noun
Academic term in anthropology and religious studies for the worship of an object believed to have supernatural powers. Not used for sexual fetishism.
物神崇拝は、原始宗教の一形態として研究されている。
Fetishism is studied as a form of primitive religion.
The loanword フェティシズム is more common in modern Japanese and can refer to both religious fetishism and sexual fetishism, while 物神崇拝 is a technical term limited to the religious sense.
Compound of 物神 (fetish, object believed to have spiritual power) and 崇拝 (worship). The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the term is used in academic contexts.