Haitian Vodou

by Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780253218537
• ISBN10: 0253218535
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-14
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Haitian Vodou breaks away from European and American heuristic models for understanding a religio-philosophical system such as Vodou in order to form new approaches with an African ethos. The contributors to this volume, all Haitians, examine the potentially radical and transformative possibilities of the religious and philosophical ideologies of Vodou and locate its foundations more clearly within an African heritage. Essays examine Vodou's roles in organizing rural resistance; forming political values for the transformation of Haiti; teaching social norms, values, and standards; influencing Haitian culture through art and music; merging science with philosophy, both theoretically and in the healing arts; and forming the Haitian "manbo," or priest.

Author Biography

Patrick Bellegarde-Smith is Professor of Africology at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is author of Haiti: The Beached Citadel and In the Shadow of Powers: Dant+¿s Bellegarde in Haitian Social Thought, and editor of Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in the New World. He is a houngan asogwe, a priest of Vodou.

Claudine Michel is Professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is author of Aspects Educatifs et Moraux du Vodou Haitien and co-author of Th+¬ories du D+¬veloppement de l'Enfant: Etudes Comparatives. She edits the Journal of Haitian Studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	xvii
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Claudine Michel
Vodun and Social Transformation in the African Diasporic Experience: The Concept of Personhood in Haitian Vodun Religion	1	(6)
Guerin C. Montilus
Shadow-Matter Universes in Haitian and Dagara Ontologies: A Comparative Study	7	(12)
Reginald O. Crosley
Broken Mirrors: Mythos, Memories, and National History	19	(13)
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Of Worlds Seen and Unseen: The Educational Character of Haitian Vodou	32	(13)
Claudine Michel
Vodun, Music, and Society in Haiti: Affirmation and Identity	45	(13)
Gerdes Fleurant
Vodoun, Peasant Songs, and Political Organizing	58	(12)
Renald Clerisme
From the Horses' Mouths: Women's Words/Women's Worlds	70	(15)
Claudine Michel
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Marlene Racine-Toussaint
Rainbow over Water: Haitian Art, Vodou Aestheticism, and Philosophy	85	(18)
Marc A. Christophe
A Reading of the Marasa Concept in Lilas Desquiron's	103	(9)
Les Chemins de Loco-Miroir
Florence Bellande-Robertson
Herbs and Energy: The Holistic Medical System of the Haitian People	112	(22)
Max-G. Beauvoir
Conclusion	134	(5)
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Claudine Michel
Appendix: Table of Haitian LWA	139	(4)
Bibliography	143	(8)
List of Contributors	151	(2)
Index	153