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A fetish (from French ''fétiche''; from Portuguese ''feitiço''; from Latin ''facticius'', "artificial" and ''facere'', "to make") is a natural object believed to have Supernatural powers, or in particular a man-made object that has power over others. HISTORY The concept was coined by Charles De Brosses in 1757 , while comparing West Africa n religion to the Magic al aspects of Ancient Egypt ian religion. He and other 18th Century scholars used the concept to apply Evolution Theory to Religion . In de Brosses' theory of the evolution of religion, he proposed that fetishism is the earliest (most primitive) stage, followed by the stages of Polytheism and Monotheism , representing a progressive abstraction in thought. In the 19th Century , Philosophers such as Herbert Spencer repudiated de Brosses' theory that fetishism was the "original religion". In the same century, Anthropologists and Scholar s of Comparative Religion such as E. B. Tylor and J. F. McLennan developed the theories of Animism and Totemism to account for fetishism. Tylor and McLennan held that the concept of fetishism allowed historians of religion to shift attention from the relationship between people and God to the relationship between people and material objects. They also held that it established models of Causal Explanations of natural events which they considered false as a central problem in history and sociology. PRACTICE Theoretically, fetishism is present in all religions, but its use in the study of religion is derived from studies of traditional West Africa n religious beliefs, as well as Voodoo , which is derived from those beliefs. Blood is often considered a particularly powerful fetish or ingredient in fetishes. In some parts of Africa , the Hair of white people was also considered powerful. OTHER USES OF THE TERM "FETISHISM"
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