Fetish is a masculine noun derived from the term fetish, from the French language and can mean a bewitched object or a behavior, body part or object that awakens sexual excitement.
Being a synonym of spell, a fetish can be related to mysticism, representing an amulet or an idol, with obscure origin and with magical or supernatural powers. Some African tribes have certain objects of this kind, which are adored by the people. In the biblical episode in which Moses went up to Mount Sinai to meet God, the people gathered the gold to create a statue of a calf, to later worship him. In this case, the golden calf can be classified as a fetish object.
In the realm of psychology, the fetish has a sexual connotation, representing a specific behavior that finds pleasure in certain activities, objects or parts of the body. One of the most common fetishes is the foot fetish, known as podolatry.
In a figurative sense, the fetish can represent a person admired by another, who is followed and whose orders are blindly obeyed.
Commodity Fetishism
Commodity fetishism is an expression attributed to Karl Marx, being a central and crucial concept of the economic system created by the German philosopher and economist. Marx indicates that thanks to this psychological and social phenomenon, products seem to gain a will of their own, and stop being mere objects and become the target of human adoration. In this way, individuals behave like objects and objects behave like people.