Vodou is a religion that is often misrepresented because of mainstream Hollywood movies. It is a religion that remains an enigma to outsiders, and as a consequence, many incorrect assumptions are made about its practices. To outsiders, Vodou may seem to be based on cursing others with voodoo dolls, sacrificing animals or people, and even being possessed by the devil. However, that is not the case in Mama Lola where an outsider, Karen McCarthy Brown is given an inside view on this secretive religion. Vodou is not as simple as popular culture insinuates, it is a complex religion that involves integrating magic, marriage, possession, and the role of women. Magic, or maji is an important part of the Vodou religion. Priestesses practice by using a combination of fèy …show more content…
These components can be used for conducting public ceremonies, or as personal favors. Modern society perceives magic to be something that is abstract, or something that has no concrete explanation. However, that is not the case where in Vodou, magic is used by members of a certain group to explain the practices of a different group (Brown 188). For example, people in a southern Haiti would describe the religious practices of northern Haiti as maji, since they are from different areas. Additionally, maji can be used to explain the Petwo ceremonies that are often practiced in Vodou (Brown 188). Petwo gods are known to be dangerous, and working with their magic powers are extremely risky. Different kinds of maji are practiced differently according to gender, women tend to focus on love magic which involve controlling the will of others, while men go into professions as magicians called “Bòkò” (Brown 189). As a child, I enjoyed going to the park every Sunday to
Although the thought of being involved in such rituals is scary, I developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for the practices that Haitian voodoo participants, if it is appropriate to refer to such people as, engage in. The most impressive bit of information that I will keep with me is to be less judgmental of others; “people who practice voodoo believe in the same God as Christianity, but they also believe in communicating with other spirits, who serve various roles in healing, casting spells, and more” (Boudreaux, 2015a, p. 110). As a golden rule, I know that I should not be judgmental of others anyway, but I am human and am prone to quickly create stereotypes in my mind. I don’t always share those thoughts, but thinking makes me just as guilty as doing or saying. I am thankful for the reminder that all people are children of God, and I should research and learn about different beliefs before I make a judgmental decision, if I make that judgment at
In the Voodoo religion, a priestess hosts a number of different ceremonies each year. During these ceremonies, one of the people present (usually the priestess herself) is supposedly possessed by one or more spirit(s) who then communicates with the rest of the people present. A typical example of a Voodoo ceremony is that described in the book Mama Lola by Karin McCarthy Brown. Here, Mama Lola, as this voodoo priestess is known, lives in Brooklyn and does all she can to stay faithful to her Haitian religion. After inviting her voodoo ‘family’ for what will be the birthday celebration of the spirit Azaka, all members, important and close gather to help set up the intricate and festive alter in the basement of Mama...
Religion is a pervasive theme in most of the literary works of the late Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor. Four of her short stories in particular deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the Southern Bible Belt: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "The River," "Good Country People," and "Revelation." Louis D. Rubin, Jr. believes that the mixture of "the primitive fundamentalism of her region, [and] the Roman Catholicism of her faith . . ." makes her religious fiction both well-refined and entertaining (70-71). O'Connor's stories give a grotesque and often stark vision of the clash between traditional Southern Christian values and the ever-changing social scene of the twentieth century. Three of the main religious ingredients that lend to this effect are the presence of divine meanings, revelations of God, and the struggle between the powers of Satan and God.
The Cross-Cultural Articulations of War Magic and Warrior Religion by D. S. Farrer, main purpose of this article is to provide a re-evaluated perspective of religion and magic, through the perspective of the practitioners and victims. Farrer uses examples that range from the following: “Chinese exorcists, Javanese spirit siblings, Sumatran black magic, Tamil Tiger suicide bombers, Chamorro spiritual re-enchantment, tantric Buddhist war magic, and Yanomami dark shamans” (1). Throughout the article, he uses these examples to address a few central themes. The central themes for war magic, range from “violence and healing, accomplished through ritual and performance, to unleash and/or control the power of gods, demons, ghosts and the dead” (Farrer 1).
In Western culture magic has been traditionally viewed negatively. The word often conjures up images of witches, spells, cults, and dark rituals. As Malidoma displays, in Dagara culture, along with most traditional African culture, magic is viewed positively and is at the core of religion.
In all of human history, people have written about inhuman beings, many of which include gods, demons, wizards, sorcerers, sorceresses, and witches. Nowadays mystical beings are seen everywhere in media. Most of society stopped believing in these creatures years ago, but for 17th-century Salem, witchcraft became a living nightmare (Fremon, 1999).
Sabina Magliocco, in her book Witching Culture, takes her readers into the culture of the Neo-Pagan cults in America and focus upon what it reveals about identity and belief in 21st century America. Through her careful employment of ethnographic techniques, Magliocco allows both the Neo-Pagan cult to be represented accurately, and likewise, scientifically. I argue that Magliocco's ethnographic approach is the correct way to go about this type of research involving religions.
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Thompson writes "Vodou is "... one of the signal achievements of people of African descent in the western hemisphere a vibrant, sophisticated synthesis of the traditional religions of Dahoney, Yorubaland, and Kongo with an infusion of Roman Catholicism. What is more, vodun has inspired a remarkable tradition of sacred art". He describes the historical events that shaped the Creole religion with Dahoney, Yorubaland and Kongo religions.
In the novel Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a character named Beatrice also known as Mama, has many dynamic traits. Mama is a religious woman who respects and highly prioritizes her family. Mama’s husband Eugene becomes more abusive toward her children and herself which causes her to lose her unborn baby. In Mama’s mind and heart, she knows she has to protect her children so she makes the decision to poison Eugene. Mama’s character changes throughout the book, as she first starts as a very quiet and caring character but as Eugene’s abusiveness increases, it develops her into becoming a perpetrator that caused her to be very depressed.
Voudon is the religion that was practiced that involved several cultural elements to make up the religion. There are personal creeds and practices that make up the Voudon religion. Along with these creeds and practices, Voudon also involves folk medicine that is used to aide in the healing of the believers. The believers of the Voudon religion use songs, folklore, proverbs, and stories to pass down the beliefs of their religion to their future generations of believers. The Voudon religions origins are not exactly known but it is believed to have originated from West Africa. According to the article Voodoo a Legitimate Religion, Anthropologist Says "Voodoo beliefs spread from Africa's shores to America on slave ships"( http://news.nationalgeographic.com). As the Voudon religion grew and cross the seas it began to change. This change occurred because of different beliefs from the different people from different parts of the world. "Voodoo is a fusion of religious practices from Africa that often takes on different characteristics and emphases when practiced in various locations"(http://www.religionfacts.com). There many influences to include other religions like Christianity and Catholism that had some influence on the Voudon
In the United States, we look mainly at mainstream religion and don't even look much into other religions apart from our own. Vodou is occasionally depicted as very dark, so it's not given the light of day, to learn about the religion itself. But in Karen McCarthy Brown's book, Mama Lola, she talks about Vodou and the connectedness people have to the religion and the spirits in Vodou. In the excerpt of Mama Lola, Brown talks about how Vodou is a religion that empowers women, more frequently than other religions throughout the world; but there are still constraints on gender, social class, and race. Throughout the excerpt we learn about the ways spirits help the people who practice Vodou in their everyday lives, especially women.
Miner stated that “looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to higher stages of civilization” (1956, p.507). This tells us that if we can see and understands everything that happens around us then we can move up but if we don’t then we can never advance in our life. This paper aims to talk about the relation of the body ritual among the Nacirema to the concepts of cultural relativism and cultural invisibility, to post materialism and culture of consumption.
There is little to no magic about them except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them
Some witches have great knowledge of how to make herbal potions and charms. A potion is a drink that causes a desired effect in person’s health or behavior. A charm is a magical incantation (word or phrase), or amulet that helps to bring about the desired effect. The practice of Wicca—Witchcraft as a religion flourishes primarily in English-speaking loosely organized in groups called covens. Some covens are made up of only women or only men. And other covens are mixed. Many Witches do not join a cove but practice alone as solitaries.