Haitian Voodoo, Vodun, Vaudin, Voudoun, Vodou, Vaudoux

Note: This video was produced by National Geographic and while it does not show all the aspects of a typical ritual, (there is less dancing and lack of traditional garb) the footage and sound is much better than in many amateur videos that have been taken of other rituals and this video still includes many of the aspects of the system of symbols found in voodoo religion focusing on smaller rituals rather than larger community rituals. Some other rituals are exclusive and secretive and do not allow outsiders to view.




Thanks mostly to the exaggeration and twisting of stories of Hollywood, there are many misconceptions about Voodoo religion. When Americans think of Voodoo they often picture voodoo dolls, dark magic,  and zombies but in reality dark magic is a relatively minuscule part of voodoo religion. Most of the religion of voodoo (also spelled Vodun, Vaudin, Voudoun, Vodou, and Vaudoux)  that is practiced is not dark at all and is called Rada and focuses on kind and benevolent spirits rather than spirits that seek to harm people. While voodoo may appear to an outsider to be a polytheistic religion, most sects of voodoo are actually monotheistic and believe in one supreme being named Bondye and a whole host of spirits which are called Iwa or Loa who act as mediators between Bondye and man. Voodoo is a very ritualistic religion and rituals are performed to ask specific spirits to help the followers of voodoo to gain a greater abundance of food, a higher standard of living or greater health. Voodoo is a decentralized religion with beliefs that vary from place to place. Many communities have their own set of spirits that they call upon that are often different from the spirits of another community. Despite high levels of decentralization, much of the voodoo religion, regardless of where it is practiced, focuses on healing illnesses, many of which are believed to be caused by restless dead ancestors whose souls were not properly recalled at the right time. 

Depiction of ti-bon-ange

Voodoo believes in a two part soul that consists of a gros-bon-ange (big good angel) which is equivalent to the concept of a soul in western traditions except that this soul is much more separate from the body than the western concept of a soul and a ti-bon-ange which means little good angel and is similar to the western conception of the conscience. After death in order for the ti-bon-ange to have a peaceful rest the gros-bon-ange must be returned to the cosmos. In order for this to occur, a particularly expensive ritual must take place in which a large animal such as an ox must be sacrificed in order to appease the ti-bon-ange and release the gros-bon-ange so that it is no longer earthbound. If the gros-bon-ange is not released, it will become restless and cause illness and wreak disaster on the community. Uncontent ancestors are usually found to be the cause of illness and strange behavior. In the video, it is Berto's father that is found as the source of his illness. Berto's father had neglected the spirits of the ancestors and the ancestors were taking it out on his son, Berto. In voodoo, connections are made between ancestors and their families that are still living. While these connections may be arbitrary to many, it gives voodoo practicers a solution to an otherwise puzzling problem, at least a problem that would be puzzling without modern medicine. However even with modern medicine people everywhere are always searching for justification for why bad things happen to people even when they have the scientific answers.

It was the Iwa, Baron Samedi, that led the priest to the root of the problem  The belief that deceased ancestors, if not properly cared for, can wreak havoc on society instills respect and a system that serves to honor the deceased out of necessity for the good of the community. It also sets up a system of reasoning for previously unexplainable phenomena such as how diseases are spread and why people become ill. Explaining the unexplainable by means of the supernatural is a common thread in many religions and serves as one of the fundamental purposes that humans make and follow religions. Such attributions seem particularly common in religions that originated in ancient times.




This voodoo priest is possessed by an Iwa

 There is no religious text or scripture in voodoo but there are many complex rituals that are done for various occasions. Rituals are a central part of the religion and make up a majority of the worship of voodoo and serve as major symbol in and of themselves. Rituals are led by priests or priestesses called houngans or mambos respectively. In the rituals participants dance and call upon the spirits to possess one of the members in attendance to ask that spirit for help in a particular task and to ask for its blessing. The spirits or "Iwa" can posses or "mount" almost any member participating in the ritual. In this case, the spirit Baron Samedi mounts the priest and takes over his body for a short time.While Bondye is seen as a far away god, the spirits are much closer and interact directly with people.  The spirits are often called upon to heal a member of the community. Calling upon spirits to heal people reflects a time when people did not have modern medicine so the causes and cures for illnesses were often a mystery, especially in this West African based religion that was brought over to the new world by slaves to places like Haiti. Instead of looking for cures through medicine, they sought divine help. Group performed rituals worked to unite slaves who did not necessarily all come from the same place but nevertheless had a similar religion. Being a member of a group that holds common beliefs serves to bolster camaraderie and strengthen people who share the hardships of slavery.


Animal sacrifice during a voodoo ritual

 Animal sacrifices are common in voodoo rituals and serve to rejuvenate the Iwa because the Iwa spend a lot of energy in possessing a person. Voodoo followers believe that the release of life created by killing an animal in turn gives the Iwa more life. When the iwa or loa has possessed an individual, that individual may have to drink the blood of the animal in order to satisfy the iwa possessing them. More intense voodoo rituals may require larger animal sacrifices such as oxen or other cattle. Essentially, voodoo followers are feeding the spirits and keeping them content so that the spirits will be more likely to help them. Voodoo followers are very concerned with pleasing the Iwas because the spirits are very picky and require things to be done just right in order for them to agree to help people who ask. Much of voodoo seems highly superstitious but in reality, it is not that different from beliefs in other religions. Sacrifices have played a role in many religions in the past including Christianity and many pagan religions including the Aztec and Mayan religions.

A voodoo priestess (mambo) creates a veve in cornmeal

Veves were not shown in the video but they are drawings usually made in cornmeal on the ground before the start of a ceremony or ritual. Different veves signify different spirits that the group is trying to get in contact with through the ceremony. The drawings invite the spirits to the ceremony.The drawings are then destroyed during the ritual. This art along with rum and fruit and candies are often seen as part of the ceremony or on voodoo altars to make the space more inviting for spirits. Rum and other spirits has long been a part of West and Central African religions as part of a way to create a bridge between our world and the spiritual world, to get into contact with spirits. In the video, the priest poors rum over his own head when he is searching for a spirit to guide the community in the next year. Rum has connections to Africa and the Carribean is well known for its rum as well.  A lot of work goes into attracting spirits because people want spirits to help them and show them favor.


Priest pours rum over his head as part of an attempt to contact the spirits



Drumming is another essential part of the ceremony and provides music and rhythm to dance to while attempting to contact the spirits. It also connects voodoo followers with African roots of the tradition and also roots to the slaves in the Americas, especially the West Indies, who carried on the tradition of drumming, one of the few ways in which slaves were allowed to preserve their culture in the new world. So beyond being a part of the ceremony, drumming is deeply connected to the culture that voodoo sprung from (similar to the roots of drumming seen in the Rastafarian religion). This could be a source of ethnic pride for those who practice voodoo.

Dancing goes hand-in-hand with the drumming and is a necessary part of the ritual. In most rituals all the participants dance, sing and chant to attract spirits to mount one of the participant, but as seen in the video in some smaller rituals, only a few people dance. The dancing may also stem from the west African roots of this religion.

Voodoo religion also borrows from the Catholic faith that was forced upon slaves by missionaries but never really stuck because of lack of Christian infrastructure to maintain the faith. During the time when the practice of voodoo was banned under French rule in Haiti, underground practicing still went on and carried voodoo to where it is now, when it can be openly practiced. However, the Haitians did not leave Catholicism empty-handed. Because of its interaction with Catholicism some iwas are also alternatively called by names of saints found in Catholicism. For example the Iwa called Dumballah is strongly associated with St. Patrick and the Iwa Erzulie (an earth mother spirit) is synonymous with the Virgin Mary according to voodoo. Because of the relationship between voodoo and Catholicism, pictures of Catholic saints are also found on voodoo altars during various rituals.  Many followers of voodoo even nomially call themselves Catholics and some attend masses regularly in addition to practicing voodoo. While Catholicism and Voodoo look incompatible on the surface, people who practice voodoo found a way to fit elements of Catholicism into their own religion. It is surprising that practicers of voodoo did not rebel against Catholicism or completely reject it but rather incorporated it into their existing belief system. Catholic saints afterall, serve a function somewhat similar to the iwas or loas of voodoo, so adding or renaming some spirits must have been a seamless transition. The few similarities in belief systems may also be why some followers of voodoo have no problem following Catholicism in addition to voodoo.

Finally, followers of voodoo are strong believers in fate. They believe that Iwa or Loa determine their lives. Everything that happens, happens because the Iwa have decided it and caused it to happen. This belief results in an unwillingness to struggle for liberation and causes people to be happy with their plot in life. Fatalism may have resulted from the history of the people who practice voodoo in the Caribbean or it may have come out of their belief system, it is hard to tell. It is logical, however to assume that this belief came from slavery, that rather than trying to fight slavery, abuse and discrimination, they just accepted it and perhaps fought it in more underground ways, through the continued practice of voodoo even when it was banned or by calling on spirits to help improve their lives or perhaps even use of the dark magic of voodoo.

Voodoo religion participates in many of the patterns already seen in this class including the use of various art forms in religion, borrowing from other religions, reflections on the culture from which the religion originated, and explanations for the unknown. Haitian Voodoo seems to be the amalgamation of West African pagan traditions translated into the environment of Haiti with incorporation of symbols from the very prevalent Catholic church. Like the Rastafari, voodoo followers show pride in their ethnic origins, however, their pride is manifested in different ways, voodoo followers do not have as many flagrantly counter-culture tendencies as the Rastas do. Where as much of the original purpose of Rastafari was to rebel against white culture and Babylon, Voodoo is more focused on itself, on healing illness and surviving hardship than on rebelling.


For more information on voodoo, visit: http://www.eaec.org/cults/voodoo.htm,
http://webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/voodoo/overview.htm, http://www.allabouttheoccult.org/voodoo-religion.htm,

The Book of Abraham

There are many reasons beyond simply looking at the text that makes the historical accuracy and the validity of Abraham having written the book with his own hand of the Book of Abraham questionable to say the least. For example, the facsimiles that Joseph Smith includes in the book were incomplete to begin with and he filled them in with his own imagination. Furthermore, the hieroglyphics that he claims to have translated never mention Abraham's name and the story that the hieroglyphics actually tell are not even close to what Joseph Smith came up with.

Many Biblical scholars believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible which contains the Genesis story of creation that is recounted in this translation of the supposed works of Abraham. It seems that every translation by Joseph Smith contains a large amount of text that is the exact same as it appears in the Bible perhaps with very subtle changes to fit Joseph Smith's fancy, which seems suspicious to me. Sure stories could have been passed down through the ages but, once again, that they were written in exactly the same phrasing is unlikely. Moses lived 500 years after Abraham. Now it is plausible that Abraham could have written about the creation if it was revealed to him and then passed the story on to Moses who compiled it with other stories to be written in Genesis. So this alone does not suggest that this story was not written in 2000BC.

With a little research it is clear that Joseph Smith used a few anachronisms that would not have been around at the time of Abraham (http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/pearl/abraham/sci_list.html). Such anachronisms include Potiphar's Hill, Chaldeans and calling the King of Egypt Pharaoh. But perhaps Joseph Smith just used the modern day translation, or what Abraham would have been referring to but using the now-common terms for it. Although these anachronisms do weaken the Book of Abraham's argument for validity. It also seems a little bit of a stretch that the Urim and the Thummim that Joseph Smith uses is also used by Abraham nearly 4000 years earlier in a land far away. It is by looking at the text in it's context, or the context that it was allegedly written in and finding anachronisms or things that are known to not have been known or talked about or discovered at the time of the alleged original writing that one can find evidence of the falsehood of authorship in a writing such as this.

Deja Vu?



Jesus' Sermon in the Land Bountiful



Jesus' Sermon on the Mount



One thing that really struck me about The Book of Mormon was the implausibility that on plates hidden in the hills of upstate New York could be written, verbatim, many of the same verses found in the King James Version of the Bible (even if the original script on the plates was written in reformed Egyptian). How likely does that seem? The same ideas written the same way, oceans away from where the original words were written. I suppose the authors of The Book of Mormon could have copied the verses from other writers at the time and then the plates been transferred to the new world. But what about when Jesus gives his sermon on the mount in America, did Jesus really just repeat the same exact thing he said the first time he gave his sermon? This instance may have made more sense in our modern world where the sermon may have been televised or if Jesus had flown to America on a speaking tour. It seems unlikely, although not impossible, to me that the same things would be told to different people and written verbatim thousands of miles away from where it was originally written. 

While I was reading The Book of Mormon, it seemed like a condensed version of the important events and passages of the King James Version of the Bible mashed together with the story of a family line that was previously unheard of in the Bible. The fact that The Book of Mormon directly addresses controversies and problems of 19th century Americans may have made the book seem more legitimate at the time it was written because it was so relevant to the people it was written for, but today it is the source of it's flaws. While Joseph Smith may have been trying to clear up the controversies of the 19th century American, he may have actually been writing himself into a hole, that is, if you believe the Bible to be accurate. Translating plates that almost no one has seen except Joseph Smith himself from a language that no one else in the world has heard of or knows looks suspicious to say the least.

Despite the suspicious nature of its conception, Mormonism serves its purpose, bringing pride to Americans and solving controversies that stood between different church denominations, giving clear cut instructions on debated topics. While I can understand how this religion could make sense to 19th century Americans, I also see it as a dated religion that is not necessarily applicable to people outside that century.

Jesus in America

"American Jesus"

Q: Within this book is narrated the visit of Jesus Christ to the people of Nephi. Consider the way this event is presented and write about how it might be received by Americans living in the 19th and 20th centuries. What in their world might be challenged or better understood after reading this. Make sure you cite and comment on at least one passage.



Jesus visits Native Americans



The people of Nephi must be something special for Jesus to make a special trip to America before his ascension in order to bring them his message. Claiming that Jesus made a special trip to America bolsters pride in 19th and 20th century Americans but also creates challenges of proving his presence and the presence of Mormonism after his coming, before the introduction of European settlers. If Jesus came to the Nephites and taught them to baptize one another and gave them the message of Christianity or Mormonism as stated in the Third Book of Nephi

And it came to pass that he [Jesus] spake unto Nephi, (for Nephi was among the multitude) and he commanded him that he should come forth...And the Lord said unto him, I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people, when I am again ascended into heaven. And again the Lord called others, and said unto them likewise; and he gave unto them power to baptize.

  why were the Native peoples of America not Christian or Mormon to begin with when settlers from Europe came over to America? If Jesus had appeared to the Nephites in the promised land there should be some way to prove that ancient Native Americans had at least known Christ even if the Nephite tribe had ultimately died out before the coming of European settlers. If Jesus has been to America this creates a challenge for 19th and 20th century Americans because they have to find an excuse for why Mormonism did not persist in America until the settlers arrived and why there is no evidence of the practice of Mormonism in early American cultures and tribes. It seems as though, if Mormonism or Christianity had been prevalent at some point in America's history before Europeans came, even if the Mormons or Christians had died out, there should have been some evidence in the culture or traditions of the then current Native Americans due to cultural sharing and exchange.

While claiming that Jesus appeared to those living in America allows Mormons to take comfort in the idea that Native Americans had the opportunity to know and believe in God; it also allows them to take pride in the idea that God loved America so much that he sent Jesus to visit America and preach his message to the Nephites after his crucifixion. America can then be viewed by 19th and 20th century Americans as having an intimate connection with Christ, perhaps even seeing them as a chosen people in a "promised land." We have seen this multiple times before, people finding some way to make themselves more connected to their God and apply their religion to their own social context and make themselves into a chosen and elite race in the context of their religion. Having pride as a group that one's God tends especially to the needs of those living in a particular place can bolster up the group because afterall, who wants to believe in a God that likes another group better than them?

Religion: Bearer of Social Refom

Remember back at the beginning of the term when we read that article called "Why Do We Believe?" about why people create religions and the article gave evolutionary explanations for why people create and follow religions? One of the explanations was that people use religion to make up answers for phenomena and things about our world that they cannot explain. Humans, by nature are curious about the world and they exhibit an inherent need to understand their world, even if that means making up stories to compensate for things that they cannot know. Humans also use religion to unite people and form groups, which is very adaptive since humans are social animals and depend on one another for survival. After having read about at least four different religions, is this still an accurate hypothesis? Can we see these religions in terms of using them to explain the unexplained and as groups that form to promote cooperation and a feeling of unity?



It seems that the last two religions we have studied, beyond answering questions about the unknown, have sought to solve social problems that are prevalent in their social contexts. They serve as vehicles by which people set out to improve society and the followers' position in society. The Rastafari religion began as a way to elevate the status of Afro-Jamaicans if not in the eyes of their white oppressors, at least in their own eyes. Afro-Jamaicans had been oppressed and their culture told them that everything about them was bad and inferior to the whites and white culture. However, they did what they could to turn the stereotypes upside down, fight oppression and find beauty, power and pride in their ethnicity and origins. In a way, the Rastafari could be seen as searching for answers to the unknown, they still have a god-figure and stories to explain phenomena in their world but beyond that they are also searching for social reform. This fight for social reform unites the Rastas under a common goal, forming a group of likeminded people, which can be very adaptive for survival.



Two of Baha'u'llah followers before their martyrdom in 1896 (4 years after Baha'u'llah's death but many of his other followers were killed, tortured, and persecuted during his lifetime)

Two of Baha'u'llah followers before their martyrdom in 1896 (4 years after Baha'u'llah's death but many of his other followers were killed, tortured, and persecuted during his lifetime)

 The Baha'i faith as well, is a vehicle for social reform. Baha'u'llah promotes peace and world unity, gender equality and education for all.  Baha'u'llah even wrote up structures for how to carry out his plans for peace in the world. Baha'u'llah's plans for peace and unity and equality, unlike the Rastafari which had a long tradition of oppression, may have stemmed from discrimination, persecution, torture and oppression seen in his own life, acts committed against him and those near and dear to him. Nonetheless, he saw a need for social change and he used religion as a catalyst to promote the change. While the Baha'i faith does also answer questions of the unknown and has a god-figure, it also prescribes directions for how to act in the world and ideas about how the world should be structured socially. While social interactions wouldn't necessarily be categorized as part of the "unexplainable" or the "unknown" it is adaptive to cooperate and find effective ways of interacting with other humans since we are social animals by nature and must be social in order to survive.

The Baha’i and the Rastafari, more than the other religions we have studied so far, have been used to enact social change. Social reform seems to be higher on the agendas and more central to the belief systems of these two religions rather than just a side note as it seems to be in other religions.

Compassion Unites

While Karen Armstrong envisions compassion as a theme that unites religious traditions, in the faith developed by Baha’u’llah, although he does not specifically talk about compassion, he does promote religious tolerance and nonviolent ways of acting against those in opposition to their religion.

One of the most prevalent themes in Karen Armstrong’s vision is eliminating the intolerance and violence that results from the strict monotheism and intolerance of other religions that is not one's own religion seen in various religions. The Baha'is, at least in the early stages were seen to have religious tolerance at least to some degree. One outsider commented that Baha'u'llah's son and successor spoke tolerantly and intelligently of Christ and Christianity. Baha’u’llah seems to adhere to the idea of religious tolerance and does not promote violence against even those who are enemies of the Baha’is. In one instance some followers of Baha’u’llah acted in violence against Azalís behind Baha’u’llah’s back because they knew that if they would have asked for Baha’u’llah’s counsel on the matter, he would have forbidden the violent behavior.  They acted in violence “despite all that Baha’u’llah had said” (Momen 110). Baha’u’llah obviously does not promote violence but does that mean that he does indeed promote a way of compassion instead?

It can be conjectured from the text that the faith developed by Baha’u’llah does reflect Karen Armstrong’s vision of compassion even though the text does not explicitly say that one should act with compassion toward one another. Baha’u’llah, when he started to make his mission public and began a “series of letters to the kings and leaders of the world announcing his claim to be the one promised in the scriptures of all the religions of the world,” at that time he began “laying down the conditions for peace in the world” (80). While “peace” is not synonymous with compassion, these two concepts often go hand-in-hand, which would lead to the assumption that Baha’u’llah does endorse compassion to some extent.  Baha’u’llah also showed a proclivity for compassion in the development of his faith by being concerned and proactive about the education of children and the equal rights of women. Here we see that Baha’u’llah also teaches the importance of equality and knowledge which may also be seen as elements of compassion.

Ultimately the evidence points to elements of compassion taught by Baha'u'llah in the development of the Baha'i faith.

Where are all the Women?

After reading Rastafari and watching the various video clips in class, I couldn't help but start to notice that something was missing in all the reading and nearly all the video clips. Nearly all the people talked about in the Rastafari religion were men. Women were never mentioned when talking about discussion groups or get togethers. There was only one woman seen in the clip from the boboshanti village. Where were all the women? What is their role and why don't we see them as prominent members in this religious group? Are women just not Rastas or can they be Rastas too but kept hidden?

As it turns out, there are women involved in the Rastafari movement; however, in the early days of the movement especially, women were expected to take on a submissive role to their husbands and stick to domestic roles. Women were seen as childbearers and housekeepers who should look after their "King" (their husband). Women in the movement are not allowed to be leaders and the role of spiritual head of the family is maintained by the father in the family. Women must dress modestly, they are not allowed to wear makeup or fragrances and they must cover their heads when they pray. (For more detailed information see: http://www.jamaicans.com/culture/rasta/race_women.shtml or
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/beliefs/women.shtml ).  One site even claims that women cannot be called to Rastafari except through their husbands. This restriction makes it much more difficult for women to become Rastafarian.

While women are a part of this movement they are expected to behave in a seemingly contradictory manner to the purpose of the movement. While the Rastafari strive for liberation, their women have been stuck in a submissive role. While they still participate in many of the practices of the Rastas, they are more restricted than the men in what they can and cannot do. While the movement is contrary to society in many ways, they still keep their women in traditional gender roles. Keeping women in traditional gender roles reflects Rastafarian adherence to some of the Bible's teachings, in this case teachings in which the male is the head of the household and women are expected to be submissive to him and be childbearers and play the traditional mother role and keep to the domestic sphere (http://jamaica-guide.info/past.and.present/religion/rastafarian/). While today it looks as though women Rastas are gaining ground toward a more equal role in the religion, they still have a ways to go.