| Popis: |
This chapter is not the result of meticulous ethnological observations that we have made on Haitian soil. It does not pretend to dispense with the study of works such as those of J. P. Price-Mars, Metraux, Emmanuel, and C. Paul.1 Our debt to these authors and to certain works of the Bureau of Ethnology in Port-au-Prince is great. It would have been preferable to present our own observations, but the Catholic Church and our own education were hindrances to our participation in Vodou ceremonies. Having lived in the country and having traveled through a number of rural areas such as that of Jacmel, however, we became aware of the vitality of Vodou in its syncretic form with Catholicism. We visited ounfb and were welcomed by the families of "Catholic" peasants, where we discussed their Vodou practice with them. Apart from ethnological details on the rites and ceremonies, we tried, whenever possible, to apply our own observations, as insufficient as they might be, to this syncretism. Although it is practiced clandestinely, Vodou so informs everyday life that it is difficult for a Haitian (from the country at least) not to encounter it. In this study, our principal aim is to go beyond the descriptions generally presented by ethnographers, although they will serve when seen with a critical eye.2 We will show how, in Vodou, we are dealing with an authentic religious experience, a valid cultural language like any other language -one which satisfies the Haitian practitioner in the quest for an understanding of things in this world and in the attempt to give meaning to human existence. |
