Disentangling “Fetishism”: Rethinking Keywords and Terminologies in Modern Anthropology
| dc.contributor.author | Adjei, S. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-02-18T09:05:47Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-02-18T09:05:47Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-02-19 | |
| dc.description | Seminar | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | How have miseducation and Eurocentric anthropological scholarship actively deluded Africans into perceiving their religion and arts as “inferior” and “barbarous”? Tracing its etymology to the Portuguese word “fetiço”, “fetish” (a.k.a the “F-word” of anthropology) has been used to denigrate significant aspects of African religions and sacred artworks. Such misperceptions and stigmatized terms can be gleaned from Rosenthal’s (1999) descriptions of Legba (and Vodu sculptures of stately importance) which employ derogatory phrases like “fetish object”, “super fetish proportions”, “Dionysian monster god”, “aggressive imago” etc. Similarly, other inexact terms like “primitive”, “demonic”, “sorcery”, “tribal”, “pagan”, and “satanic” are yet to be fully expunged from Vodu and modern anthropological scholarship. The “intellectual” history of “fetishism” has been entangled in some heated academic debates among Western and African scholars alike. De Brosses’ (1757) “discourse” on “fetishism” was first rejected by the French Acadamie scholars due to historical fallacies and methodological flaws. Pietz’ (1982) revisionist anthropology provides a closer textual analysis of the anthropological problem surrounding the discourse of “fetishism” and its misleading relationship with Vodu spirituality. Further interrogating the “problem of fetish” in anthropology, Pietz (1985) reconsiders Rattray’s (1927) position of maintaining African term as a justified methodology for reclaiming racist colonial-era text by translating terms like “fetish” back into African languages. Meyer (2002) also advocates fresh perspectives, anthropological paradigm shifts, practical approaches and methodologies for trans-disciplinary research on religion with special emphasis on socio-linguistics and materiality as an entry point to revisionist Vodu scholarship. Drawing from years of autoethnographic fieldwork and practice-based investigation into the sacred art of the Anlo-Ewe Vodu religion, this paper redefines some misleading theories of ‘fetishism’ – particularly how such perceptions have obscured a genuine appreciation of Vodu art. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/34863 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.subject | Anthropology | en_US |
| dc.subject | artworks | en_US |
| dc.subject | trans-disciplinary | en_US |
| dc.subject | Fetishism | en_US |
| dc.title | Disentangling “Fetishism”: Rethinking Keywords and Terminologies in Modern Anthropology | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
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