Magic and FetishismHaddon, Alfred C. (Alfred Cort)
Religion
Magic and Fetishism
Haddon, Alfred C. (Alfred Cort)
Fetishism; Magic
It is conceivable, as Mr. Hartland suggests (30, ii. 214), that
uneducated folk might argue thus: if an article of my clothing in a
witch’s hands may cause me to suffer, the same article in contact with a
beneficent power may relieve pain, restore me to health, or promote my
general prosperity. Hence the practice of throwing pins into wells, of
tying rags on bushes and trees, of driving nails into trees and stocks,
of throwing stones and sticks on cairns, and the analogous practices
throughout the world, suggest that they are to be interpreted as acts of
ceremonial union with the spirit identified with well, tree, stock, or
cairn (30, ii. 228). In the British Islands the sanctity of the well or
bush was subsequently annexed by the missionaries who took up their abode
beside them, and thus we find the wells or trees called after certain
saints and the healing power attributed to the latter, whereas the
holiness and efficacy of the wells were in the vast majority of cases, if
not in all, pre-Christian (27, 383).
Objects are worn or eaten so that by induction the individual may acquire
their properties. Thus the Red Indian hunter (70, 131) wears ornaments of
the claws of the grizzly bear, that he may be endowed with its courage
and ferocity, and the Tyrolese hunter still wears tufts of eagle’s down
in his hat, to gain the eagle’s keen sight and courage. ‘Look,’ writes
Casalis (10, 271), ‘at those strange objects hanging from the necks of
our little black friends. There is a kite’s foot in order that the poor
child may escape misfortune with the swiftness of the kite in its flight.
Another has the claw of a lion in order that his life may be as firmly
secured against all danger as that of a lion; a third is adorned with
the tarsus bone of a sheep, or an iron ring, that he may oppose to evil
a resistance as firm as iron, or as that little compact bone without
marrow which could not be crushed between two stones without difficulty.’
The eating of certain kinds of food, more especially of the flesh of
animals, would similarly have a very potent effect; thus among the Dyaks
(65, i. 176), young men sometimes abstain from eating the flesh of deer,
lest they should become timid. The Abipones of Paraguay (14, 258) ‘detest
the thought of eating hens, eggs, sheep, fish, or tortoises, imagining
that these tender kinds of food engender sloth and languor in their
bodies and cowardice in their minds. On the other hand they eagerly
devour the flesh of the tiger [jaguar], bull, stag, boar, anta and
tamandua [ant-eaters], having an idea that, from continually feeding on
these animals, their strength, boldness, and courage are increased.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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