Karl-Heinz Kohl is Professor Emeritus of Ethnology at Frankfurt Goethe University and former director of the Frobenius institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology in Germany.

Kohl, with his historical ethnological view, succeeds in reading philosophical criticism of culture as the ethnology of his own culture. Karl-Heinz Kohl's work shows very clearly that it is very revealing not to always focus primarily on the actors in a culture, but rather to focus on things as actors: the thing - sacred or banal - is obviously more alive than we think.Dorothee Kimmich (Professor of Modern German Literature, Karl-Eberhard University), Frankfurter Rundschau;This is a highly recommended book, and although it makes good reading it is never superficial. Karl-Heinz Kohl has delivered a sound cultural-historical theory on the sacralization of object. Gebhard Fartacek (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Social Anthropology; With his presence in the established print media of the republic, (Karl-Heinz Kohl) is undisputedly one of the best-known German anthropologists and, not least as a result, one of the most sought-after interlocutors for all those who still think ethnology is a voice worth listening to. Peter Probst (Tufts University), Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie; We must be grateful to Karl-Heinz Kohl for having written a book that while dealing with 'the power of things', approaches these objects from a comparative perspective, indebted as much to ethnographic accounts, as to philosophical, economic and psychoanalytic theory.Gustavo Benavides (Villanova University), Numen.

• Foreword; Chapter 1- The fetishes of the West African coast (The proselyting missions to the Congo; Cultural contact and mimesis; Ancestor figures and fetishes; Twisted images of oneself ); Chapter 2 - The prohibition of images and the Christian cult of relics (On the history of the ban on images in Christianity; The legacy of ancient hero and funerary cults; Relics and altarpieces; Different categories of relics; Effect and use of relics; Reliquaries; Trade, theft and robbery of relics; Relic collections and religious enthusiasm; Criticism by the reformers); Chapter 3 - The invention of fetishism: travelogues and early critiques of religion (Charles de Brosses' concept of fetishism; The concept of fetishism during the Enlightenment; Religious pseudo-service and fetish-making: Immanuel Kant; Fetishism and the rule of tyranny: Hegel in Africa; Le grand-fetiche: Auguste Comte; The return of fetishism in capitalism: Karl Marx; The concept of the fetish in ethnology and psychology; The genesis of sexual fetishism according to Sigmund Freud; The sexualized commodity: a possible synthesis; Chapter 4 - Object genres (On the concept of the object; Classifications of objects; Objects of everyday use; Objects of exchange; Prestige and social distinction; Forms of object exchange; Exchanging gifts; Restricted exchange and simple barter; The hierarchy of objects; Captain Porter's muskets: the history of a transformation; Sacred objects: an initial definition); Chapter 5 - The genesis of sacred objects (Sacred objects as arbitrary signs: preliminary remarks; Jacob and the holy stone of Beth-el ; Searching for visions and sacred bundles among Native Americans; Totem animals and talismans: taking stock; The Aranda's conception of totemism and the stone cult; The BaKongos' minkisi, or what actually are 'fetishes'?; Greek cult images); Chapter 6 - Museum: temple of the muses (The re-ascent of the gods; Collections of antiquities; Treasuries, cabinets of curiosities and rarities; The end of the cabinet of curiosities; The emergence of the first public museums; The object and venue of the presentation; Museum exhibits: modernity's sacred objects?) Index.

Karl-Heinz Kohl is Professor Emeritus of Ethnology at Frankfurt Goethe University and former director of the Frobenius institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology in Germany.

Kohl, with his historical ethnological view, succeeds in reading philosophical criticism of culture as the ethnology of his own culture. Karl-Heinz Kohl's work shows very clearly that it is very revealing not to always focus primarily on the actors in a culture, but rather to focus on things as actors: the thing - sacred or banal - is obviously more alive than we think.Dorothee Kimmich (Professor of Modern German Literature, Karl-Eberhard University), Frankfurter Rundschau;This is a highly recommended book, and although it makes good reading it is never superficial. Karl-Heinz Kohl has delivered a sound cultural-historical theory on the sacralization of object. Gebhard Fartacek (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Social Anthropology; With his presence in the established print media of the republic, (Karl-Heinz Kohl) is undisputedly one of the best-known German anthropologists and, not least as a result, one of the most sought-after interlocutors for all those who still think ethnology is a voice worth listening to. Peter Probst (Tufts University), Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie; We must be grateful to Karl-Heinz Kohl for having written a book that while dealing with 'the power of things', approaches these objects from a comparative perspective, indebted as much to ethnographic accounts, as to philosophical, economic and psychoanalytic theory.Gustavo Benavides (Villanova University), Numen.

• Foreword; Chapter 1- The fetishes of the West African coast (The proselyting missions to the Congo; Cultural contact and mimesis; Ancestor figures and fetishes; Twisted images of oneself ); Chapter 2 - The prohibition of images and the Christian cult of relics (On the history of the ban on images in Christianity; The legacy of ancient hero and funerary cults; Relics and altarpieces; Different categories of relics; Effect and use of relics; Reliquaries; Trade, theft and robbery of relics; Relic collections and religious enthusiasm; Criticism by the reformers); Chapter 3 - The invention of fetishism: travelogues and early critiques of religion (Charles de Brosses' concept of fetishism; The concept of fetishism during the Enlightenment; Religious pseudo-service and fetish-making: Immanuel Kant; Fetishism and the rule of tyranny: Hegel in Africa; Le grand-fetiche: Auguste Comte; The return of fetishism in capitalism: Karl Marx; The concept of the fetish in ethnology and psychology; The genesis of sexual fetishism according to Sigmund Freud; The sexualized commodity: a possible synthesis; Chapter 4 - Object genres (On the concept of the object; Classifications of objects; Objects of everyday use; Objects of exchange; Prestige and social distinction; Forms of object exchange; Exchanging gifts; Restricted exchange and simple barter; The hierarchy of objects; Captain Porter's muskets: the history of a transformation; Sacred objects: an initial definition); Chapter 5 - The genesis of sacred objects (Sacred objects as arbitrary signs: preliminary remarks; Jacob and the holy stone of Beth-el ; Searching for visions and sacred bundles among Native Americans; Totem animals and talismans: taking stock; The Aranda's conception of totemism and the stone cult; The BaKongos' minkisi, or what actually are 'fetishes'?; Greek cult images); Chapter 6 - Museum: temple of the muses (The re-ascent of the gods; Collections of antiquities; Treasuries, cabinets of curiosities and rarities; The end of the cabinet of curiosities; The emergence of the first public museums; The object and venue of the presentation; Museum exhibits: modernity's sacred objects?) Index.