Charles de Brosses’s Theory of Fetishism

In the previous chapter I introduced some of the premises of de Brosses's theory. Before the president of the Assembly of Dijon set out to write on fetishism, discussions of Guinean fetishes had already appeared, alongside descriptions in travelers' accounts, and had been compared to similar phenomena common among other "savage" peoples. As the comparative method was gaining ground, it became clear that its connection to theories on the progress of humankind impinged on the question of religion and its possible origin.KeywordsHuman MindConceptual UniverseAncient PeopleCultural UniverseDivine PunishmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves

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