Human Cognition and Culture – Voodoo & Christianity

The Vodun Way of Death: Cultural Symbiosis of Roman Catholicism and Vodun in Haiti – 1979

• Catholicism allows the Haitian person to participate in the country while the Vodun aspect allows them to cope with their personal life
• Catholicism speaks more to god and the church while the Loas speaks to the Vodun spirits from Africa. Catholicism also interacts with the Godhead while Vodun focuses on smaller deities
• Haitians practice 2 religions simultaneously and Vodun was more underground because of how strongly Catholicism was practiced. Also slave owners wanted all slaves to be catholic forcing Vodun to be done at night and hidden. 
• Slaves practiced Christianity as a cover for their own religious beliefs by incorporating the Christian practices to Vodun rituals. For example eating the communion wafer only when ill and drinking holy water in the morning hoping it protects them, even though they believed more in vodun. Sometimes described Christianity as wearing a white mask over black faces.
  
• There is a symbiosis between Vodun and Christianity in 4 ways:
  1. Proximity of church to Hounfort which means voodoo temple
  2. in content of the voodoo temple meaning catholic objects can occupy the same space as voodoo temple objects
  3. In observance of voodoo rituals in which pieces of Christian mass coexist with African rites
  4. In the priestly hierarchy of the voodoo temple is similar to the Christian variety, a bushpriest in voodoo is similar to a priest in the catholic church.

• The bushpriest is present for Christian and voodoo rituals but is central to neither, he represents the church side of things in the voodoo rituals because the church was so opposed to voodoo at the beginning the people wanted sanction from the church to do their rituals.
• The paper hits 3 main points: 1. Voodoo death rites and how much of the African tradition was maintained, 2. What is the symbiotic relationship between voodoo and the church, 3. Describes the voodoo death rites known as tertium quid which are specific to Haiti

Africanism in Haitian Vodun

• Vodun = voodoo, was a bunch of African traditions but mainly based on Dahomey because many slaves from that region were shipped to Haiti. The traits of Dahomey can be seen in the verbiage and theology.

The Dessounin Ritual of Death:The Degeneration and Regeneration of Being

•  In both African and traditional senses a person’s mind can be distinguished as multiple entities that come together to form a whole self.
• 1^st is Se which is the life force that animates the body and after death this life force is transferred to a newborn baby
• 2^nd is Semed which gives a person their personality and character, this is what makes decisions for a person
• 3^rd is Djot which is a part of Semed and is the ancestral spirit of a person that lives in a spiritual realm after death with other ancestors.
• 4^th is Sekpoli which is a spirit connected to destiny that a person shares with all the members of the clan.
• With these elements the persons divine and physical elements are connected, where they are their own person but are also made up the people who came before them and after them as well as connected to the present members.
• This is seen in Dahomey as well showing the ties to that African religion and they basically believe in reincarnation of sorts. SO death is seen as a beginning of beings rather than an end.
• Like the Se in Dahomey in Vodun it is known as the gros-bon-ange, which is known as the root of all being which allows for the person to breathe and exist.
• Another part of the soul in Vodun is ti-bon-ange which contributes to a person’s morals and gets formed in the womb nurtured by ideas of the community. It also shows happiness and emotions,  the Dahomey similarity is Semed.
• The se and Semed as well as gros-bon and ti-bon, are interlinked through life but after death they follow their separate paths. However the ti-bon-ange after death becomes a part of the anscesteal world like in the Dahomey, thus in voodoo culture the gros-bon-ange is more of a concern.
• Funerals in Voodoo/Vodun culture are not sad because they are a sign of moving the community forward. In Dahomey like in Vodun, after someone has passed there are rituals that occur immediately to remove the soul from the body to help it pass on, in Vodun it is known as Dessounin.
• Dessounin: After death a bushpriest is called and he starts the ritual in the center of the hut of the dead. He wears a traditional uniform for the situation and uses rum as a purifier while demanding for the gros-bon-ange to leave the body. The spirit left and became attached to the son of the deceased where he spoke in different tongues. After a trance the spirit left the boy and moved on to Loas.
• After Dessounin: the body is ensured that it could not be revived or used by witchcraft by certain rituals like placing sesame seed branches, tying the toes and including personal objects of the deceased. Prior to this there is a bathing of the body and a wake. Even though it is Vodun practice during the wake, they include catholic elements like placing crucifixes on the tables amongst Vodun objects. While carrying the body to the cemetery they would turn the coffin randomly counterclockwise to confuse the spirit so it cannot find its way back.
• Casser-canari: This marks the end of the funeral ceremonies where a clay jar filled with ritualistic items is smashed and buried by the bushpriest. Basically the clay jar portrays the person’s life/head that holds his soul, it is them beaten and broken which represents death, it is buried in a trench that represents the grave and the broken pieces of the clay portray the burial rites performed at the cemetery.
• Novena: This occurs on the Saturday following the funeral and is set up like the wake, family members join together one last time and prayers are said by the priest, this is the last event in the death ritual.

Conclusion:

Vodun death rituals have pieces of Christianity as seen with the presence of Christian prayers and religious artifacts used in the rituals. The symbiosis is shown through the presence of both Christianity and vodun rituals existing together while also being separate. For example in Vodun there is no real concept of heaven while in Christianity it is a defined place, Vodun also includes portions of the soul that are well defined which are not clearly defined in Christianity. Vodun also has instances where pieces of the soul can transfer to a family member while performing death rituals that are rarely mentioned in Christian literature. Everytime a Christian practice was used in the death ritual of a Haitian family member it was done exclusively and then stopped and a followed by a Vodun practice, so even though religious objects of both sides may occupy the same space, people would give their full attention to one religious practice at a time.