This lecture by Anne Lafont will be an opportunity to revisit the definition of the fetish, in different times of history, and what these objects call for on a theoretical level in order to understand their social functioning.
This conference will offer an opportunity to revisit the definition of the fetish at different points in history, and to examine what these imbued objects, these powerful objects, these god-things, these god-objects—to use the anthropological terms that have attempted to define their nature outside the colonial lexicon—require theoretical consideration in order to understand their social function from the West African coast around 1500 to their Marxist appropriation in the mid-19th century.
Anne Lafont is an art historian and Director of Studies at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) at the Centre for Research on Arts and Language (CRAL - EHESS/CNRS). Her research focuses on the art, images, and material culture of the Black Atlantic, as well as on historiographical questions related to the notion of African art. She is the author of *Art and Race*. The African (everything) against the eye of the Enlightenment and his latest work, co-edited with François-Xavier Fauvelle, is entitled Africa and the world. Reconnected histories from prehistory to the 21st century, Paris, La découverte, 2022.
Anne Lafont is an art historian and Director of Studies at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) at the Centre for Research on Arts and Language (CRAL - EHESS/CNRS). Her research focuses on the art, images, and material culture of the Black Atlantic, as well as on historiographical questions related to the notion of African art. She is the author of *Art and Race*. The African (everything) against the eye of the Enlightenment and his latest work, co-edited with François-Xavier Fauvelle, is entitled Africa and the world. Reconnected histories from prehistory to the 21st century, Paris, La découverte, 2022.
