W.J.T. Mitchell

Totemism, Fetishism, Idolatry

Lecture given at the conference "Migrating Images"

W. J. T. Mitchell

W. J. T. Mitchell

netzspannung.org

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Abstract

This paper explores the migration of three categories of uncanny "image-objects," totems, fetishes, and idols, in relation to the stages of imperialism and colonialism (conquest, mercantile exchange, administrative dominance, and globalized capital "flows"). The aim is to show how these categories are rooted in imperial "objectivities" constructed around "secondary beliefs"-- i.e., beliefs about the beliefs of other people. My aim is also to show how these categories of objecthood "come home" and take on a second life in the aesthetic ideologies of empire, especially the category of the aesthetic object as such.

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Date(s)

Organizer

The House of World Cultures

Contact

info@hkw.de

Location

The House of World Cultures, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Germany

URL

» http://www.hkw.de/de…ngimages/c_index.html

Submission

, Jan 26, 2004

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