William Pietz

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William Pietz (born 1951) is an intellectual historian and political activist. He is known for his scholarship related to the concept of fetishism.

Contents

Biography

Pietz completed an interdisciplinary Masters in Philosophy and Political Theory from the New School for Social Research, [1] and his PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988. [2] He taught at Pitzer College, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Georgetown University. [3]

Fetishism

Pietz is best known for his account of the colonial origins of the concept of fetishism. It was the subject of his dissertation [2] as well as a series of articles for the journal Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, entitled "The Problem of the Fetish." [4] [5] [6] A collection of Pietz's fetishism essays, including previously unavailable material, was published under that title by University of Chicago Press in 2022. [7]

His work in this area has been characterized as "brilliant" [8] and "fundamental". [9] Referring to his trilogy, David Graeber has characterised Pietz as "one of those rarest of people – an independent scholar whose ideas have had a profound effect on the academy". [10]

Works

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References

  1. "William Pietz". The Globalization Project at the University of Chicago. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. 1 2 Pietz, William (1988). The origin of fetishism: A contribution to the history of theory (Ph.D. diss.). University of California, Santa Cruz. ProQuest   303717649.
  3. Robert S. Nelson; Richard Shiff (2010). Critical Terms for Art History, Second Edition. University of Chicago Press. p. 490. ISBN   978-0-226-57169-0.
  4. Pietz, William (Spring 1985). "The Problem of the Fetish, I". RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. The President and Fellows of Harvard College acting through the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. 9 (9): 5–17. doi:10.1086/RESv9n1ms20166719. JSTOR   20166719. S2CID   164933628.
  5. Pietz, William (Spring 1987). "The Problem of the Fetish, II: The Origin of the Fetish". RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. 13 (13): 23–45. doi:10.1086/RESv13n1ms20166762. JSTOR   20166762. S2CID   151350653.
  6. Pietz, William (1988). "The Problem of the Fetish, IIIa: Bosman's Guinea and the Enlightenment Theory of Fetishism". RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. 16 (16): 105–124. doi:10.1086/RESv16n1ms20166805. ISSN   0277-1322. JSTOR   20166805. S2CID   171174997.
  7. The Problem of the Fetish.
  8. Paul Arnett; William Arnett (2001). Souls Grown Deep: Once that river starts to flow. Tinwood Books. p. 469. ISBN   978-0-9653766-3-1.
  9. Peter Melville Logan (2008). Victorian Fetishism: Intellectuals and Primitives. SUNY Press. p. 145. ISBN   978-0-7914-7728-1.
  10. Graeber, David (2001). "Review of Money and Modernity: State and Local Currencies in Melanesia; Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Spaces". American Ethnologist. 28 (3): 741–743. doi:10.1525/ae.2001.28.3.741. ISSN   0094-0496. JSTOR   3095111.