Fetishism

Ethnology

In Ethnology, one indicates name of fetishism the worship of an object (Statuette, etc) within the framework of a religious practice or Mystique. Fetishism consists in the worship of the natural objects, such as the elements, especially fire, the rivers, the animals, the trees, the same stones; or of invisible beings, geniuses beneficial or malfaisants, created by the Superstition and fear, such as the grisgris of the central Africa, the Burkhan S of the Siberia, etc.
The etymology of the term “fetish” via the Portuguese term “feitiço” and the evolutions of its direction shows that the idea of something of “manufactured” induced that of “artificial”, of “adulterated” even of “forgery” or dependant on magic schemes like the “magic spell” and 1760. It then defines it as form religion in which the liturgical objects are inanimate animals or beings that one divinise, thus transformed into gifted things of a divine virtue . The concept of fetishism implies a comparing observer of the beliefs or a worship in others, without necessarily adhering itself to one or the other. Charles of Brushes uses a comparative step and uses the present of the modern nations to try to clarify the past of the former people

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