Known in the Dominican Republic and Togo as Vodu, in Benin as Vodún, and in Haiti as Vodou, West African religion has, for hundreds of years, served as a repository of sacred knowledge while simultaneously evolving in response to human experience and globalization.
Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world. By examining the systems—ritual practices, community-based spirit veneration, and spiritual means of securing opportunity and well-being—alongside the individuals who worship, this rich collection offers the first comprehensive ethnographic study of West African spirit service on a broad scale. Contributors consider social encounters between African/Haitian practitioners and European / North American spiritual seekers, economies and histories, funerary rites and spirit possessions, and examinations of gender and materiality.
Offering much-needed perspective on this historically disparaged religion, Spirit Service reminds us all that the gods are growing, assimilating, and demanding recognition and respect.
Introduction, by Christian Vannier and Timothy R. Landry
Part I: Encounter
1. Vodou Genesis: Africans and the Making of a National Religion in Saint-Domingue, by Terry Rey
2. Universalism and Syncretism in Beninese Vodún, by Douglas J. Falen
3. Crossing Currents: Gorovodu and Yewevodu in Contemporary Togo, by Eric James Montgomery
4. A Prayer for a Muslim Spirit: Islam in Gorovodu, by Christian Vannier
5. Where Have All the Ounsi Gone?, by Karen Richman
6. Sailing between Local and Global: Vodou in the Modern and Contemporary Arts of Haiti, by Natacha Giafferi-Dombre
Part II: Engagement
7. Taking Hold of a Faith, by Jeffrey E. Anderson
8. The Physic(s)ality of Vodún and the (Mis)behavior of Matter, by Venise N. Adjibodou
9. Vodou Skins: Making Bodily Surfaces Social in Haitian Vodou Infant-Care, by Alissa M. Jordan
10. Spirited Forests and the West African Forest Complex, by Timothy R. Landry
11. Vodou, an Inclusive Epistemology: Towards A Queer Eco-Theology of Liberation, by Nixon Cleophat
12. Necroscape and Diaspora: Making Ancestors in Haitian Vodou, by Elizabeth McAlister
13. Conclusion: Global Vodún and Vodou: Encounter and Engagement, by Eric James Montgomery and Timothy R. Landry
Index
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