Voodoo is a system of spirit worship brought to Haiti by slaves from Africa. In 1791, leaders of a slave revolt against France held a secret voodoo meeting in a mountain above Cap Haitian at which they dedicated their country to evil spirits. After their victory over Napoleon’s armies in 1804, they attributed their success to voodoo. As recently as 2004, then President Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, renewed this vow. People who practice voodoo believe that everything, good or bad, happens at the whim of spirits.…
The documentary ‘Zombie: Haiti’s Longstanding Tradition’ (Zombie: Haiti’s Longstanding Tradition, 2005) contained information regarding the original Haitian version of Zombies and how they are created. Some other things also featured in this film include how “zombie powder” is made, how people are brought back from the brink of death, and how people are forced to become these “zombies” so that people may use them as slaves. The idea of zombies has been a part of our world since the 8th century. In fact, the word zombie has been derived from zonbi, which was “used in the Louisiana Creole or the Haitian Creole that represents a person who died and was then brought to life without speech or free will,” (Ahmadmad, 2013).…
I believe that the two people that are mostly responsible for the witchcraft is Tituba and Abigail. Because they were both dancing in the woods naked. Also that they had a fire in the middle with a cooking pot and Betty had fainted during them dancing. Their is many quotes that prove that Tituba and Abigail did witch craft together.…
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism: Christianity vs. Voodoo The way we view different cultures can determine our own sense of belonging in our own cultural groups. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are the two main ways to compare cultures. Neither one is better than the other, there are benefits to each. After defining these terms, Christianity and Voodoo will be compared using these methods.…
Marie Laveau is an important figure in Louisiana Voodoo, a religion largely formed from Western African religion and various cultures from the area (including Spanish and French) (Nickell). Among fifteen Voodoo Queens in New Orleans during the 1800s, Laveau is the most prominent and the most noteworthy (Nickell). She was born free in 1794 to a Creole woman and a white man (Nickell). Much of Marie Laveau’s life is uncertain as a great amount of legend surrounds the icon.…
She began her research by studying the words used to explain biological misfortunes and words used in ordinary conversation about death, sterility and illness in animals and humans. Ordinary misfortunes in Bocage, France is accepted as on-off do not call for more then a single comment. On the other hand, an attack by witchcraft provides a pattern to these misfortunes thus when there is a series of misfortunes the country men approach qualified people for a interpretation and a cure. These curators are said to proclaim the causes of the misfortunes, but this seems incomplete for some people as it merely affects the cause and not the origin of the problems. The author states three different interpretations the types priest can choose between (1) he can dismiss the misfortunes as part of the natural order, (2) he can acknowledge that misfortunes pertain to supernatural order but are effect of divine love, (3) or he can interpret the misfortunes as the work of evil.…
It is important to establish the view of the Zande, the background behind their belief and how they were formulated. The Zande live in north central Africa with a concentration in Sudan of nearly half a million people with sources indicating a total Zande population to be nearly two million, the Zande have settled as craft workers in and around the lower Nile-Congo River gap.(Everyculture.com, 2016) As a distinct tribe in the heart of Africa, the Zande have encountered a fair share of adjustments to neighbours. Like numerous different encounters of incorporations, the Zande have seen trouble in framing collective set of ideals amongst its people.…
We have to look at someone else’s culture through their culture lens. That deals with all aspects of life no matter a person’s occupation. On November 19, 2015, I went to a lecture by Dr. Angela Bratton called, “Witchdoctors, Relationship, and the Body.” At the lecture, she had discussed topics like culture, witchdoctors, relational issues, diseases, and among other things. Dr. Bratton talked about Cultural Anthropology.…
Grijspaarde’s article addresses how practices of witchcraft influences Sierra Leone’s politics, economy, and poverty alleviation. One observation noted in this study was that the practice of witchcraft rose proportionally with the rise of capitalism. While western media have conditioned our minds to conjure witchcraft as a satanic ritual, part of the qualitative data reveals that witchcraft was used to fill in the “uncertainties reflecting unresolved social conflict over norms”(Grijspaarde 2012). It was interesting to read the gravity of influence in which witchcraft played in a community setting. According to the article, even educated judges believed in witches.…
The swedish witch is a tradition that is originated and celebrated in sweden. They worship to the swedish easter witch which went to the top of the mountain and had sex with satin. A mini halloween takes place on either the thursday or sunday before easter, little girls dress up in rags and old clothes, big skirts and shawls and go door to door with copper kettles looking for treats. They get their whole family together and they talk and gather and get lunch ready which usually consIf you're invited to a Swedish lunch at a summer house or elsewhere, you might be wondering why on earth there are vases filled with bunches of twigs covered in feathers. In fact, Swedes have been decorating small birch tree branches like this since the 1800s.…
In Leslie Marmon Silko’s, Ceremony, Emo liked to point out the “dusty wind,” the white people had left with them and to say “’Look what is here for [the Indians]’” (23). Emo’s attitude toward the wind and the white people shows a desire to experience the white peoples’ lives rather than his own culture. Throughout the novel, Silko establishes that this desire is a product of witchery that the Indians created. Moreover, throughout the novel the appearance of wind often correlates with the appearance of witchery.…
This journal article was written to explore the benefits and effectiveness of betel alkaloids on the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The betel alkaloids were derived from the plant Areca carechu, which is said to have an antipsychotic effect and could alleviate some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Coppola did a literature review of three clinical studies and observations that used Areca carechu, to observe the effectiveness of it antipsychotic effect. The results of Coppola’s analysis found that males that consumed larger amounts of betel alkaloids had lower rates of delusions and hallucinations. The article written by Coppola was well-written and very informative.…
Haiti is one of a Caribbean island. Haiti shares an island with Dominican Republic a Hispanic island. Haiti had at least 1.5 million people that left the country because how the government is set up. Haiti is a unique country because of their population and their sport, Soccer. Haiti Culture is one of the most importance’s in Caribbean Island.…
This book review is going to be looking the work of Catherine Bell in her book ‘Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice’. In this book, Bell looks at people’s curiosity with rituals and the pre-existing notions of rituals. Bell hashes out the argument on connections that make a discourse on ritual to compel cultural activity studies. Bell acknowledges that there hasn’t really been any analysis of the term ritual that has presented forward one definitive definition, that shows its role in the way people think around religion and culture. Bell across her book argues her thesis that ritual doesn’t control individuals or societies with no consensus.…
Prior to the age of religious reformation and the Late Middle Ages, witchcraft did not hold such a negative connotation. In fact, it was divided into two – white magic and black magic. White magic was used by healers, wise men and women, as well as others who fit this category. Black magic, on the other hand, were practiced by those who sought to harm others, thus used their abilities for evil. It was this kind of magic that got a person labelled as a witch rather than the titles used for the practitioners of white magic.…