8 Religion and Syncretism

8.2 A Close Examination of Syncretism: Haitian Voodoo  

The following pages will work through the syncretism of multiple cultural factors that resulted in Haitian Voodoo as we know it today. To begin, we’ll discuss the history of Haiti to better understand the myriad of cultural influences and events that have shaped the nation’s identity. Then, we’ll discuss the main characteristics of Haitian Voodoo as it is practiced today to offer students an opportunity to apply anthropological tools. 

To begin, let’s define “Voodoo.” The word “Voodoo” (or, “Voodoo”) means “spirit” and a vodouisant is a person who “serves the spirits” (Desmangles 1992). While predominantly practiced in Haiti, Voodoo is also commonly practiced in other parts of the world.

Haiti is a country in the Caribbean. You can reach Haiti in about 40 minutes after taking off in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Haiti is located on the Western half of the island of Hispaniola and is next to the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s history is incredibly fascinating, and the culture is rich with community strength, resilience, music, spirituality, and great dignity.

While there is much to know about Haiti, it is important to note that Haiti’s existence is the result of a slave rebellion. During the colonial era, Haiti was a highly profitable sugar cane producing colony that enslaved human beings in order to turn a high profit. In the face of extreme brutality, the enslaved people revolted, killed the slave owners, and directly established a country for themselves. This inspiring story is central to their national identity and to the evolution of the local culture.

Currently, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. As a result, many countries around the world are interested in becoming involved in Haiti’s affairs. The following will examine Haiti’s international relations, religious diversity, economic status, and colonial legacy in order to paint a complete picture of the meaning behind Haiti Voodoo. Through the examination of history and international power relations, we can better practice cultural relativism and we can achieve an intimate knowledge of a religion that is mystifying to the world at large.

8.4 History Shapes Culture

What comes to mind when you think of Voodoo? While we typically discourage our students from focusing on stereotypes, in this particular case, they are interesting and appropriate to examine. The word “Voodoo” conjures up images of skulls, blood, animal sacrifice, dark magic, and all of these are, actually, quite reasonable representations of the religion. It is true that Haitian Voodoo incorporates animal sacrifices, utilizes human skulls in some rituals, and – most importantly – it’s true that Haitian Voodoo is feared by most. As Haitian community leader, Willio Deseme, explains,

“Most people in Haiti fear Voodoo, but most Haitians believe in it. Most Haitians know that Voodoo is not something to mess around – it’s not a game and it’s dangerous.”

It admittedly sounds contradictory to state that Voodoo is central to Haitian culture while also being feared by the majority of people. While many people outside of Haiti fear Voodoo in a frightened or confused way, the Hatian people fear the power of Voodoo out of respect. As Willio further explains, “Haitian people know that in Voodoo there are two faces: a good and a bad. It depends on how you use it and which Spirit you invoke.”

It is actually quite easy for Americans to understand how Haitians perceive Voodoo because most Americans understand Voodoo in a similar fashion. Most Americans and most Haitians believe that Voodoo contains some kind of formidable power in which one should not trifle. If you ask the average American to participate in a Voodoo ritual, they will look at you in horror, and refuse (Haitian people express a similar horror, but it is based on your utter lack of understanding inherent in your request).

Consider the following example from Amanda Zunner-Keating, 

“I spent my years in Haiti working with a dozen local organizations including a handful of orphanages. Most orphanages are religiously affiliated and three that I worked with were strictly Protestant. One, the most welcoming and generous, was both Protestant and Voodoo. Although this orphanage had the best facilities and supplies, the children from the three strictly Protestant orphanages refused to attend events at the orphanage that embraced both Protestantism and Voodoo. They were not prejudicial to the children or adults at the organization, but they were afraid to step foot on the premises for fear of engaging with spirits that they did not intend to engage with.”

The popular adage goes that “70% of Haitians are Protestant, 30% are Catholic, and 100% are Voodoo.” This is an important point to highlight. Haiti is a vehemently Christian country: buses and buildings have Bible quotes painted across them and many attend church multiple times each week. It’s not difficult to find two churches on each side of a street that compete with each other to hold the loudest – and earliest – church services each weekday. Haiti firmly loves the Bible and worships Christ; but most also believe that spirits surround their everyday lives. These two religions are not mutually exclusive because Voodoo arose from Christianity and each developed within the context of Haiti’s self-liberation from colonial powers.

Haiti’s history is an incredible story of resilience. The island has witnessed generations of brutality, genocide, and various abuses and yet the people continue to live on with strength and fervor. Haitian Voodoo contains fear,and some violence, not because the people are inherently fearful or violent but, rather, because they have endured and survived generations upon generations of both.  This spirituality reflects the world that its adherents have survived.

Cultural anthropologists study religion without any interest in the “truth” or falsity behind the followers’ religious beliefs. Instead, we study religion because the endless diversity of ways that spiritual beliefs present themselves are an indicator of what the people’s lived experience is, and has been. Structures, traditions, and the moral fabric of our religions directly reflect who we are, and what we have gone through, as people. Haitian Voodoo does include violence and fear, and it does not include any guarantee of fairness or justice. Knowing this, we should not conclude that the hearts of this religion’s followers are, themselves, inherently more fearful or violent. But, rather, we must understand that the elements of this religion reflect the generations of brutality that people living on this island have experienced since the 1400’s.

When we hear the words, “In 1492…” our brains quickly complete the phrase, “…Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Please pause and remind yourself that Christopher Columbus never reached the shores of the United States. Why, then, is he integral to the US’s cultural identity?

Any student educated in the American school system can quickly name the three ships sailed by Columbus: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María. In 1492, on Christmas Eve, the Santa María crashed off of the Northern coast of the island that we now call Haiti (Girard 2010, 18). As Columbus and his men offloaded toward  land, they were approached by the native Taíno people, who were wearing gold jewelry (Rouse 1992, 143). Columbus and his men were deeply interested in stealing gold for the Spanish Crown, and subsequently left a group of Spaniards on the island to establish a settlement (Ibid). Using the remains of the destroyed Santa María, the small group proceeded to build a settlement named Fort Navidad (in honor of the date of the crash). Columbus left the island with plans to return. At some point, the Taíno people became privy to the European’s intention to rob their lands of natural resources and promptly killed all of the Spanish settlers. They are described by Irving Rouse as, “adventurers who caused their own demise.”

Only moments into the history of the island, we are seeing an attempt to exploit and brutalize a native people and the native people’s violent resistance. This is the first event that shaped the tone of this island’s interaction with European and other global powers.

The Taíno were a native, Arawak people of the Caribbean who numbered around half-a-million (Girard 19). The Taíno called the island, “Hayiti” which is where we get the creole name “Ayiti” today. But, Columbus named the island “Hispaniola” in honor of the country which sponsored him. When Columbus and his men returned to the island, they enslaved the Taíno to mine the gold out of their land (Mintz 1985, 33). But the Taíno did not only face slavery, they faced brutality in all areas of their lives.

While colonialism was widely practiced by the majority of the European powers, each European country had their own particular style of colonizing native peoples. The French, for example, were particularly interested in turning their colonized subjects into “French” subjects by spreading their language, culture, and religion. The French colonial law afforded a few more dignities than some of the other colonial powers offered.

On the other hand, the British tended to view native peoples as objects to be utilized or to be overcome. Unlike the French who wanted to spread their culture, the British were known to focus on claiming land and resources to benefit the British crown.

The Spanish, however, were notoriously the most brutal in their colonization techniques. As “conquistadors” they sought to pillage the lands, rape, and eliminate the people in order to fully conquer the parts of the world that they were colonizing. This is why much of the Spanish-speaking world outside of Europe is genetically related to the Spanish in Spain. The Spanish brutalized the people they colonized, and this included the Taíno.

Historian Philippe Girard offers us two stories to illustrate how the Taíno suffered under Spanish colonization. He writes,

“Columbus and later Spanish colonists were not settlers in the traditional sense of the term. They did not intend to acquire land, build a log cabin, and become farmers. They were conquistadors: they were ambitious nobles and merchants who looked down on manual labor and dreamed of conquering a strange civilization, killing its leaders, enslaving its natives, and exploiting a quick windfall of gold and spices. Killing the Taíno leaders…they did: The tragic story of Anacaona Illustrates this well. Anacaona Was a Taíno Haitian princess whom the Spaniards asked to organize a big feast for Governor Nicholas Ovando. When she and the other [leaders] gathered for the festivities, Spanish soldiers set the meeting on fire and wiped out Hispaniola‘s leadership; Anacaona survived the fire, only to be put on trial and hanged. Taíno commoners were subsequently forced to work on gold mines and plantations.

Hatuey, another Taíno leader, was so revolted by the Spaniards mistreatment of his people that he fled Haiti for Cuba. Led by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, the persistent Spaniards landed in Cuba to pursue him. And 1512, after years of guerrilla warfare, Hatuey was captured and sentenced to be burned alive. The Franciscan friar suggested that, should he repent and convert to Catholicism, his captors might show mercy and substitute garroting for the agony of death by fire. Plus, the Franciscan added, Hatuey would spend eternity in Heaven. When questioned by Hatuey if Spaniards also went to Paradise, the Franciscan responded that the best Spaniards did. “The best are good for nothing”, Hatuey snapped back, “And I will not go to where there is a chance of meeting one of them” (Girard 2010, 20).

Archeologist Irving Rouse points out that not only was Hatuey burned at the stake, but also his followers were burned (Rouse 1992, 156).

Nicholas Ovando, mentioned above, was notorious for his brutality on the island. In 1502, the Spanish unleashed an attack dog to kill a Taíno chief in the southwestern part of the island. The Taíno protested this killing and, in response, Ovando kidnapped seven hundred Taíno and knifed them to death in a hut. He then displayed their bodies publicly as a warning to other Taíno seeking freedom (Rouse 1992, 154).

While working to mine the gold out of their native land, the Taíno were physically brutalized and exposed to diseases (Mintz 2010; 138-139; Rouse 1992, 155). Any Taíno who resisted slavery was killed (Rouse 1992, 151). When the gold mines were not offering enough gold to please the Spanish king and queen, Columbus and his men kidnapped enough Taíno to fill an entire ship. They sold them into slavery for profit. Some Taíno were shipped directly to Spain to serve Spanish households where they died.

The rest of the population was killed, causing the Taíno people to be completely wiped out. No Taíno survived their encounter with the Spanish and we will never again be able to meet a member of this culture. This is an example of domination. While some people in the Caribbean do have partial Taíno heritage, the society – and specifically the traditions on the island of Haiti – was completely eliminated from the face of the earth as a result of colonization (Farmer 2012, 123-124; Girard 2010, 20). The Spanish even burned sacred items from the Taíno religion under the belief that it was a devil-worshipping religion, and very few Taíno artifacts have been found (Rouse 1992).

This was a successful genocide against the Taíno, and the Spanish subsequently drained the island of gold. Throughout the enslavement and killing of Taíno people, more and more Spanish families moved onto the island to continue their colonizing efforts.. Some of these Spanish families brought kidnapped and enslaved Black Africans with them to the island. The Spanish established a hierarchy of enslaved peoples where the Taíno were expected to work in the gold mines, but the Africans were expected to serve the Spanish families. The numbers of kidnapped and enslaved Africans rose rapidly: in 1540, the Taíno were outnumbered by the people brought to and enslaved on the island. In time, when all of the Taíno people were lost, and the island was fully mined of its gold, it was time for European colonial governments to establish a new endeavor on the island. It was around this time that sugar emerged as a popular item for consumption across Europe, and colonial powers sought new climates within which to establish sugar plantations. But, without any Taíno to force into unpaid labor, Europe looked to the African continent for human beings to force into slavery.

In 1697, Spain handed over the western half of the island to France who renamed it Saint-Domingue. During this time, sugar production was an incredibly valuable industry and the climates in the Caribbean and the American south were conducive to growing sugar. Haiti, as anthropologist Sidney Mintz explains, “was rapidly transformed into the most profitable colony in the history of the New World” (2010: 89).  Again, when we examine colonial history, we must examine the process through which Europe was developed at the expense of the colonized lands and people. Through the process of eliminating an entire native people, stripping the island of its natural resources, then enslaving hundreds of thousands of people, France and Spain were able to amass wealth in the form of gold, sugar, and huge profits while the Taíno and enslaved West African communities were torn apart.

8.6 Outcomes From Slavery

There is some debate among historians about which slave-holding colony was the cruelest. As slavery, in all its forms, strives to dehumanize and brutalize human beings, it seems impossible to decide which form of slavery was the most horrible. For example: those who strove to own slaves in the United States were known to separate families and sell children; they even forced reproduction in order to profit more. This is an extremely cruel and brutal way to treat humans: particularly cruel and brutal to the women and children.

Whereas people who were enslaved in colonial Haiti typically did not survive long enough to have children at all (Girard 2010, 26). The violence upon their bodies, diseases in which they were exposed, and extremely difficult climate caused most to die in a short period. As anthropologist Wade Davis writes,

“Bloated by wealth unlike anything seen since the early days of the conquest, the colonial planter of [Haiti] made an institution of cruelty. Field hands caught eating cane were forced to wear tin muzzles while they worked. Runaways had their hamstrings sliced. Brandings, indiscriminate floggings, rape, and killings were a matter of course, and for the slightest infraction a man was hung from a nail driven through his ear (Davis 2008, 191)”.

It may be impossible to decide which form of slavery is crueler, but we do know that the two different manifestations of cruelty led to different cultural adaptations among the people who were captured, moved across the world, and enslaved in each location. Over time, the enslaved people living in the United States’ culture became more and more “Americanized” as new generations were born, forced into slavery, and each new generation was more familiar with American culture than the African cultures of their parents and grandparents.

In Haiti, because enslaved people died more quickly, the French replenished the population by capturing and bringing in more and more people from the African continent. France focused primarily on bringing over people from the West. Because people from West Africa were continuously arriving, the enslaved population in Haiti maintained a stronger connection to their African religion, language, and culture more than those living in the United States. Here is where we can start to track syncretism on the island. French law required that enslaved people be baptized and introduced to Christianity while, at the same time, more and more believers in Yoruban religion were arriving. These two cultural forces fused together – along with a few other cultural influences which we will soon discuss – to start to develop the Voodoo religion that we know today.

8.12 Ghosts versus Zombies

If, as anthropologists, we ask the question, “what is a ghost?” we will discover that there is no one, singular definition of “ghost” that is common across all cultures.   In the United States, a common definition of “ghost” is  “a disembodied soul”. But, even that particular definition of ghost is not universal when we start to ask clarifying questions such as, “Where does the  soul reside?”, or “How big is the soul?”, or, even “How many souls do we have?” In the U.S. we don’t often talk about death, dying, or the soul.  Most Americans have an idea, but these ideas are usually personal and not universal. For many, we form an idea that makes sense to us but we rarely  discuss or even reflect on  further. For instance, consider the belief that your soul is the size of your entire body and resides in all the tissues. If this is the case, if you cut your hair or nails, does part of your soul go away? What about as you grow, do you somehow have more soul than an infant? What about if you donate an organ to another, does part of your soul go with it? These are all subjective questions to which one is likely to get as many answers as there are people answering them.

In the United States, ghosts and zombies are usually considered to be souls without bodies and bodies without souls, respectively.  Thus, they are essentially opposites. For many, ghosts are more fear inducing than the shambling hordes of zombies portrayed on movies and TV (more on that below).  But, why are ghosts so frightening? Consider the earlier point that ghosts are defined in unclear terms.  If ghosts do not follow clear, universal rules then we feel that we are facing an unknown threat whenever we perceive of ghosts! The old adage, “we fear what we do not understand” is precisely what is at play with this particular fear . Consider the following unknown rules surrounding ghosts: Can ghosts move objects as well as move through objects? Are they tied to a certain place, or can they move around freely? Are they trapped or are they angry? Why are they in a certain place and not others? Where is a safe place? Can they hurt us? Obviously, we have more questions than answers  (assuming ghosts exist at all). Furthermore, there is not much agreement on what ghosts can do because whatever “evidence” of ghosts exists are usually a singular, eyewitness accounts that may be are inaccurate at best or completely fabricated at worst. There is no way to scientifically examine the existence of ghosts because there is no objective, measurable evidence available.

On the other hand, zombies are believed to follow a more clear cut, universal, and reliable set of rules. . The word “zombie” derives from Central or West African and Haitian culture and refers to the concept of a human body acting outside of it’s normal, biological control. Haiti, in particular, has a very complex history involving slavery, revolution, and a cruel cash crop industry of sugar cane. The harvesting of which was very difficult and deadly work in the hot, humid, and malaria ridden tropics.  It was here that the concept evolved into the Voudou version we associate it with today. What many don’t realize is just how much of American zombie lore directly stems from mass media and in particular George Romero and his modern reinvention of what a zombie is. Prior to the “Night of the Living Dead” (an independent film that burst on the scene in 1968, just in time for Halloween) the predominant ideas of a zombie were much more in line with the traditional sense of the word. A zombie was essentially a mindless worker, created through the magic of Voudou, who would slave away at the behest of the controller/ creator (a sorcerer called a Bokor), with an overt master/ slave association, to work their “lives” away in the sugar fields. To get a much better idea of the more traditional use of the term see “The Serpent in the Rainbow” or even “White Zombie”. In these instances, the zombie itself was not the scary part, becoming a victim of a Bokor and being turned into a zombie was the most terrifying aspect!

In the post-Romero sense of the zombie, we now see the shuffling hordes of the virus induced dead bodies that slowly ramble around looking for brains of living beings to feed on. The emphasis has shifted from an evil sorcerer to a scientific/ governmental mistake becoming the creator and the zombies themselves becoming the villains. These slow-moving, dim-witted, and easy to evade predators are given the quite impossible task of somehow biting through the skull to consume brains as their primary mission. They can only be stopped by severing the brain, which has ostensibly been “hijacked” and is mechanically controlling the movements of these creatures (supposedly a more believable scenario to modern audiences than one involving magic).  These still retain a hint of the traditional fear in that, if bitten, one becomes infected and thus becomes a zombie themselves; however, this aspect has been usurped in a large part by the more mundane fear of being eaten alive. All of this is eclipsed by the idea that anyone can survive an encounter through quick thinking and action. This is probably one of the most comfortable apocalyptic scenarios for most people (which likely explains its popularity) because most of us assume that we could survive it. The “Romero zombies” have shifted the monster away from the creator/ controller of the zombies, to the zombies themselves.

In conclusion, the unknown nature of “ghosts” sets them apart as a unique belief system that is not as universally defined as the concept of the “zombie” which has been more clearly defined by Hollywood influences. While some might believe in the existence of both ghosts and zombies, the more predictable nature of zombies allows individuals to feel a sense of control and – therefore – survivability when encountering a zombie.

8.13 Voodoo in the United States

The Haitian slave revolt in the late 18th and early 19th centuries had created fears in the United States, where slavery was still practiced, so the goal was to politically isolate Haiti.  During the slave revolt, the U.S. government, under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, provided aid to the French colonists fighting against the slaves to suppress the revolt and reinstate slavery in Haiti.  Jefferson was a supporter of the French Revolution and its ideals, but opposed the freedom of slaves in Haiti since he and many of his supporters were slave owners.  Despite the success of the slave revolt overthrowing the French colonial rule and creating an independent state, Haiti was not recognized by US as an independent country until 1865, 61 years after its independence.  The thirteen-year slave revolution in Haiti led to large numbers of Haitians migrating to the United States, due to turmoil on the island.  Many of the refugees arrived in Louisiana, bringing along their culture and religion.  This was the first exposure Americans had to Voodoo.

8.16 Exodus and Jamaican Rasta Captivity

Early Jewish and West African people’s interaction during the early history of Jamaica has had an important influence on the beliefs and symbols of Rastafarians.  Exodus is one of the most prominent beliefs that illustrates Jewish influence.  Rastafarians in Jamaica identified with the captivity of Jewish slaves in Egypt and Babylon due to their history of slavery, bondage and domination by European colonialists.  As a result, Exodus has become a central Biblical myth for Rastafarians with a call for freedom from oppression in Jamaica.  Popular Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley’s song Exodus revolves around this Biblical story.

When tracing the history and rise of Rastafari as a revivalist movement we understand how it has become a religion of resistance to domination and slavery, similar to several other syncretic Afro-Caribbean religions in neighboring islands. However, its form is different from the other syncretic religions and this is due to the British colonial rule in Jamaica. Many syncretic Afro-Caribbean religions incorporate numerous elements of Christian symbols and beliefs.  These groups were originally ruled by Catholic colonial powers, whether it was Spanish, Portuguese or French. Catholicism is more fluid and accepting of modifications of symbols, allowing different cultures to adopt many of its elements and adjust them to their indigenous religious beliefs and practices. Jamaica, however, was dominated by Protestant British rule that prevented the slave population from learning Christian teachings. Conversion to Christianity happened much later and they were through Evangelical Christian teachings. Unlike Catholicism, Protestant and Evangelical Christianity do not allow for modifications, not leaving much room for fusion of old religious symbols and traditions with the new religion.

The revivalist movement of Rastafari that developed later directly challenged Protestant and Evangelical Christian religious ideals. This was done to restore the lost racial dignity of the black population that according to Rasta beliefs was lost during European domination.