Origin of Voodoo

Voodoo

        Voodoo originated as a mixture of African religions during the slave trade. As slaves were being brought from Africa to the Caribbean, groups of slaves sharing similar backgrounds were separated to prevent any sense of bond between them. One of the main examples of this, is through the third world country known as Haiti. In Haiti, because there has been a lot of destruction, and people have difficulty providing ways in to fend for themselves, they have relied on spirits to provide for themselves.  The way that this is implemented, is through what is known as voodoo.  Voodoo is defined as dark religion practiced in third world countries, which is often characterized by evil spirits.  Now, it is also essential to define religious roles in this as well.  As Haar & Ellis (2006) say, when it comes to the importance of religion, individuals need to see the relationship between religion and cultural development” (p.1).  For class and gender, one of the ways that voodoo relates, is that it helps assign respective roles.  Voodoo not only fills in the gap for those of poverty, but it also assigns roles to male and female as well.  For example; one of the ways that the religion does this, is through assigning females as witches and men as warlocks.  As Heaton (2011) says, social characteristics and gender roles all play an essential part in how a religion is defined for both genders (p.453).  Lastly, another way that the religion also plays an important part, is through human rights.  There are some people who think that voodoo violates human rights, because they argue that people are being possessed and under the influence of evil spirits.  However, there are those who would also argue that as long as an individual wants to use these spirits through voodoo, in order to help their village, then there should not be a problem.  As Crabtree (2010) states, “Religion plays a more functional role in the world's poorest countries, helping many residents cope with a daily struggle to provide for themselves and their families” (p.1).          

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