the tangible sign or token of a spirit or power to which worship is
addressed. But it advances beyond the limits of fetishism if a general
spirit, or a god of a community, while worshipped in the form of a stone,
is also believed to animate other objects. The animating force of a
fetish must be individual, and cannot animate more than one object at a
time. When the spirits of the _suhman_ charms (15, 99) are considered to
be individual spirits dependent upon Sasabonsum they are fetishes; if the
spirit of Sasabonsum were supposed to animate all the _suhman_ charms
they could not properly be called fetishes.
4. A fetish is =credited with mysterious powers owing to its being the
habitation, temporary or permanent, of a spiritual being=.
This sounds like a definition of the principle of animism, and so it may
be, for fetishism is animism, seen, as it were, from the other end and
seen in detail. Animism sees all things animated by spirits; fetishism
sees a spirit incorporated in an individual object.
But there is this distinction, that the spirit which is believed to
occupy the fetish is a different conception from the spirit of the
animistic theory; it is not the soul or vital power belonging to the
object, and inherent in it, from which the virtue is derived, but a
spirit or power attracted to and incorporated in it, while separable
from it. The spirit of the fetish is also distinct from a god, as it can
animate one object only, while a god can manifest his power in various
forms.
Thus in Bosman’s account of the Benin fetish quoted above, he talks of
‘the pipe where the idol is lodged,’ that is the material habitation
into which the spirit has been lured by some means of attraction. Miss
Kingsley, describing a fetish or _juju_, says ‘it is not a doll or toy,
and has far more affinity to the image of a saint, inasmuch as it is not
venerated for itself, or treasured because of its prettiness, but only
because it is the residence, or the occasional haunt, of a spirit’ (40,
287).
The material objects which form the tutelary deities or _Bohsŭm_ of the
natives of the Gold Coast are not symbols of gods which usually reside
elsewhere; each is the actual receptacle or ordinary abiding-place of
an indwelling god. One may be a wooden figure, another a stone, a third
a covered calabash or an earthen pot, containing a mixture of blood and
earth (15, 80).
The best example of this class is provided by the _suhman_.
The man who wants a _suhman_ takes some objects, it may be a rudely cut
wooden image, or a stone, a root of a plant, or some red earth placed in
a pan, and then he calls on a spirit of Sasabonsum (‘a genus of deities,
every member of which possesses identical characteristics’) to enter the
object prepared, promising it offerings and worship. If a spirit consents
to take up its residence in the object a low hissing sound is heard, and
the _suhman_ is complete. It receives a small portion of the daily food
of its owner, and is treated with reverence, and mainly used to bring
evil on some one else (15, 100-101).
5. Sometimes the fetish is merely the =vehicle or means by which the
spirit communicates= with his worshippers, and only acquires a temporary
personality when thus inspired. This is the character of the New Zealand
fetishes, _wakapakoko_, or images.
‘A small image was used about 18 inches long, resembling a peg, with a
carved head. The priest first bandaged a fillet of red parrot feathers
under the god’s chin, which was called his _pahau_ or beard; when this
was done it was taken possession of by the _atua_, whose spirit entered
it; the priest then either held it in the hand and vibrated it in the
air, whilst the powerful _karakia_ (charm, prayer) was repeated, or he
tied a piece of string, formed of the centre of a flax leaf, round the
neck of the image and stuck it in the ground: he sat at a little distance
from it, holding the string in his hand, and gave the god a jerk to
arrest his attention’ (69, 182).
These Maori fetishes ‘were only thought to possess virtue or peculiar
sanctity from the presence of the god they represent when dressed up,
at other times they were regarded as bits of ordinary wood’ (69, 212).
The use of the words ‘image’ and ‘god’ seem to place this ceremony on a
higher plane than fetishism, but the ‘god’ is generally the spirit of an
ancestor, and the ‘image’ is less a portrait of a worshipped deity than
an expression of the Maori genius for wood-carving.
6. While the conception of the fetish as the vehicle of communication
between spirit and worshipper raises fetishism to a higher plane in
religious evolution, the conception of the fetish as an =instrument by
which the spirit acts= lowers it to a stage which is not necessarily
religious at all, to a stage where the fetish is often regarded merely in
the light of a charm or an amulet.
This is the lowest and the commonest form of fetishism; it may
practically be said to be universal.
Bosnian relates that the word Fetiche is chiefly used in a religious
sense, or at least is derived from thence, but ‘all things made in honour
of these false gods, never so mean, are called Fetiche.’
These material charms are so common that by the universality of their
use, and the prominence given to them everywhere, in houses and on the
person, they almost monopolise the religious thought of the Bantu negro,
subordinating other acknowledged points of his theology, dominating
his almost entire religious interest, and giving the departmental
word ‘fetich’ such overwhelming regard that it has furnished the name
distinctive of the native African religious system (53, 80). ‘The
new-born infant has a health-knot tied about his neck, wrists, or loins,
and down to the day of oldest age every one keeps on multiplying or
renewing or altering these life talismans’ (53, 85).
It is interesting to find this form of fetish charm described by Bosman
at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
‘The child is no sooner born than the priest (here called Fetichee or
Confoe) is sent for, who binds a parcel of ropes and coral and other
trash about the head, body, arms, and legs of the infant; after which he
exorcises, according to their accustomed manner, by which they believe it
is armed against all sickness and ill accidents, and doubtless this is as
effectual as if done by the Pope himself’ (54, xvi. 388).
Father Merolla, a still earlier traveller, mentions these charms from the
Congo district (1682).
‘The fourth abuse is that whilst their children are young these people
bind them about with certain superstitious cords made by the wizards,
who likewise teach them to utter a kind of spell while they are binding
them. They also at the same time hang about them bones and teeth of
divers animals, being preservatives, as they say, against the power of
any disease. Likewise there are some mothers so foolish that they will
hang Agnus Deis, medals, and relicks to the aforesaid cords’ (54, xvi.
237). ‘To remedy these disorders, we have thought proper to issue forth
the following ordinances: That all mothers should make the cords they
bound their infants with of palm leaves that had been consecrated on
Palm Sunday; moreover guard them well with other such relicks as we are
accustomed to make use of at the time of baptism’ (54, xvi. 239).
These fetish charms may be worshipped and regarded as anthropopathic,
when they are true fetishes, or they may be merely ‘lucky’ with no
religious regard or spiritual interpretation, or they may be anything
between the two extremes.
7. Just as the human body and soul form one individual, so the material
object and its occupying spirit or power form one individual, more
vague perhaps, but still with many attributes distinctively human. It
=possesses personality and will=, it has also many human characters. It
possesses most of the human passions, anger, revenge, also generosity and
gratitude; it is within reach of influence and may be benevolent, hence
to be deprecated and placated, and its aid enlisted (53, 62).
The objects used as fetishes by the Ainu, sticks, skulls of animals,
claws, paws, mistletoe, stones, etc., are all looked upon as animate,
with a distinct life of their own, with power to protect their
worshippers in time of danger, heal them when sick, and bless them with
general prosperity (4, 375-6).
In this characteristic, in the possession of personality and will, in
its material and spiritual duality, a fetish differs from a charm or an
amulet as from an idol; it is always ‘anthropopathic’ (61, 61).
8. The fetish may =act by will or force of its own proper spirit=, or =by
force of a foreign spirit, entering or acting on it from without=.
‘Beyond the regularly recognised habitats of the spirits, that may be
called natural to them, any other location may be acquired by them
temporarily, for longer or shorter periods’ (53, 62).
When the fetish acts by force of its own proper spirit, it is something
more than mere Animism (v. above, p. 77). It does not become a fetish
by applying the general belief in souls to a special object, but by
a process which has been divided by Schultze into four stages (62,
215-223):—
1. The value which an uncultured man attributes to any object is often
exaggerated, especially if the object is in any way conspicuous, unusual,
or mysterious.
2. He attributes to it an anthropopathic nature, believing that all
natural objects are like man, with human characteristics.
3. By the causal connection of ideas he associates the object with
auspicious or inauspicious events, which he believes it to influence.
4. A belief in its power leads him to reverence it, and to attempt to
conciliate and propitiate the power by worship.
As an example, the anchor cast up on the beach at the mouth of the river
Keissi (45) may be cited:—
1. The anchor was an unusual object, and was therefore credited with an
exaggerated value and regarded with great interest.
2. It was believed to possess a life of its own, a soul or spirit,
somewhat analogous to man’s.
3. A Kaffir broke off a piece of the anchor, and he soon afterwards died.
The two events were associated with one another, and the breaking of the
anchor was believed to have caused the death.
4. The power of the anchor-spirit was thus established, and the natives
worshipped it in fear and hope.
Thus the fetish was evolved.
But more commonly a spirit is attracted to the object from without, as
in the case of the _suhman_ of the Gold Coast, where the spirit of the
Sasabonsum is invited into the stone or other object prepared for it,
or as in the most usual type of West African fetish, where the wandering
spirit becomes localised in an object by means of the ceremonies and
conjurings of the Uganga or magic doctor (53, 81).
The distinction between the different powers animating the fetish are
clearly distinguishable on the Gold Coast (16, 275). The Tshi believe
that everything in nature is animated; that everything not made with
hands has an indwelling spirit, possessing powers beneficial or
prejudicial to man, according to whether it is propitiated or neglected;
so the more dangerous spirits, those of rivers, mountains, rocks, and
shoals are worshipped. Later on an image is made of the nature-god, from
material from his habitat, and it is brought to a place more convenient
for the worshippers, and forms their tutelary deity. Gradually his origin
is forgotten, and the nature-god becomes a fetish.
But besides these ‘nature-gods’ there are ‘ghost-gods.’ The fetish may
be animated by a ‘ghost-god,’ for the power of dead men lives on in
their ghosts; sacrifices are made to them, and ghost-gods also develop
into tutelary deities. Perhaps ancestor-worship and Fetishism may be
more intimately related than is generally acknowledged (16, 280). The
Melanesians believe that the souls of the dead act through bones; while
the independent spirits choose stones as their mediums (6, 131).
9. In the popular view of Fetishism the material object was worshipped
in its own character, but one of the fundamental conceptions of the
West African fetish is that =the spirit and the material object can be
dissociated=, and that, although the spirit is temporarily incorporated
in the fetish, yet the two are no more inseparable than man’s soul and
body. The conception of the duality of everything lies at the root of
all the West African beliefs. ‘Everything that he knows by means of his
senses he regards as a two-fold entity—part spirit, part not spirit,
or, as we should say, matter; the connection of a certain spirit with a
certain mass of matter, he holds, is not permanent. He will point out to
you a lightning-struck tree, and tell you its spirit has been broken; he
will tell you, when the cooking-pot has been broken, that it has lost its
spirit; if his weapon fails, it is because some one has stolen, or made
its spirit sick by witchcraft. In every action of his life he shows you
how much he lives with a great powerful spirit world around him’ (39,
141).
When the spirit is ‘dead’ the fetish has no further value, ‘the little
thing you kept the spirit in is no more use now, and only fit to sell to
a white man as “a big curio”!’ (40, 304-5). But occasionally sanctity
still clings to the former dwelling of the spirit, and it is used as a
charm, though no longer worshipped as a fetish.
The _Mirrone_, a tree worshipped in the Congo region, was the tutelar
god of the dwelling, and the owners placed calabashes full of palm-tree
wine at the foot of the tree for the spirit to drink, ‘nor do they dare
to tread upon its leaves any more than we would on the holy cross.’
But if it were damaged in any way, they no longer worshipped it, but
they stripped off the bark or rind, which was made into petticoats for
the women, to act as protecting charms (54, xvi. 236). Owing to the
possibility of the spirit leaving the fetish, it has to be tested, to see
whether it really contains an indwelling spirit or no, and the natives of
the Gold Coast put their Bohsum in the fire as a probation. If the fire
injures it in the very least degree, it is not a true Bohsum, there is no
indwelling spirit (15, 92).
Sometimes the spirit is forcibly ejected from his dwelling-place for a
particular purpose. Soon after Sir Richard Burton had arrived at Dahomé,
‘a fetish youth made his appearance in the evening, knelt down before the
domestic altar, broke some of the images, and went away declaring that he
had called out the fetishes, and that I might after the _evocatio deorum_
do my worst’ (9, i. 299).
10. The fetish is =worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, and talked
with=, as a sentient and willing personification of the spirit or power.
Examples of sacrifices and prayers and worship offered to the fetishes
are found in all parts, and many instances have already been quoted.
Offerings of food and drink are placed before them daily, and sometimes
a cock is sacrificed; occasionally, if the worshippers are rich, a sheep
is killed, ‘which they offer up to the gods in words alone, for they
immediately fall upon it and tear it to pieces with their fingers’ (54,
xvi. 400).
The personal interest of the fetishes in the affairs of their worshippers
is seen in the ceremonies connected with the death and burial of the
Fiote. ‘When all are assembled, the elder addresses the two family
fetishes held by two of the family. Pointing and shaking his hand at
them, he tells them how the deceased died, and all the family has done to
settle the matter; he tells them how they have allowed the father to be
taken, and prays them to protect the rest of the family; and when he has
finished his address the two who hold the fetishes pick up a little earth
and throw it on the heads of the fetishes, then, lifting them up, rub
their heads in the earth in front of them’ (13, 135).
11. The fetish is =petted or ill-treated with regard to its past or
future behaviour=. The spirit is invited to enter the _suhman_ charm
prepared for it by promises of offerings and food (16, 100), and special
offerings are made before embarking on any great enterprise.
But when conciliation fails, the owner sometimes has resort to force,
though Colonel Ellis states that in all his experience of the natives of
the Gold Coast he has never seen or heard of any coercion of a fetish by
the natives, and that the idea of coercion is entirely foreign to their
minds (15, 194). The Kafirs appear to be harsher in their methods.
‘The Caffres play at a game of chance before their idols, and, should
chance be against them, kick and box their idols; but if, after
this correction, on pursuing their experiments they should continue
unsuccessful, they burn the hands and feet of them in the fire; should
ill fortune still attend them, they cast the idols on the ground, tread
them under foot, dash them about with such force as to break them to
pieces. Some, indeed, who show greater veneration for the images, content
themselves with fettering and binding them until they have obtained their
end; but should this not take place as early as their impatience looks
for, they fasten them to a cord and gradually let them down into the
water, even to the bottom, thus trusting to force them to be propitious;
if after this good fortune should not follow, the idols are then
withdrawn from the water, the patience of even the milder Caffres becomes
exhausted, and the images are subjected to the grossest indignations’
(54, xvi. 696).
The negro in Guinea beats his fetish if his wishes are frustrated, and
hides it in his waist-cloth when he is about to do something of which he
is ashamed (38, 91).
III. FETISHISM AS A FORM OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP
Fetishism is a stage of religious development associated with a low
grade of consciousness and of civilisation, and it forms a basis from
which many other modes of religious thought have developed, so that
it is difficult to point out where fetishism ends and nature-worship,
ancestor-worship, totemism, polytheism, and idolatry begin, or to
distinguish between a fetish, an idol, and a deity.
It includes conceptions which are purely magical, coercion of the
supernatural by means of natural objects; and it also includes
conceptions which persist into higher forms of religion, such as the
worship of the symbol of an unseen power.
It is an early product of the primitive religious instinct of humanity,
developing at a low grade of culture among a people of a highly
imaginative temperament.
The fundamental religious feeling which is everywhere part of the
mental equipment of man has been called by Marett supernaturalism, and
is perhaps best indicated in English by the term awe, in which word
are implicated fear, wonder, admiration, interest, respect, even love,
perhaps. The object of this religious ‘sense,’ or, as many would call it,
‘instinct,’ is the supernatural. The recognition of the supernatural, the
fundamental religious feeling of awe, develops in two ways. ‘There arises
in the region of human thought a powerful impulse to objectify, and even
personify, the mysterious or ‘supernatural’ something felt; and in the
region of will a corresponding impulse to render it innocuous, or, better
still, propitious, by force of constraint, communion, or conciliation’
(50, 168).
So man personifies the power which he cannot understand, calling it
by names which we translate as spirit or god, and he worships it,
propitiating and conciliating it by offerings and sacrifice, and entering
into communion with it by prayer. Thus are produced the two fundamental
factors of religion, the belief in some mysterious power, and the desire
to enter into communication with the power by means of worship. The
worship of different groups of peoples expresses itself in different
ways, reflecting the mental type of the worshippers, their civilisation,
their culture, their character and temperament.
The cold, practical, phlegmatic Northerners worship within bare walls,
while the fervour of the imaginative South demands expression in an
elaborate ritual, with richness of decoration, warmth of colour, dim
lights and soft music.
The extraordinarily vivid imagination and the childlike capacity for
‘make-believe’ of the negro, load him further still; the lively fancy
of the West African demands a visible object to which worship may be
directed. He wishes really and sensibly to behold and even to possess
his god, so he incorporates him in a tangible object, and satisfies his
religious ardour by directing his worship to that object. Thus fetishism
and the fetish are evolved.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Philosophie Positive._
[2] _Historische Nachrichten zur Kenntniss der Menschen._
[3] For the references to the suggestive use of the word by Plautus, I
am indebted to Miss Rachel White of Newnham College.
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