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Fetishism: The
term fetishism is employed in more than /j one sense. Thus
it may mean in some cases pure idolatry . or the worship
of inanimate objects. Again in older works of travel, it
is even used to signify African religion. But taken in its
general and more modern sense, it signifies any inanimate
object which appears to the savage as the residence of a
spirit. Thus a carved doll, a necklace of teeth, a flint
stone into which a shaman or medicine-man has succeeded in
coaxing a spirit to reside, is regarded by the savage as a
fetish. But larger objects are occasionally adopted as
fetishes, and in the adoption of these in
contradistinction to the smaller fetishes we can trace the
evolution of the idol. As a general rule the fetish is an
object peculiar in shape or material, for such is
considered by the shaman as being more likely to attract a
wandering spirit than any more ordinary substance. Thus we
find as fetishes peculiarly shaped stones, tufts of human
hair and bones, parts of animals and birds, and so forth.
Fossils are not uncommonly employed as fetishes, possibly
because of their freakish formation.
The origin of fetishism is undoubtedly animistic (See
Animism). The savage intelligence regards everything that
surrounds it as possessing the property of life—water, the
earth, trees, stones and so forth. But this is modified by
the idea that many of these objects are under the power of
some spell or potent enchantment. Thus the rocks and trees
are the living tombs of imprisoned spirits, resembling the
dryads of folk-lore ; so that it is not at all strange to
the savage mind to perceive an imprisoned intelligence
more or less powerful, in any object, no matter how
uncommon its form. In fact, according to the savage mind,
spirit was dependent to a great extent upon material body.
The wandering spirit, according to the barbarian, could
not fare much better, materially speaking, than a
wandering savage : it would suffer the rigours of hunger
and cold,
and would be only too agreeable to be at rest for a while
where it would be treated with every deference and
properly attended to. For this purpose a shaman will
either manufacture or search for a fitting residence for
this spirit, and he will proceed by various rites to
attempt to coax some wandering intelligence to take up its
home therein.
There is of course a point at which the fetish commences
to develop into a god. This happens when fetishes survive
the test of experience and achieve a more than personal or
tribal popularity. Thus amongst the Zufii Indians a fetish
called " The Knife-feathered Monster " has practically
become the tribal god of war, and a pony and sheep fetish
are at present in course of evolving as deities in the
pantheon of this people. Amongst the Zufii there appears
to have been the conception that their fetishes were
totemistic. Fetishism and totemism are not incompatible
with one another, but often flourish side by side ; but
the basic difference between a fetish and a totem is that
the fetish spirit is the bond slave of the person who owns
its abode, whereas the totem is his patron spirit,
personal or tribal. Nevertheless the fetish partakes more
of the nature of those spirits which are subservient to
man, as for example the Arabian Jinn, than of those which
subsequently develop into gods. They are more of the race
of faery, of the little folk who dwelt in the crevices of
rocks and trees, the smaller swarm of the supernatural,
than of the strain of Olympus. A capital example of a
fetish, which will be familiar to all, is that which
occurs in the story of Aladdin and his lamp. Here we have
the subservient nature-spirit — the original conception of
which must have been that it dwelt in the lamp or the
ring, and was only freed therefrom on the summons of its
temporary master to perform some special piece of work.
But a fetish is not necessarily a piece of personal
property : it may belong collectively to an entire
community or family, and it is usually an heirloom.
The savage naturally attaches great importance to those
fetishes which assist him in the chase. Thus the Zufii
Indians, wko possess perhaps the most complete fetishistic
system of any barbarous people, have a special
temple-house set apart for their tribal fetishes of the
hunt, which they call the Prey-gods. On setting out for
the hunt, the Zufli Indian will visit the fetish-house,
and sprinkle a little maize meal on a platter placed
before that fetish which he wishes to employ in his
expedition. In this office he is usually assisted by a
medicine-man set aside for the purpose, whose special duty
it is to see that the fetishes are properly placated and
returned when their services are no more required. Let us
suppose that he selects the fetish of the mountain-lion.
This is a stone object, shaped in the likeness of that
animal. Once in the open country, the hunter places the
mouth of the fetish to his own and suspires deeply,
imagining that by so .doing he is breathing in the hunting
instinct of the mountain-lion. He then forcibly emits his
breath. The Indian idea is that beasts of prey are able by
the emission of breath to render the game helpless over a
wide area, and this the hunter believes he has
successfully and magically imitated. When he meets with
his game, after slaving it, his first act is to excise the
liver, which he smears upon the lips of the fetish, which
is then duly returned to the fetish-house. Most of the
objects belonging to a medicine-man or shaman are believed
to be fetishes, — that is, they possess a certain quality
of life that other, and more ordinary, objects do not
have.
The word fetish is derived from the Portuguese feitifo
which implies " something made," and was applied by early
voyagers in West Africa to the wooden figures, stones and
so forth, regarded as the residence of spirits. Fetishism
in Africa appears to be generally confined to the coasts,
but in America it is prevalent more or less over the whole
hemisphere. That it was once prevalent in Europe is
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