The evil eye or sticking needles in dolls, those are among the images that we Westerners commonly associate with Vodun, or Voodoo, as it is sometimes known, a longtime subject of low-grade horror films and campfire tales. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
We’re listening to the drums and singing of a West African Vodun ceremony.
“Vodun is probably one of the most poorly understood religions anywhere.”
Suzanne Preston Blier is a Professor of Fine Arts and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University and a consultant for a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, “The Sacred Arts of Haitian Voodoo.”
“In the early Haitian revolution against the slave owners there was a sense of the power that Vodun had provided to overcome these very powerful individuals. There was also a long-standing tradition in America of making illegal the practice of African ceremonies because they were viewed as somewhat analogous, let’s say, to sorcery: a type of religion which only had a negative part. Vodun at its base is as much a philosophy as a religion which is grounded on this idea of good acts, of respect, of calmness in the face of danger. It has as part of its religion as well, the use of materials, of objects for protection. But it’s that part of the religion which is also seen in the West to be somehow very malevolent.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.