The Faces of the Gods

Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti

Bibliographic Data

ID2829676
AuthorsDavid Geggus (University of Florida), Leslie G Desmangles
Year1994
Volume74
Issue1
Pages172
Publication date1994-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2517478
OpenAlexW2320564977
LanguageEN
Citations received43

Vodou, the folk religion of Haiti, is a by-product of the contact between Roman Catholicism and African and Amerindian traditional religions. In this book, Leslie Desmangles analyzes the mythology and rituals of Vodou, focusing particularly on the inclusion of West African and European elements in Vodouisants' beliefs and practices. Desmangles sees Vodou not simply as a grafting of European religious traditions onto African stock, but as a true creole phenomenon, born out of the oppressive conditions of slavery and the necessary adaptation of slaves to a New World environment. Desmangles uses Haitian history to explain this phenomenon, paying particular attention to the role of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century maroon communities in preserving African traditions and the attempts by the Catholic, educated elite to suppress African-based superstitions. The result is a society in which one religion, Catholicism, is visible and official; the other, Vodou, is unofficial and largely secretive. |Desmangles analyzes the mythology and rituals of Vodou, the folk religion of Haiti and a by-product of the contact between Roman Catholicism and African and Amerindian traditional religions. Focusing on the inclusion of West African and European elements in Vodouisants' beliefs and practices, Desmangles shows that Vodou is not merely a grafting of European religious traditions onto African stock, but a true creole phenomenon

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Christianity · Creole language · Elite · Ethnology · Mythology · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies