The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions
In this article, I employ West African ideas of spirited materiality to rethink the semiosis of possession in North Atlantic societies. I investigate this ethnographically through the lens of storage—those things kept out of sight and unused in US attics, basements, closets, and storage units. Thing...
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ftjhau:oai:ojs.haujournal.org:article/410 2023-05-15T17:32:22+02:00 The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions Newell, Sasha College of the Holy Cross, North Carolina State University, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Illinois 2014-12-31 application/pdf text/html application/epub+zip application/octet-stream http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013 https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3.013 eng eng HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1629 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1669 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1670 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1671 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013 doi:10.14318/hau4.3.013 Copyright (c) 2014 Sasha Newell HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory; Vol 4, No 3 (2014); 185–213 2049-1115 10.14318/hau4.3 Anthropology info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2014 ftjhau https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3.013 https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3 2021-12-29T15:35:30Z In this article, I employ West African ideas of spirited materiality to rethink the semiosis of possession in North Atlantic societies. I investigate this ethnographically through the lens of storage—those things kept out of sight and unused in US attics, basements, closets, and storage units. Things contained in storage form a residual category of animated detritus that US society often pathologizes as "hoarding" when it makes public appearances in the visible space of the home or the television set. Arguing that the concept of fetishism is hopelessly tied to the "naturalist" divide of Western rationality and the dichotomy between persons and things, I argue that objects typically labeled as fetishes are not fetishized, but rather reflect a cosmology of material entities as containers for spirit. By constructing an ethnographic model of the unfetish in West Africa, I explore the sociality of possessions as belongings that truly belong. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic HAU - Journal of Ethnographic Theory (University of Manchester) HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 3 185 213 |
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Open Polar |
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HAU - Journal of Ethnographic Theory (University of Manchester) |
op_collection_id |
ftjhau |
language |
English |
topic |
Anthropology |
spellingShingle |
Anthropology Newell, Sasha The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
topic_facet |
Anthropology |
description |
In this article, I employ West African ideas of spirited materiality to rethink the semiosis of possession in North Atlantic societies. I investigate this ethnographically through the lens of storage—those things kept out of sight and unused in US attics, basements, closets, and storage units. Things contained in storage form a residual category of animated detritus that US society often pathologizes as "hoarding" when it makes public appearances in the visible space of the home or the television set. Arguing that the concept of fetishism is hopelessly tied to the "naturalist" divide of Western rationality and the dichotomy between persons and things, I argue that objects typically labeled as fetishes are not fetishized, but rather reflect a cosmology of material entities as containers for spirit. By constructing an ethnographic model of the unfetish in West Africa, I explore the sociality of possessions as belongings that truly belong. |
author2 |
College of the Holy Cross, North Carolina State University, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Illinois |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Newell, Sasha |
author_facet |
Newell, Sasha |
author_sort |
Newell, Sasha |
title |
The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
title_short |
The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
title_full |
The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
title_fullStr |
The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
title_full_unstemmed |
The matter of the unfetish: Hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
title_sort |
matter of the unfetish: hoarding and the spirit of possessions |
publisher |
HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013 https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3.013 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory; Vol 4, No 3 (2014); 185–213 2049-1115 10.14318/hau4.3 |
op_relation |
http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1629 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1669 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1670 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013/1671 http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau4.3.013 doi:10.14318/hau4.3.013 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2014 Sasha Newell |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3.013 https://doi.org/10.14318/hau4.3 |
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HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory |
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4 |
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3 |
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185 |
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213 |
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