The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-02-08
Fetichism in Animals.

: Sociology" tTeSts OF the apoFe suDJess
He says: i believe NJ. Comte express
: the opinion that fatichistic conception
are formed by the higher animals. Hold
i ing, as have given reason for doirg
, that fetictism is not original but deriyefl
I cannot, of course, coincide in this yleEy
Nevertheless, / think the behavior g
intelligent animals elucidates the geneEs
} of it. have myself witnessed in dos
two Illustrative cases. One OF theFss
cases consisted ia large dog, which'
while playing with stick, accidentally
thrust one end Of it against his palssf.
when, giving yelp, he dropped the sflsi'
rushed to a distance from it and betrafed
CONSERVATION which was particularly
laughable in 50 feroe;ous-looking a
ture, Only after cautious apns 90 g
and much hesitatioh was he fEdncsd
again to lay hold OF the stick. This be-
havior showed very clearly the fact that
the stick, while displaying none but the
properties he was familiar with, was not
regarded by him as an active agent, but
that when it suddenly inflicted g pain in
a way never before experienced from an
inanimate object, he was led for the
moment to class it with animate objects,
and to regard it as capable of again doing
him injury. Similarly in the mind of the
primitive man, knowing scarcely more of
natural csusation tHan dog, the anomal-
Gus behayi9r Of an object previously
classed SIS inanimate, suggests animation.
The idea Of voluntary action is made
nascent; and there arises a tendency to
regard the object with alarm, lest it
should act IN some other unexpected and
perhaps mischieyous way, The vague
notion Of animation thus aroused will
obviously become a more definite notion,
as fast a. development Of the ghost. theory
furnishes q specific agency to which the
anomalous behavior can be ascribed."
/ The other case observed by Mr.. Spen-
I Ger was that of an intelligent retriever.
Being by her duties as a retriever led to
associate the fetching of game with the
/ pleasure Of the person to whom she
brought it, this had become in her mind
an act of propitiation and 50, after
wagging her tail and ginning, she would
perform this act OF propitiation as nearly
as practicable in the absence of a dead
bird. Seeking about, she would pick up
q dead leaf or other small object, and
would bring it with renewed manifesto
tions of friendliness. Some kindred state
of mind it is which, believe, prompts
the sewage to certain feticbistic obser-
vauces of an anomalous kind"
These observations remind me of
several experiments which l made some
years ago on this subject, and which are
perhaps worth publishing. I was led
to make the experiments by reading the
instance given in the " Descent of Man"
of the large dog which Mr.. Darwin OBJ
served to bark at parazol ~ it
was moved along q lawn By the
wind-so presenting the appearance of
animation. The dog on which expeh. |
mented was Skye terrier--a remarkably |
intelligent animal-whose psychological |
faculties have already formed the subject |
of several communications to this and
other periodicals. As al my experiments |
yielded the same results, / will only |.
mention one. The terrier in question,
like many other dogs, used to play with
dry bones by tossing them in the air,
throwing them to a distance, and gener-
ally giving them the appearance of ami
nation, in order to give himself the ideal
pleasure of worrying them On one
occasion, therefore, tied long and fiue
thread to q dry bone and gave him the |
latter to play with After he had tossed /
it about for short time, | took an
opportunity when it had fallen at q |
distance from him and while ne was
following it up, OF gently drawing it /
away from him by means Of the long and 1
invisible thread. Instantly his demeanor
changed. The bone which he had pre-.
viously pretended to be alive Low began
to look as if it really were alive, and his |
astonishment knew no bounds. He first I
approached it with nervous caution, as
Mr.. Spencer describes, but as the slow |
recediDg motion continued, and he be
came quite certain that the movement /
could not be accounted for by any of the
residuum of force which he had himself /
communicated, his astonishment devel- |
oped into dread, and he ran to
conceal himself under some articles +
Of furniture, there to behold
at distance the "uncanny" spectacle
of dry bone coming to life.
Now, in this and in all my other ex-
periments, l have no doubt that the
behavior of the terrier arose from his
sense o. the mysterious, for he was of a
highly pugnacious disposition, and never
hesitated to fight sn animal of any size
or ferocity; but, apparently, symptoms
of spontaneity in an inanimate object
which he knew SO well. gave rise to
feelings Of awe and horror which quite
enervated him. And that there was
nothing fetichistic in these feelings may
be safely concluded if We reflect, with
Mr.. Spencer, that the dogs knowledge
OF causation, for all immediate purposes,
being quite as correct and ne less stereo-
typed than is that of primitive man."
when an object of class which he knew
from a uniform past experience to be
inanimate suddenly began 10 move, he
must have felt the same oppressive and
alarming sense of the mysterious which
uncultured persons feel under similar
circumstances. But, further, in the case
Of this terrier we are not left with
rriOri inferences alone to settle this
point, for another experiment proved
that the sense of the mysterious was IN
this animal sufficiently strong of itself to
account for his behavior. Taking him
into a carpeted room I blew sesp-
bubble, and by means of a fitful draught
made it internationally glide along the
floor. He became at once IN
tensely interested, but seemed unable
to decide whether or not the
filmy object was alive. At first be was
very cautious and followed it only 81
distance, but as I encouraged him 10
examine the bubble more closely ne ap-