The Fetish Revisited: Marx, Freud, and the Gods Black People Make

393 Pages·2018·25.51 MB·English

by  J Lorand Matory

THE FETISH
REVISITED
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J. LORAND MATORY
THE FETISH
R E V I S I T E D
Marx, Freud, and the Gods
Black People Make
Duke University Press | Durham and London | 2018
© 2018 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Julienne Alexander
Typeset in Whitman by Westchester Publishing Services
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Matory, James Lorand, author.
Title: The fetish revisited : Marx, Freud, and the gods Black
people make / J. Lorand Matory.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010546 (print)
LCCN 2018017703 (ebook)
ISBN 9781478002437 (ebook)
ISBN 9781478000754 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 9781478001058 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Fetishism. | Africa— Religion. |
Marx, Karl, 1818–1883. | Freud, Sigmund, 1856–1939.
Classification: LCC GN472 (ebook) | LCC GN472 .M38 2018 (print) |
DDC 306.77/7— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2018010546
Cover art: Kota reliquary statue (saba Collection e012).
More information on this image and others from the Sacred
Arts of the Black Atlantic Collection at Duke University is
available at https://sacredart.caaar.duke.edu/.
DEDICATED TO
OLUBUNMI FATOYE- MATORY
ỌMỌ )ṢUN
ỌMỌ ALÁYÒ
ỌMỌ ALÁÙRÍN
AÙRIN ÀYÀN ELÙ
AÙRIN ÀYÁNKÓRO
MÀMÁ AY)
ÌYÁ ADÚMÁRAD*N
OLÓLÙF+ MI
ÒDÒDÓ MI
IYÙN MI
CONTENTS
A Note on Orthography ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
PART I: The Factory, the Coat, the Piano, and the “Negro Slave”:
On the Afro- Atlantic Sources of Marx’s Fetish 4 1
CHAPTER 1: The Afro- Atlantic Context of Historical Materialism 45
CHAPTER 2: The “Negro Slave” in Marx’s Labor Theory of Value 60
CHAPTER 3: Marx’s Fetishization of People and Things 78
CONCLUSION to Part I 91
PART II: The Acropolis, the Couch, the Fur Hat, and the “Savage”:
On Freud’s Ambivalent Fetish 9 7
CHAPTER 4: The Fetishes That Assimilated Jewish Men Make 1 03
CHAPTER 5: The Fetish as an Architecture of Solidarity
and Conflict 117
CHAPTER 6: The Castrator and the Castrated in the Fetishes
of Psychoanalysis 1 45
CONCLUSION to Part II 165
PART III: Pots, Packets, Beads, and Foreigners: The Making
and the Meaning of the Real- Life “Fetish” 1 71
CHAPTER 7: The Contrary Ontologies of Two Revolutions 1 75
CHAPTER 8: Commodities and Gods 191
CHAPTER 9: The Madeness of Gods and Other People 249
CONCLUSION to Part III 285
Conclusion: Eshu’s Hat, or An Afro- Atlantic Theory of Theory 289
Acknowle dgments 325
Notes 331
References 339
Index 349
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A NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY
Throughout this text, I write the names of Nigerian Yorùbá gods in Yorùbá
orthography, of Santería/Regla de Ocha gods in Spanish orthography, of
Candomblé gods in Portuguese orthography, and of Haitian gods in Kweyòl
orthography. While it is the premise of most worshippers that the Nigerian
Yorùbá god of thunder and lightning, Ṣàngó, the Cuban god Changó, and the
Brazilian god Xangô are the same being in dif fer ent places, these cognate
names are pronounced somewhat differently, and each national population
tends to attribute dif fer ent characteristics, emblematic numbers and colors,
and social relationships to the worshipped entity. For example, Brazilian
worshippers tend to regard Xangô as a pleasure- loving “mulatto” (mulato).
And, as one archetype of masculinity, he is contrasted with the dark-s kinned
(negro), humorless, and hard- working Oggún. No such understanding of
racial diversity and personal character shapes Nigerian and Beninese Yorùbá
worshippers’ understanding of Ṣàngó and Ògún.
Of course, a long- running dialogue (Matory 2005) among priests and
scholars of diverse nationalities has created new variations within and over-
laps among these national orthographies. For example, in the lit er a ture on
Santería/Ocha, the name of the goddess of prosperity is equally likely to ap-
pear as “Ayé” (hybrid Spanish- Yorùbá orthography) and “Allé” (Spanish or-
thography). And, in recent times, the name of the Cuban spirit of the drums
(Añá) has been Nigerianized as “Àyàn” (in unwitting contrast to the more
modern Nigerian Yorùbá form, “Ày-n”). In recognition of the fact that the
mythologies and ritual standards of these four related religions have diverged
considerably and have yet to reconverge fully, I tend to favor the more locale-
specific orthography. Two exceptions are “Abakuá” for the Cuban men’s mutual
aid society and “elekes” for the sacred bead necklaces of Cuban Santería/
Ocha, as I do not recall ever having seen these words spelled without the k.
However, in quotes from written texts, I defer to the orthographic choice
of the quoted author. When referring to the conceptual unit defined by the
unity of a West African god, a Brazilian god, a Cuban god, and a Haitian god
as cognates of the same antecedent being, I employ the English-l anguage
orthography. For example, I use the term “orishas” for the conceptual unit that