by Hartmut Böhme
“Culture and Fetishism – Another Theory about the modern Era” would be the literal translation. In reality it is not another theory but it sheds light on our relationship with Things. It is not translated but there exist a lot of similar books with the same topic in English.
I found this book in a critics corner in a newspaper in Germany and I thought it sounds interesting. It was indeed. Departing with various theories about things, then explaining the origin of the word and how we Europeans actually meant our own experience when we described the distasteful fetishes of Africa – our “inner Africa”. After clarifying the origins of the word and our concepts about fetishism he turns to Marx who extended the concept to the fetishism of goods – basically consumerism. That is actually the best chapter of all. Finally he explains Freud’s theories and those of his followers and antipodes regarding the sex fetishism.
The basic question if things have their own “life or will”. During the lecture you have to question yourself again and again, of course, you need to be open and follow the author on his thought experiments.
Being in Brazil I found it interesting that the name fetish comes from Portuguese: feitiço. The catholic missionaries used it to described what they encountered in Africa.
I found this book in a critics corner in a newspaper in Germany and I thought it sounds interesting. It was indeed. Departing with various theories about things, then explaining the origin of the word and how we Europeans actually meant our own experience when we described the distasteful fetishes of Africa – our “inner Africa”. After clarifying the origins of the word and our concepts about fetishism he turns to Marx who extended the concept to the fetishism of goods – basically consumerism. That is actually the best chapter of all. Finally he explains Freud’s theories and those of his followers and antipodes regarding the sex fetishism.
The basic question if things have their own “life or will”. During the lecture you have to question yourself again and again, of course, you need to be open and follow the author on his thought experiments.
Being in Brazil I found it interesting that the name fetish comes from Portuguese: feitiço. The catholic missionaries used it to described what they encountered in Africa.
Facts:
English title: n/a
Original title: Kultur und Fetischismus
Published: 2006
