Now, for the élite of the Aryan race, whose systems of ideas have been moulded in accordance with the conceptions of modern science, no doubt the fetishism of the poor savage seems sufficiently incongruous and grotesque.
Fetishism and animism are processes of decay, says Dr.
But the factor of fetishism was not wanting in the construction of the Peruvian religion.
Their existence might appear to suggest the presence of fetishism in the Aztec religion, but the theory of a Shamanistic origin for these household deities seems the more likely one.
Fetishism forms an important link in the evolution of the mere animistic spirit into the god.
For a very full account of Fetishism see my article in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.
The remnants of fetishism are also to be discerned in the amulets which were worn by every Egyptian, living and dead.
The truth is that the ideas of fetish and fetishism do not correspond to any definite thing.
The ill-determined group of rites going under the name of fetishism seem to appear only among peoples who have already attained to a certain degree of civilization; but it is a species of cult unknown in Australia.
According to him, fetishism commences when the protector is an individual object and not a class (Totemism, p.
But what is exactly the difference between fetishism and polytheism?
Thus, fetishism ascribed, or sought to ascribe, to the Godhead, the quality of willingness to promote even the anti-social desires of the owner of the fetish.
And fetishism exfoliated, or peeled off from the religious organism.
In fetishism and polytheism we see the radiative, dispersive, force of evolution manifesting itself, just as in polytheism and monotheism.
The relation of magic to religion is as much a matter of doubt and dispute as is that of fetishism to religion.
It is held by many students of the science of religion that fetishism preceded polytheism in the history of religion; and it is undoubted that polytheism flourished at the expense of fetishism.
In the same way, and for the same reasons, polytheism is notfetishism under another name.
The notion of so dreadful a form of fetishism establishing itself in one's native land is repugnant to the feelings even of those who have been rendered callous to such things by seats in the Bengal Legislative Council.
He thinks that in a heathen country their paltry fetishism of misbegotten notions and incomprehensible phrases is peculiarly offensive and injurious to the interests of civilisation and Christianity.
It is evident that fetishism in its earliest and most primitive form was always inspired by special objects, since the external perception of animals and of man is special and concrete.
From these beliefs and facts, drawn from different peoples and different parts of the world, we can understand how a vague and inorganic fetishism gradually became classified into types which constitute the first phase of polytheism.
Castren, in his Finnische Mythologie says that we find extraordinary instances of the lowest stage of fetishism among the Samoeides, who directly worship all natural objects in themselves.
This was the source of primitive, confused, and inorganic fetishism among all peoples; namely, that they ascribed intentional and conscious life to a host of natural objects and phenomena.
Fetishism may be observed in the civilized Aryan races, but still more plainly among the Chinese and cognate races, among the Peruvians, Mexicans, etc.
De Brosses, a French savant of last century, brought the word fetishism into use as a term for the type of religion of the lowest races.
We have found a general agreement that fetishism is not an original form of religion, but a product of the decay of higher forms in unfavourable conditions.
On these and other grounds it is now held with growing certainty that fetishism cannot be the original form of religion, and that the higher stages of it are not to be derived from that one.
He denies also that fetishism could ever be an original religious product, or that men could ever pass from having no religion to the religion of fetishism.
The races among whom fetishism is found exhibit a well-known feature of the decadence of religion, namely that the great god or gods have grown weak and faint, and smaller gods and spirits have crowded in to fill up the blank thus caused.
Likewise all of our science and the greater part of our nomenclature have arisen out of the sphere of thought contained in the practical Weltanschauung, which centred early in fetishism and related thoughts.
M34 His theory is an inversion of the truth: for fetishism is the antecedent, not the corruption, of theism.
On the contrary, fetishism is early and theism is late in the history of mankind.
Therefore I here give the key to a good deal of this inter-relationship by dividing the different classes of Fetishism into four schools.
It is not, however, my object in this paper to trace the history of this theory from its first rude beginnings in Fetishism to its final development in Theism.
Animistic in many of their features too are the temporary gods of fetishism (q.
Fetishism is the prevailing religion throughout the province.
Telekinetic' Origin of Fetishism As I write comes in Melusine, viii.
Fetishism was represented as 'the very beginning of religion,' first among the negroes, then among all races.
Fetishism and Anthropological Method Throughout much of his work our author's object is to invalidate the anthropological method.
The study of the lower races is an invaluable instrument for the interpretation of the survivals from earlier stages, which we meet in the full civilisation of cultivated peoples, but which arose in the remotest fetishism and savagery.
He assails the theory of fetishism as if it stood now where De Brosses left it in a purely pioneer work--or, rather, where he understands De Brosses to have left it.
Fetishism is, as he says, an ill word, and has caused much confusion.
We cannot believe that fetishism and idolatry have been God's kindergarten method of training the human race for the higher and more spiritual service of His kingdom.
Footnote 126: We do not care to enter the field of pre-historic speculation where the evolution of religion from totemism or fetishism claims to find its chief support.
Holy Church, assuming spiritual leadership of the world, sunken in idolatry, and publicly parading her fetishism in these lingering echoes of primitive demon-worship!
On this view, fetishism is a later yet lower stage of religious evolution than that of the negro.
On the other hand, Miss Kingsley takes fetishism to be the proper name of the attitude of the negro towards particular objects as divinely inhabited, and represents it as a kind of pantheism (West African Studies, 2nd ed.
It is a recent traveller who gives the definition: "Fetishism is the result of the efforts of the savage intelligence seeking after a theory which will account for the apparent hostility of nature to man.
As to fetishism in the Vedas the opinions of the learned are divided.
In opposition to Mr. Max Muller, Barth avers that the same kind of fetishism which flourishes to-day flourishes in the Rig-Veda.
We shall now endeavour to make it probable that Fetishism (the belief in the souls tenanting inanimate objects) may also have sources which perhaps are not normal, or which at all events seemed supernormal to savages.
In following Mr. Tylor's discussion of the subject, it is necessary to combine what he says about Spiritualism in his fourth with what he says about Fetishism in his fourteenth and later chapters.
Fetishism prevails, with spiritualism, and Wilson thinks that mediums might pick up some good tricks in Guinea.
Fetishism probably shows itself in gifts to a great rock.
Mr. Max Mullet, looking on religion as the development of the sentiment of the Infinite, regards fetishism as a secondary and comparatively late form of belief.
Fetishism logically needs, in some of its aspects, the doctrine of spirits, and Theism, in what we take to be its earliest known form, does not logically need the doctrine of spirits as given matter.
Waitz quotes Wilson for the fact that, their fetishism apart, they adore a Supreme Being as the Creator: and do not honour him with sacrifice.
Mr. Oxford next avers that 'the earliest form of the Israelite religion was Fetishism or Totemism.
Fetishism had deeper roots than polytheism and lasted longer; and polytheism surpassed monotheism in vigour and vitality.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "fetishism" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
