Fetishism Revisited: Kongo Nkisi in Sociological Perspective

Abstract

Opening ParagraphFetishism, a word much in vogue in late nineteenth century anthropology, no longer appears in serious scholarly use, except among art historians, psychoanalysts, and Marxist economists. Tylor, the most influential voice in the definition of fetishism, regarded it as a development of animism; fetishism was ‘the doctrine of spirits embodied in, or attached to, or conveying influence through, certain material objects. Fetishism will be taken as including the worship of ‘stocks and stones’ and thence it passes by an imperceptible gradation into Idolatry’ (Tylor 1874:II:144). Tylor went on to speculate that primitive man originally imagined the soul of a deceased person to inhabit some relic such as a bone; this idea once established, it evolved into a propensity to associate any unusual object with a spirit. If the spirit, with its capacity for action, were embodied in an object specially made to represent its character, the ethnographer would recognise an Idol.

Rocko’s Magic Capitalism: Commodity Fetishism in the Magical Realism of Rocko’s Modern Life

“…Sometimes these desires are sentimental, such as when own: A talking foot teaches oral hygiene, Rocko's heart and the brain box in an arena full of spectators, and organs afflicted by disease such as a heart or tooth can grow into giants and wreak havoc on the city like kaijū monsters ('Rinse & Spit', 14 November 1993;'Short Story', 2 March 1995). In these examples, the indigenous animist location of fetishistic power within parts of the human body, and the identification of physical ailments as spiritual dissonance, is appropriated and reworked into the commodity spectacles of film and sports event (Harvey, 2014;MacGaffey, 1977). Similarly, consumer goods are often semi-anthropomorphic with human-like limbs, emotions, and behaviours while lacking names or faces.…”

L’hospitalité des hoarders

“…À l'instar du « roi-pot » et de ses sujets-récipients (Warnier 2009), les « orifices » des maisons fonctionnent comme des espaces incorporant l'extérieur à l'intérieur, et réciproquement. Tout comme Wyatt MacGaffey, qui a remarqué que les rois et les fétiches constituaient des types comparables de contenants, on peut considérer ici les biens, les corps et les maisons comme trois niveaux de réceptacles qui s'emboîtent (MacGaffey 1977 ;Newell 2014).…”

Pequena história da ideia de fetiche religioso: de sua emergência a meados do século XX

“…MacGaffey (1977) e Tobia-Chadeisson (2000 afirmam que em muitas obras do início do séc. XX a noção de fetichismo acaba sendo subsumida pelas ideias mais amplas de magia (no português, aliás, quase sinônimo de feitiço) ou religião (frequentemente usando-se a ideia de animismo, como forma específica de religião "primitiva").…”

“…MacGaffey (1977;, Augé (1996Augé ( [1988), De Surgy (1994;, Goldman (2009) e Sansi (2007a2007b) são autores -bastantes diferentes entre si -relevantes nesta corrente.…”