of the centre of a flax leaf, round the neck of the image and stuck it in the ground: he sat at a little distance from it, holding the string in his hand, and gave the god a jerk to arrest his attention’ (69, 182).

These Maori fetishes ‘were only thought to possess virtue or peculiar sanctity from the presence of the god they represent when dressed up, at other times they were regarded as bits of ordinary wood’ (69, 212). The use of the words ‘image’ and ‘god’ seem to place this ceremony on a higher plane than fetishism, but the ‘god’ is generally the spirit of an ancestor, and the ‘image’ is less a portrait of a worshipped deity than an expression of the Maori genius for wood-carving.

6. While the conception of the fetish as the vehicle of communication between spirit and worshipper raises fetishism to a higher plane in religious evolution, the conception of the fetish as an instrument by which the spirit acts lowers it to a stage which is not necessarily religious at all, to a stage where the fetish is often regarded merely in the light of a charm or an amulet.

This is the lowest and the commonest form of fetishism; it may practically be said to be universal.

Bosnian relates that the word Fetiche is chiefly used in a religious sense, or at least is derived from thence, but ‘all things made in honour of these false gods, never so mean, are called Fetiche.’

These material charms are so common that by the universality of their use, and the prominence given to them everywhere, in houses and on the person, they almost monopolise the religious thought of the Bantu negro, subordinating other acknowledged points of his theology, dominating his almost entire religious interest, and giving the departmental word ‘fetich’ such overwhelming regard that it has furnished the name distinctive of the native African religious system (53, 80). ‘The new-born infant has a health-knot tied about his neck, wrists, or loins, and down to the day of oldest age every one keeps on multiplying or renewing or altering these life talismans’ (53, 85).

It is interesting to find this form of fetish charm described by Bosman at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

‘The child is no sooner born than the priest (here called Fetichee or Confoe) is sent for, who binds a parcel of ropes and coral and other trash about the head, body, arms, and legs of the infant; after which he exorcises, according to their accustomed manner, by which they believe it is armed against all sickness and ill accidents, and doubtless this is as effectual as if done by the Pope himself’ (54, xvi. 388).

Father Merolla, a still earlier traveller, mentions these charms from the Congo district (1682).

‘The fourth abuse is that whilst their children are young these people bind them about with certain superstitious cords made by the wizards, who likewise teach them to utter a kind of spell while they are binding them. They also at the same time hang about them bones and teeth of divers animals, being preservatives, as they say, against the power of any disease. Likewise there are some mothers so foolish that they will hang Agnus Deis, medals, and relicks to the aforesaid cords’ (54, xvi. 237). ‘To remedy these disorders, we have thought proper to issue forth the following ordinances: That all mothers should make the cords they bound their infants with of palm leaves that had been consecrated on Palm Sunday; moreover guard them well with other such relicks as we are accustomed to make use of at the time of baptism’ (54, xvi. 239).

These fetish charms may be worshipped and regarded as anthropopathic, when they are true fetishes, or they may be merely ‘lucky’ with no religious regard or spiritual interpretation, or they may be anything between the two extremes.

7. Just as the human body and soul form one individual, so the material object and its occupying spirit or power form one individual, more vague perhaps, but still with many attributes distinctively human. It possesses personality and will, it has also many human characters. It possesses most of the human passions, anger, revenge, also generosity and gratitude; it is within reach of influence and may be benevolent, hence to be deprecated and placated, and its aid enlisted (53, 62).

The objects used as fetishes by the Ainu, sticks, skulls of animals, claws, paws, mistletoe, stones, etc., are all looked upon as animate, with a distinct life of their own, with power to protect their worshippers in time of danger, heal them when sick, and bless them with general prosperity (4, 375-6).

In this characteristic, in the possession of personality and will, in its material and spiritual duality, a fetish differs from a charm or an amulet as from an idol; it is always ‘anthropopathic’ (61, 61).

8. The fetish may act by will or force of its own proper spirit, or by force of a foreign spirit, entering or acting on it from without.

‘Beyond the regularly recognised habitats of the spirits, that may be called natural to them, any other location may be acquired by them temporarily, for longer or shorter periods’ (53, 62).

When the fetish acts by force of its own proper spirit, it is something more than mere Animism (v. above, p. 77). It does not become a fetish by applying the general belief in souls to a special object, but by a process which has been divided by Schultze into four stages (62, 215-223):—

1. The value which an uncultured man attributes to any object is often exaggerated, especially if the object is in any way conspicuous, unusual, or mysterious.

2. He attributes to it an anthropopathic nature, believing that all natural objects are like man, with human characteristics.

3. By the causal connection of ideas he associates the object with auspicious or inauspicious events, which he believes it to influence.

4. A belief in its power leads him to reverence it, and to attempt to conciliate and propitiate the power by worship.

As an example, the anchor cast up on the beach at the mouth of the river Keissi (45) may be cited:—

1. The anchor was an unusual object, and was therefore credited with an exaggerated value and regarded with great interest.

2. It was believed to possess a life of its own, a soul or spirit, somewhat analogous to man’s.

3. A Kaffir broke off a piece of the anchor, and he soon afterwards died. The two events were associated with one another, and the breaking of the anchor was believed to have caused the death.

4. The power of the anchor-spirit was thus established, and the natives worshipped it in fear and hope.

Thus the fetish was evolved.

But more commonly a spirit is attracted to the object from without, as in the case of the suhman of the Gold Coast, where the spirit of the Sasabonsum is invited into the stone or other object prepared for it, or as in the most usual type of West African fetish, where the wandering spirit becomes localised in an object by means of the ceremonies and conjurings of the Uganga or magic doctor (53, 81).

The distinction between the different powers animating the fetish are clearly distinguishable on the Gold Coast (16, 275). The Tshi believe that everything in nature is animated; that everything not made with hands has an indwelling spirit, possessing powers beneficial or prejudicial to man, according to whether it is propitiated or neglected; so the more dangerous spirits, those of rivers, mountains, rocks, and shoals are worshipped. Later on an image is made of the nature-god, from material from his habitat, and it is brought to a place more convenient for the worshippers, and forms their tutelary deity. Gradually his origin is forgotten, and the nature-god becomes a fetish.

But besides these ‘nature-gods’ there are ‘ghost-gods.’ The fetish may be animated by a ‘ghost-god,’ for the power of dead men lives on in their ghosts; sacrifices are made to them, and ghost-gods also develop into tutelary deities. Perhaps ancestor-worship and Fetishism may be more intimately related than is generally acknowledged (16, 280). The Melanesians believe that the souls of the dead act through bones; while the independent spirits choose stones as their mediums (6, 131).

9. In the popular view of Fetishism the material object was worshipped in its own character, but one of the fundamental conceptions of the West African fetish is that the spirit and the material object can be dissociated, and that, although the spirit is temporarily incorporated in the fetish, yet the two are no more inseparable than man’s soul and body. The conception of the duality of everything lies at the root of all the West African beliefs. ‘Everything that he knows by means of his senses he regards as a two-fold entity—part spirit, part not spirit, or, as we should say, matter; the connection of a certain spirit with a certain mass of matter, he holds, is not permanent. He will point out to you a lightning-struck tree, and tell you its spirit has been broken; he will tell you, when the cooking-pot has been broken, that it has lost its spirit; if his weapon fails, it is because some one has stolen, or made its spirit sick by witchcraft. In every action of his life he shows you how much he lives with a great powerful spirit world around him’ (39, 141).

When the spirit is ‘dead’ the fetish has no further value, ‘the little thing you kept the spirit in is no more use now, and only fit to sell to a white man as “a big curio”!’ (40, 304-5). But occasionally sanctity still clings to the former dwelling of the spirit, and it is used as a charm, though no longer worshipped as a fetish.

The Mirrone, a tree worshipped in the Congo region, was the tutelar god of the dwelling, and the owners placed calabashes full of palm-tree wine at the foot of the tree for the spirit to drink, ‘nor do they dare to tread upon its leaves any more than we would on the holy cross.’ But if it were damaged in any way, they no longer worshipped it, but they stripped off the bark or rind, which was made into petticoats for the women, to act as protecting charms (54, xvi. 236). Owing to the possibility of the spirit leaving the fetish, it has to be tested, to see whether it really contains an indwelling spirit or no, and the natives of the Gold Coast put their Bohsum in the fire as a probation. If the fire injures it in the very least degree, it is not a true Bohsum, there is no indwelling spirit (15, 92).

Sometimes the spirit is forcibly ejected from his dwelling-place for a particular purpose. Soon after Sir Richard Burton had arrived at DahomÉ, ‘a fetish youth made his appearance in the evening, knelt down before the domestic altar, broke some of the images, and went away declaring that he had called out the fetishes, and that I might after the evocatio deorum do my worst’ (9, i. 299).

10. The fetish is worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, and talked with, as a sentient and willing personification of the spirit or power. Examples of sacrifices and prayers and worship offered to the fetishes are found in all parts, and many instances have already been quoted.

Offerings of food and drink are placed before them daily, and sometimes a cock is sacrificed; occasionally, if the worshippers are rich, a sheep is killed, ‘which they offer up to the gods in words alone, for they immediately fall upon it and tear it to pieces with their fingers’ (54, xvi. 400).

The personal interest of the fetishes in the affairs of their worshippers is seen in the ceremonies connected with the death and burial of the Fiote. ‘When all are assembled, the elder addresses the two family fetishes held by two of the family. Pointing and shaking his hand at them, he tells them how the deceased died, and all the family has done to settle the matter; he tells them how they have allowed the father to be taken, and prays them to protect the rest of the family; and when he has finished his address the two who hold the fetishes pick up a little earth and throw it on the heads of the fetishes, then, lifting them up, rub their heads in the earth in front of them’ (13, 135).

11. The fetish is petted or ill-treated with regard to its past or future behaviour. The spirit is invited to enter the suhman charm prepared for it by promises of offerings and food (16, 100), and special offerings are made before embarking on any great enterprise.

But when conciliation fails, the owner sometimes has resort to force, though Colonel Ellis states that in all his experience of the natives of the Gold Coast he has never seen or heard of any coercion of a fetish by the natives, and that the idea of coercion is entirely foreign to their minds (15, 194). The Kafirs appear to be harsher in their methods.

‘The Caffres play at a game of chance before their idols, and, should chance be against them, kick and box their idols; but if, after this correction, on pursuing their experiments they should continue unsuccessful, they burn the hands and feet of them in the fire; should ill fortune still attend them, they cast the idols on the ground, tread them under foot, dash them about with such force as to break them to pieces. Some, indeed, who show greater veneration for the images, content themselves with fettering and binding them until they have obtained their end; but should this not take place as early as their impatience looks for, they fasten them to a cord and gradually let them down into the water, even to the bottom, thus trusting to force them to be propitious; if after this good fortune should not follow, the idols are then withdrawn from the water, the patience of even the milder Caffres becomes exhausted, and the images are subjected to the grossest indignations’ (54, xvi. 696).

The negro in Guinea beats his fetish if his wishes are frustrated, and hides it in his waist-cloth when he is about to do something of which he is ashamed (38, 91).

III. FETISHISM AS A FORM OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP

Fetishism is a stage of religious development associated with a low grade of consciousness and of civilisation, and it forms a basis from which many other modes of religious thought have developed, so that it is difficult to point out where fetishism ends and nature-worship, ancestor-worship, totemism, polytheism, and idolatry begin, or to distinguish between a fetish, an idol, and a deity.

It includes conceptions which are purely magical, coercion of the supernatural by means of natural objects; and it also includes conceptions which persist into higher forms of religion, such as the worship of the symbol of an unseen power.

It is an early product of the primitive religious instinct of humanity, developing at a low grade of culture among a people of a highly imaginative temperament.

The fundamental religious feeling which is everywhere part of the mental equipment of man has been called by Marett supernaturalism, and is perhaps best indicated in English by the term awe, in which word are implicated fear, wonder, admiration, interest, respect, even love, perhaps. The object of this religious ‘sense,’ or, as many would call it, ‘instinct,’ is the supernatural. The recognition of the supernatural, the fundamental religious feeling of awe, develops in two ways. ‘There arises in the region of human thought a powerful impulse to objectify, and even personify, the mysterious or ‘supernatural’ something felt; and in the region of will a corresponding impulse to render it innocuous, or, better still, propitious, by force of constraint, communion, or conciliation’ (50, 168).

So man personifies the power which he cannot understand, calling it by names which we translate as spirit or god, and he worships it, propitiating and conciliating it by offerings and sacrifice, and entering into communion with it by prayer. Thus are produced the two fundamental factors of religion, the belief in some mysterious power, and the desire to enter into communication with the power by means of worship. The worship of different groups of peoples expresses itself in different ways, reflecting the mental type of the worshippers, their civilisation, their culture, their character and temperament.

The cold, practical, phlegmatic Northerners worship within bare walls, while the fervour of the imaginative South demands expression in an elaborate ritual, with richness of decoration, warmth of colour, dim lights and soft music.

The extraordinarily vivid imagination and the childlike capacity for ‘make-believe’ of the negro, load him further still; the lively fancy of the West African demands a visible object to which worship may be directed. He wishes really and sensibly to behold and even to possess his god, so he incorporates him in a tangible object, and satisfies his religious ardour by directing his worship to that object. Thus fetishism and the fetish are evolved.