One glaring lacuna in studies of Haitian Vodou is the scarcity of works exploring the connection between the religion and its main roots, traditional Yoruba religion. Discussions of Vodou very often seem to present the religion in vacuo, as a sui generis phenomenon that arose in Saint-Domingue and evolved in Haiti, with no antecedents. What is sorely needed then is more comparative studies of Haitian Vodou that would examine its connections to traditional Yoruba religion and thus illuminate certain aspects of its mythology, belief system, practices, and rituals. This book seeks to bridge these gaps. Vodou in the Haitian Experience studies comparatively the connections and relationships between Vodou and African traditional religions such as Yoruba religion and Egyptian religion. Such studies might enhance our understanding of the religion, and the connections between Africa and its Diaspora through shared religious patterns and practices. The general reader should be mindful of the transnational and transcultural perspectives of Vodou, as well as the cultural, socio-economic, and political context which gave birth to different visions and ideas of Vodou. The chapters in this collection tell a story about the dynamics of the Vodou faith and the rich ways Vodou has molded the Haitian narrative and psyche. The contributors of this book examine this constructed narrative from a multicultural voice that engages critically the discipline of ethnomusicology, drama, performance, art, anthropology, ethnography, economics, literature, intellectual history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religion, and theology. Vodou is also studied from multiple theoretical approaches including queer, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, postcolonial criticism, postmodernism, and psychoanalysis.
Introduction: Contemporary and Transnational Vodou, and the African Perspective Celucien L. Joseph and Nixon Cleophat Part I. Vodou, Anthropology, Art, Performance, and the Black Diaspora 1.Roots / Routes / Rasin: Rural Vodou and the Sacred Tree as Metaphor for the Multiplicity of Styles in Folkloric Dance and Mizik Rasin Ann E. Mazzocca 2.Circling the Cosmogram: Vodou Aesthetics, Feminism, and Queer Art in the Second-Generation Haitian Dyaspora Kantara Souffrant 3.Dancing Difference and Disruption: Vodou Liturgy and Little Haiti on the Hill in "Seven Guitars" Barbara Lewis 4.Decoding Dress: Vodou, Cloth and Colonial Resistance in Pre- and Postrevolutionary Haiti Charlotte Hammond Part II. Vodou and African Traditional Religions 5.The African Origin of Haitian Vodou: From the Nile Valley to the Haitian Valleys Patrick Delices 6.New World/Old World Vodun , Creolite, and the Alter-Renaissance Bronwyn Mills 7.The vibratory art of Haiti: a Yoruba heritage Patricia Marie-Emmanuelle Donatien 8.Ethnographic Interpretations of Traditional African Religious Practices and Haitian Vodou Ceremonial Rites in Zora Neale Hurston's (1938) Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Maya Deren's (1983) Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti Tammie Jenkins 9.Oversouls and Egregores in Haitian Vodou Patricia Scheu (Mambo Vye Zo Komande LaMenfo) 10. Arabian Religion, Islam and Haitian Vodou: The "Recent African Single-Origin Hypothesis" and the Comparison of World Religions Benjamin Hebblethwaite and Michel Weber
