MAGIC AND FETISHISM
Book Details + Condition: Constable & Company (London), 1910. Hardcover measuring 7"x5". Embossed cover with gilt text to spine. 98 pages. Volume by the "pioneer of modern anthropology", British anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon, on the subject of magic and fetishism in various cultures. Chapter topics include homeopathic medicine, divination, talismans and amulets, fetishism as religious worship, and more. Firm binding; minor areas of discoloration to boards; interior is clean and free of markings, save name to ffep. Please see below for more information on this fascinating text.
In this work, Haddon makes use of his wide-ranging knowledge of folk rituals and religious beliefs to introduce readers to basic principles of sympathetic magic, divination, talismanic powers and fetishism. A strong believer in the importance of preserving local religious practices and beliefs, Haddon uses the work to document customs from Britain to West Africa, America to Australia. Topics include forms of contagious magic, premised on a mutual influence between objects; amulets and talismans; magical names and words; and divination. In the second portion of the book, devoted to fetishism, Haddon offers an authoritative description of the fetish as a 'habitation, temporary or permanent, of a spiritual being', establishing basic definitions for an important field of cultural research."
