The Fetish Revisited

“J. Lorand Matory's latest book is an all-time glorious masterpiece.” - Robert Farris Thompson, author of Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy

“J. Lorand Matory's The Fetish Revisited is a brilliant tour de force that links nineteenth-century fantasies about blackness and the power of the fetish with many of the underlying currents of the twentieth century, from Marxism to psychoanalysis. Matory's work consistently contrasts such views with the ‘fetish objects’ themselves, the products of African religions and cultures, their inherent meanings and functions, and their appropriation within the intellectual world of expanding European colonialism. An important addition to the analysis of racial thought in Europe showing how the underlying objects that seemed to inspire Marx and Freud had an autonomous and powerful function quite separate from their role in the two men's thought.” - Sander L. Gilman, coauthor of Are Racists Crazy? How Prejudice, Racism, and Antisemitism Became Markers of Insanity

"J. L. Matory provides a critical and provocative account of how the concept of the fetish has been appropriated and used as a key concept in the writings of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The work is especially strong in demonstrating the fantastical appropriations of the idea of the fetish, plucked from the complex and rich contexts of meaning and agency in transatlantic black religion. . . . . A fascinating, readable, and wandering book. .  . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." - G. E. Marcus, Choice

"Matory’s The Fetish Revisited is a masterful work, stunning in its erudition, ambitious argument, and prodigious ethnographic detail." - Laura S. Grillo, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Overall, Matory’s The Fetish Revisited is meticulously researched, provocative, artfully written, and compelling. . . . While certainly aimed at students of Marx and Freud, Matory’s text will certainly serve as an important marker for the field of religious studies and anthropology at-large." - Alejandro Stephano Escalante, Reading Religion

"The Fetish Revisited is an important book and a pleasure to read." - Steven Engler, Studies in Religion

“[This] book makes an important move to assess the social theories of Marx and Freud according to criteria proper to the Afro-Atlantic religions [Matory] considers. . . . This intervention encourages reflection on how theory is taught, and distinguished from belief or worldview, particularly in African Studies, Africana Studies, and Anthropology.”

"... [Matory] offers important insights into the Afro-Atlantic origins and makings of fetishes and into the unequal relations they comprise. One of the great merits of this book is that it takes Afro-Atlantic things, practices, and voices as theory and not merely as something to be described and analyzed." - Benedikt Pontzen, Anthropos

"Matory demonstrates an impressive intellectual and analytical power throughout his exposition in this book as he delves into some aspects of Western systems, social theory, ethnological schadenfreude, and lopsided ambivalence in central Europe." - Kwaku Nti, Journal of Global South Studies

"Matory's The Fetish Revisited is a well-researched and provocative work that combines academic research with a deep intellectual reflection in a work mainly directed to the disciples of Freud and Marx, but amazingly insightful into the fields of religious studies, anthropology, ethnology and meta-theory." - Cyril-Mary Pius Olatunji and Fracis Kayode Fabidun, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

"The Fetish Revisited is a truly innovative and ambitious text. . . . I argue that it has a great deal to contribute to the ongoing decolonization of comparative methodologies, especially in the field of comparative philosophy. While an exemplary case of cultural anthropology, the rich interdisciplinarity of The Fetish Revisited offers comparative philosophers an illustration of how to put into question our very own inherited categorical frameworks of thought against the grain of the coloniality of knowledge." - Rafael Vizcaino, Philosophy and Global Affairs

"Scholars and students working in African-diasporic cultural studies would gain the most from Matory’s text, but this thought-provoking book also has much to contribute to the fields of religious studies, anthropology, and social theory." - Scott Timcke, Caribbean Quarterly

"The Fetish Revisited is a long essay, full of relevant details on parenthood, on ritual meanings, and on the balance between masculine and feminine. In this notable book, Marx and Freud dance with Afro-Atlantic brides, horsemanship, monarchy, vessels, and trade beads, with their own piano, cigars, intaglio rings, and coats." - João Ferreira Dias, African Studies Review