fetish

n. 1. An object toward which an individual feels strong sexual arousal which is not usual within the person's culture. 2. A manufactured object believed to have power over other people, often containing the blood, hair, or other body part of the person being controlled. 3. In economics, the definition of social relations through the exchange values placed on different commodities, which are often very different from their use values. Thus ownership of a status symbol like a BMW is given a value larger than its utility, which is a primitive form of religious belief since it is irrational from a utilitarian point of view.