Jolane Abrams writes:
>
<SNIPS>
> I've been interested in African Diaspora religions for about 10 years now
> and have just read Maya Deren's classic Divine Horsemen:the Living Gods of
> Haiti.
>
> What I find particularly interesting is her evidence for the combination
> of indigenous American traditions into Voudou, and I wondered if there
> had been any further work done in this area. A Google search has not
> turned up anything useful, other than "Her argument seems frail." (I don't
> have access to any university databases, unfortunately).
>
> Any pointers much appreciated...
Emanuel Kofi Agorsah's archaeological work turned up the
remains of Arawak communities in the mountains which
had taken in runaway slaves.
The Story of Grandy Nanny
http://tinyurl.com/c7ys3
My own work touches on survivals of early 'Spiritualist'
communities comprised of colonials and indigenous peoples
existing prior to the Spiritualist movement of the
mid-1800s, as well as their use of hallucinogenic plant
mixtures.
There were a number of documented 'Spiritualist' groups here
in New England comprised of colonial and indigenous peoples
during the "New Light Stir" period of 1776 and 1783 - see
Gidley and Bowles, _Locating the Shakers: Cultural Origins
and Legacies of an American Religious Movement_, 1990.
I live in New York State, which was one of two termini for
the Underground Railroad, the other being Florida.
Coincidentally, the two oldest Spiritualist communities are
here in NY [ Lilydale ], the other in Florida [ Cassadaga ].
And in both cases, there is a great deal of participation
with the Indigenous peoples thereabouts.
I would guess that your best bet would be to examine the
available Arawak & Taino material, and see if any of the
claims work *both* ways.
I know of two Taino spiritualist organizations here in the
States that incorporate some of the features found in
Haitian Voudoun. Here's a link to one of them:
Ku Karey Spiritual Circle, Inc.
Caney of New York & Pennsylvania
http://tinyurl.com/8839n
And here are a few links to other Taino groups:
The Jatibonicù Taino
Tribal Band of New Jersey
US Regional Taino
Tribal Affairs Office
located in Lenapehoken,
the land of the Lenape People
To contact the Jatibonicù
United States Regional Office
In New Jersey,
write to:
Taino Tribal Council of Jatibonicu
NJ-US Taino Tribal Affairs Office
703 South Eighth Street
Vineland, New Jersey 08360
Or call (609) 690-1565
Fax: (609) 825-7922
To contact Taino Tribal Affairs:
Taino Tribal Affairs:
[log in to unmask]
And a few more related links:
Pre-Columbian Hispaniola
Arawak/Taino Indians
http://tinyurl.com/b2sse
Dialog on the Taino
From Haiti-L. June, 1995
http://tinyurl.com/9qunr
The Taíno and their Use of Caves
http://tinyurl.com/897tu
The United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP)
Honoring Caribbean Indigenous Peoples:
Past, Present and Future
http://www.uctp.org/
The Native American Indian
Taino Tribe Of Turabo Aymaco
http://tinyurl.com/7m5uj
Identity of Cohoba,
the narcotic snuff of ancient Haiti
William Edwin Safford
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences
vol. 6, pp. 547-562, 1916
http://tinyurl.com/du88o
ON VOODOO
By Hugh B. Cave
used by permission of the author
about 1955
http://tinyurl.com/ds6zz
A Glimpse into Vodou
Paul Touloute
http://tinyurl.com/92uy9
I usually recommend Alfred Metraux's _Voodoo in Haiti_ as
well as Milo Rigaud's _Secrets of Voodoo_.
Overall, I would say that Milo Rigaud's _Secrets of Voodoo_
is the more informative of the two. And, if you can find
one, I strongly suggest that you pick up a copy of Rigaud's
_Ve-Ve: Diagrams and Rituals of Voudou_.
Here are a few other titles that may be of interest:
Harold Courlander [ ed. ] ~ _A Treasury of Afro-American
Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Recollections,
Legends, Tales, Songs, Religious Beliefs, Customs, Sayings
and Humor of Peoples of African Descent in the Americas_,
1976, 1996.
Ivor Morrish ~ _Obeah, Christ and Rastaman_, 1982.
Wade Davis ~ _Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the
Haitian Zombie_, 1988.
Jonathan Haas ~ _The Anthropology of War_, 1990.
Jack Forbes ~ _Africans and Native Americans: The Language
of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples_, 1993.
Helen Myers [ ed. ] ~ _Ethnomusicology: Historical and
Regional Studies_, 1993.
Peggy Bulger ~ _South Florida Folklife_, 1994.
Alan Cobley ~ _Crossroads of Empire: The Europe-Caribbean
Connection 1492-1992_, 1994.
Peter Stummer, Christopher Balme [ eds. ] ~ _Fusion of
Cultures?_, 1994.
Elaine Breslaw ~ _Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish
Indians and Puritan Fantasies_, 1996.
Alan Cambeira ~ _Quisqueya la Bella: The Dominican Republic
in Historical and Cultural Perspective_, 1997.
Leonard Barrett ~ _The Rastafarians_, 1997.
Robin Wright ~ _Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa
Religion: For Those Unborn_, 1998.
Helen Myers ~ _Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the India
Diaspora_, 1998.
Fray Ramon Pane [ Susan Griswold, trans. ] ~ _An Account of
the Antiquities of the Indians_, 1999.
Lewis Petrinovich ~ _The Cannibal Within_, 2000.
Hemchand Gossai [ ed. ] ~ _Religion, Culture, and Tradition
in the Caribbean_, 2000.
Michael Lambek [ ed. ] ~ _A Reader in the Anthropology of
Religion_, 2002.
David Jones ~ _Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the
World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons_, 2002.
Jonathan Brennan [ ed. ] ~ _When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote:
African-Native American Literature_, 2003.
Neil Whitehead [ ed. ] ~ _Histories and Historicities in
Amazonia_, 2003.
Frances Henry ~ _Reclaiming African Religions in Trinidad:
The Socio-Political Legitimation of the Orisha and Spiritual
Baptist Faiths_, 2003.
Gordon Lewis ~ _Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: The
Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society in Its Ideological
Aspects, 1492-1900_, 2004.
Jean Joseph Jean ~ _God in the Haitian Vodoo Religion_, 2004.
Neil Whitehead [ ed. ] ~ _In Darkness and Secrecy: The
Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia_,
2004.
You may also wish to look into the introduction of Ionian /
Persian 'Greek' humoural medicine into the Americas by way
of Africa [ Unani Tibb among the slaves ] and Spain
[ Galenic medicine among the conquistadors ].
The humoural/elemental quaternary provides an invariant map
for traditions such as Voudoun, Hoodoo, Curanderismo,
Santeria, &tc., and incorporates herbs native to the
Americas into the colonial taxonomies [ cohoba with harmala,
for instance ].
Here are a few related titles you might find useful:
Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff ~ _The Shaman and the Jaguar_, 1975.
Sandra Orellana ~ _Indian Medicine in Highland Guatemala:
The Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Periods_, 1987.
George Foster ~ _Hippocrates' Latin American Legacy: Humoral
Medicine in the New World (Theory and Practice in Medical
Anthropology and International Health, Vol 1)_, 1993.
Catherine Yronwode ~ _Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia
Magica of African-American Conjure_, 2002.
--oo0O0oo--
Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan
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