Let us glance at the term itself.
As the Chinaman's "Joss" is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese
word _Deos_, or the Latin _Deus_, so the word "fetich" is but the
Portuguese modification of the Latin word _facticius_, that is
_feitico_. Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the
honor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of
Africa and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich,
described the native charms or talismans. The word "fetichism" came into
the European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in
1760, wrote on "Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches." In Fetichism, the "object
is treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with,
worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with
reference to its past or future behavior to its votaries."
Let me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the windows
of my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter
to prepare his field for cultivation. The man's horizon of ideas, like
his vocabulary, is very limited. His view of actual life is bounded by a
few rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by. Possibly one
visit to a city or large town has enriched his experience.
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