Friday, October 14, 2011

Those Poor Chickens...

Well, I don't know about you guys but I was pretty darn shocked when we saw chickens' wings and legs being broken while they were still alive.  Along with the goat! I wasn't able to watch it.  It just freaked me out some!  This got me thinking though, about the normalcy that these rituals are for people who practice the vodou religion.  While this was very shocking for me and is something that pops in my head about this past week of class, another thing that I picked up was the relationship between the Haitian vodou religion and Catholicism.


As a practicing Catholic it is interesting to me that Catholic saints are used in other religions as well. I have not heard of this much before.  The way that these saints are handled is intriguing to me because they constantly change.  In the Catholic religion these saints stay the same all the time but in Haitian vodou they change to fit the times.  This is something I have noticed in other parts of vodou and other African cultures as well.  Rituals are changed to suit them as time goes on.


When watching the Divine Horseman there was a specific line that was brought up that struck me.  It said that the priest's responsibility(in Haitian vodou) was just as much important to the congregation as well as to the god's.  When  reading this, it seems obvious, right?  I think it is, but it is a new way to think about it.  The priest, who is a relation between the god and the congregation needs to equally serve and lead both.


One more thing that sparked my interest this week was that there was no need for masks.  Someone else mentioned it in their blog as well but with other African cultures a mask was needed for possession to take place but in Haitian vodou no mask is needed.  


In past classes I have noticed while our culture compared to different African cultures are very different they are in some ways similar.  This week continued that thought because of the relation of Catholicism and Haitian vodou.  We all interpret things differently though and we could really learn a lot from each other.  Diversity is so beautiful!

3 comments:

  1. I also found it interesting that things that are deemed to be quite normal in our culture are applicable in other societies as well (catholic practices)

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  2. Kyle, I think you can push your analysis and comparison of vodou and Catholicism more deeply, particularly with respect to the role of rigid doctrine (power structures) and how vodou in some ways subverts that. Also extremely significant and unmentioned here is the role of slavery--again, an intense power system imposed on a group of people because of their differing beliefs and skin color. When the violence of slavery and poverty is not too far from a cultural memory, and hunger is constant, killing a chicken is not a big deal. Note the place of privilege from which you can view such an act.

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  3. I think you brought up some interesting points in your blog this week. I found that what you brought up about the masks to be interesting. I guess I never thought about how the people in Africa only get possessed while wearing their masks but in Haitian culture it can happen at anytime!

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