ANTH 1120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Mama Lola, Religion In Africa
Document Summary
Mama lola: a vodou priestess: voodoo is a melding of various beliefs. Haitian voodou: example of syncretisation- blending of african religions with french colonial. The voodou pantheon: haitians maintain a view of the divine that is distinctly different than. Catholics: bondye (god/ creator) is too busy to intervene in mundane daily events; ancestors and saints (iwa) intercede of behalf of the individual. Gift-giving: gift giving is an important component of vodou, virtue is achieved by maintaining relationships characterized by appropriate gifts of tangibles (food, shelter, money) and intangibles (respect, deference, love) suspended in webs of significance they themselves have created.