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Fetishism in the 20th century

Related: supernatural - religion

Varieties: cult of personality - cult objects - commodity fetishism - fetish (religion) - sexual fetishism

Fetishism is an old and convoluted term with many connotations. Up until the mid 19th century, the term fetishism was only used in an anthropological context and it related to the religious practices of 'primitive' peoples. See religious fetishism for more details on this concept.

In the 1860s Karl Marx appropriated the term to describe "commodity fetishism"[1867] as an important component of capitalism. Later Alfred Binet (1880s) and Sigmund Freud [1905] connoted the term with human sexuality. Freud appropriated the concept to describe a form of paraphilia where the object of affection is an inanimate object or a specific part of a person. See sexual fetish for more details on this concept.

In the 21st century the term fetishism continues to resonate through contemporary culture: One only has to turn to the "Fetish" section of Wired magazine, wherein the newest electronic gizmos are lavishly photographed, to see that the erotics of the cargo cult still live on. Furthermore fetishism as an analytical concept has enjoyed great favor among cultural critics. It is generally understood as a potent -- I'm tempted to say magical -- weapon of analysis for a wide range of culturally informed activities, most of them having to do with how we learn to want stuff, how we come to desire artifacts. [Dec 2006]

Definition

--http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetish

Word usage

  1. An object that is believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially such an object associated with animistic or shamanistic religious practices.
  2. An object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence: made a fetish of punctuality.
  3. Something, such as a material object or a nonsexual part of the body, that arouses sexual desire and may become necessary for sexual gratification.
  4. An abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation.
  5. [French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, artificial, charm, from Latin factcius, artificial. See factitious.]

Word origin

  • [French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, artificial, charm, from Latin factcius, artificial. See factitious.] Source: The American Heritage®

    Theories of Modernism: The Fetish in Modernity , 1890-1930

    [...] I will explore the intellectual history of the term, "fetish", and consider the function of the fetish with respect to some basic features of performance: spectacle, commodity, and first contact.

    The fetish was a term that fascinated the fathers of contemporary modern psychology; materialism and anthropology: Freud, Marx and Malinowski. For Freud, the fetish was the metonymic symbol of the phallus; for Marx, the fetish was found in the mysterious non-relationship between labor and commodity; for Malinowski, the fetish was a descriptive (and then prescriptive) term for the worship practices of the "natives". Exploring the texts of these writers, I will seek to answer the question, "Why is the fetish a shared figure of inquiry and study at this time?"

    Finally, I will suggest that the fetish continues to resonate through contemporary culture: One only has to turn to the "Fetish" section of Wired magazine, wherein the newest electronic gizmos are lavishly photographed, to see that the erotics of the cargo cult still live on. Through an examination of a series of contemporary performance pieces, I will discuss ways in which the fetish-- erotic object, commodity, religious idol-- has permutated since its original formulations by Freud, Malinowski and Marx. --Theresa M. Senft, Department of Performance Studies [accessed June 2004]

    Fetishizing the fetish

    If today's critical theorists have a fetish, it is probably fetishism itself. Clearly, we derive a certain perverse pleasure from using the term, enjoying its cachet and the way it wryly suggests a sexual, libidinal energy at work in everything from shopping to sport, from celebrity worship to public humiliations. For these reasons and others I'll explain in a moment, fetishism as an analytical concept has enjoyed great favor among cultural critics. It is generally understood as a potent -- I'm tempted to say magical -- weapon of analysis for a wide range of culturally informed activities, most of them having to do with how we learn to want stuff, how we come to desire objects and things. --Matt Wray in Fetishizing the Fetish, Bad Subjects, Issue # 41 , December 1998, http://eserver.org/bs/41/wray.html

    Totem and Taboo; Some Points of Agreement Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics - Sigmund Freud

    Totem and Taboo; Some Points of Agreement Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics - Sigmund Freud
    [Amazon.com]     [FR] [DE] [UK]

    Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics is a book written by Sigmund Freud published in German as Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker in 1913. It was a collection of four essays which had been published in the journal Imago from 1912-1913 as an application of psychoanalysis to the fields of archeology, anthropology, and the study of religion. Of the four essays — "The Horror of Incest", "Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence", "Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts", and "The Return of Totemism in Childhood" — the last was the most unique and wide-ranging in its argument. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_and_Taboo [Dec 2006]

    Bibliography

    • BINET: ‘Du Fétichisme dans l’amour’ , Revue philosophique 1887
    • FREUD, Sigmund: ‘Fetischismus’ (1927), G.W. XIV (Vierte Auflage), Fisher Verlag, Frankfurt 1968.

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