Roots of Haiti's Vodou-Christian faith : African and Catholic origins
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Roots of Haiti's Vodou-Christian faith : African and Catholic origins
Praeger, c2014
- : hardback
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-265) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book traces the development of Haiti's combined Vodou-Christian religion from 1500 to the present and explains how this combination of distinct faiths coalesces in a coherent belief system.
What are the historical reasons for the popularity of two contradictory worldviews in Haiti, Vodou and Catholicism? What elements of Vodou and Catholicism are alike, and how are they drastically different? What is the connection between indigenous African religions and Vodou? And why has religion in Haiti evidenced an accelerating rate of change in recent decades? Roots of Haiti's Vodou-Christian Faith: African and Catholic Origins answers these questions and more in its examination of the highly unique and often-misunderstood religious practices in Haiti.
Reaching back half a millennium to the European conquest of the island of Haiti, author R. Murray Thomas inspects the origins and nature of these two competing and complementary religious traditions: the traditional African faiths brought by the slaves who were imported to Haiti to labor in the fields and mines, and the Catholicism promoted-often violently-by Spanish and French colonial authorities. Following a historical background, the subsequent chapters focus on the organization of Haitian religion, spirits, creation belief, causes and ceremonies, maxims and tales, symbols and sacred objects, sacred sites, religious societies, and the future of the Vodou-Christian faith.
Table of Contents
Preface
Part I Introduction
Chapter 1 The Nature of the Book
Chapter 2 The Origins
Part II Religious Beliefs and Practices
Chapter 3 Sources of Belief
Chapter 4 The Organization of Religion
Chapter 5 Spirits
Chapter 6 The Creation of the Universe
Chapter 7 Causes and Ceremonies
Chapter 8 Maxims and Tales
Chapter 9 Symbols and Sacred Objects
Chapter 10 Sacred Sites
Chapter 11 Religious Societies
Part III Postscript
Chapter 12 The Years Ahead
References
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
