Fetishism of Commodities

Marx, 1867
[A religious discourse in which the] productions of the human brain appear as independent beings endowed with life, and entering into relations both with one another and the human race ... This I call fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour, so soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities.

Marx, K. Capital. London: Lawrence & Wishar. 1970b (1867):72

Taussig, 1980
The fetishism that is found in the economics of precapitalist societies arises from the sense of organic unity between persons and their products, and this stands in stark contrast to the fetishism of commodities in capitalist societies, which results from the split between persons and the things that they produce and exchange. The result of this split is the subordination of men to the things they produce, which appear to be independent and self-empowered.

Taussig, M. T. The devil and commodity fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press. 1980:37


 * See Fetishism