Religiosità e secolo dei Lumi: nascita del concetto di feticcio

Some scholars consider Enlightenment the age when the concept of laicity starts. In fact in the XVIIIth century ideas and religious institutions deeply develop and distinguish two different tendencies: religious tolerancy and new forms of fanaticism. According to Charles de Brosses’s theories and his treaty on fetish, this article proposes to find out what his concept of religiosity is, particularly in a comparative analysis of ancient peoples and his century. In his paperbook Du culte des dieux fétiches ou Parallèle de l’ancienne Religion de l’Égypte avec la Religion actuelle de Nigritie (1760), de Brosses shows his point of view about all the primitive African peoples compared to other similar forms of religiosity which have not evolved from ancient times. He dislikes any form of «childish» religion and creates a sort of parallel between different times and places which share events and rites. Men and their rational thoughts represent the only reference for the author who reveals all his rational ideology.