I have called the oldest form of religion fetichism. The term is defined by Max Muller as "superstitious veneration, felt and testified for mere rubbish." It really means veneration for the material and phenomenal as such, without any regard to, or even consciousness of, the existence of anything behind the phenomenal. It is the worship of matter. Now, this is not only the oldest form of human religion, but it is the form in which religion exists among the lower animals. When a lion runs away from an umbrella suddenly opened, or when a horse shies at an approaching train, this is fetich worship. In man, pure fetich worship is possible only in the very lowest phases of intelligence, such as are met with in some tribes on this continent and in Asia. Such tribes are said to be utterly without religion or God; and this, in a certain sense, is true. Their religion is pure superstition, and their God is matter, in the form of amulets and talismans. Of these, some are personal, others tribal. Fetichism is the religion of the senses, and of men living a purely, or almost purely, sensuous and material life.
in The Index.
