Post by raeven on Jul 4, 2006 10:58:20 GMT -5
I didnt see a better place to put this, I personally find Hoodoo very rewarding.
Here is a really good article on it.
HOODOO ROOTWORK: Definition of terms
Hoodoo is an American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier, for African-American folk magic. Here is how i define the word "hoodoo":
Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable admixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.
Hoodoo is used as a noun to name both the system of magic ("He used hoodoo on her") and its practitioners ("Doctor Buzzard was a great hoodoo in his day"). In the 1930s, some practitioners used the noun "hoodooism" (analogous with "occultism") to describe their work, but that term has dropped out of common parlance. Hoodoo is also an adjective ("he layed a hoodoo trick for her") and a verb ("she hoodooed that man until he couldn't love no one but her"). The verb "to hoodoo" appears in collections of early pre-blues folk-songs. For instance, in Dorothy Scarborough's book "On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs," (Harvard University Press, 1925), a field-collected version of the old dance-song "Cotton-Eyed Joe" tells of a man who "hoodooed" a woman.
A professional consultant who practices hoodoo on behalf of clients may be referred to as a "hoodoo doctor" or "hoodoo man" if male and a "hoodoo woman" if female. A typical early reference occurs in Samuel C. Taylor's diary for 1891, in which he describes and illustrates meeting with a "Hoodoo Doctor" while on a train. Taylor, a white man, recounts that the word "hoodoo" was taught to him by the black Pullman porter on the train. The "doctor" he describes was both an herbalist and folk-magician.
WHAT HOODOO IS NOT: Voodoo, Santeria, etc
Hoodoo is not the name of a religion nor a denomination of a religion, although it incorporates elements from African and European religions in terms of its core beliefs.
As you may guess by now, it is not at all correct to refer to African-American hoodoo as "Voodoo." Voodoo (also spelled "Vodoun" and always capitalized, as a religion's name should be) is a Haitian religion that is quite African (Dahomean, in this case) in character. Above all, it is a RELIGION. The word "Voodoo" derives from an African word meaning "spirit" or "God."
One reason for the confusion between hoodoo and Voodoo is that the study of African American rootwork with respect to African systems of belief has only recently risen above the level of mere speculation.
Older accounts of hoodoo tended to emphasize West African linkages, in part because that area of Africa was heavily traversed during the 19th century by English speaking Christian missionaries who published books mentioning "native customs" -- which American slave-owners saw as similar to practices they observed among their slaves. This is why many 19th century accounts of hoodoo by white authors call it "Voodoo." However, by mid-20th century, with the publication of "Flash of the Spirit" by Robert Farris Thompson, scholarly focus shifted to the Congo as the source of most of what anthropologists would call "African retentions" in conjure -- beliefs, customs, sayings, or even complete rituals that have been recorded in Africa and that have survived in the United States through the many centuries that Africans have lived here.
As recent scholarship has uncovered, Congo African retentions more closely account for patterns of belief and practice found in American hoodoo than West African retentions do -- and this Congo emphasis also accords well with demographic reconstructions of the original homes of North American slaves.
Other African-diaspora religious syntheses sometimes confused with hoodoo include African-Cuban Santeria and Palo, African-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda, and African-Jamaican Obeah. In most of these religions, as practiced in the Americas, African deities are masked with Spanish, French, or Portuguese Catholicism, and the Yoruban, Fon, and Congolese spirits (Orishas, Loas, and Nkisi) are nominally replaced by proxy Catholic saints, sometimes called the Seven African Powers.
Until the 1970s American revival of interest in African religions, the only place Voodoo was openly practiced in the United States was New Orleans, where Haitian slaves (and their refugee masters) had settled after the Haitian slave rebellion of 1803. The New Orleans version of Voodoo was known at least as far back as the 1930s to be so debased as to have lost much of its claim to being a true religion and to have mingled greatly with hoodoo, spiritualism, and Catholicism -- rendering it as much a system of folk-magic as of religion. However, in recent years, contact with Haitians and an influx of interested white practitioners with backgrounds in Hermetic magic have led to a rebirth of the forms of the rituals practiced there, which has given New Orleans Voodoo new life.
Newcomers to hoodoo -- especially white folks with an interest in what they believe to be "exotic" or "other-cultural" -- often tell themselves (and, if they are authors, their unfortunate public) that the true and authentic source for all things hoodoo / Voodoo can be found only in New Orleans. This is manifestly untrue, and can be demonstrated to be a fiction by anyone who cares to interview rootworkers outside of the Crescent City.
Because hoodoo is at its core a Central African / Congo / Bantu system of magical practice, one way to identify the oldest and most authentic practices is to look for what anthropologists would call "African retentions" -- beliefs, customs, sayings, or even complete rituals that have been recorded in Africa and that have survived in the United States through the many centuries that Africans have lived here.
There are, of course, certain customs and beliefs which can be seen as more or less "Pan-African (ancestor veneration comes to mind as an example) and these need not be linked to one African group or another -- for virtually every African captive would have shared these beliefs.
One thing i look out for when trying to determine the actuality of African retentions over the course of hundreds of years in the USA is their distribution pattern. African captives themselves were distributed widely throughout the Americas, both North and South, in the Northeastern urbanized region as well as in the better-documented rural Southern "slave states." In ALL of those places, you will find common African retentions, such as -- to name three off the top of my head:
mixing pepper and salt and wearing it in your shoe for protection from witchcraft,
mixing up three-ingredient spiritual cleansing baths and floor washesthat have a mineral component,
working with live ants (in their nests) in an assortment of spells.
These ideas, and other similar African magical customs, will be found everywhere that black folks live in America, from Sandusky, Ohio to Atlanta, Georgia. Not everyone will "believe" in them or use them, but they are a common heritage in the culture and will be encountered on a regular basis -- just the way you will see Irish Americans all over the USA talking about hanging horseshoes with the points up "or the luck will run out."
So when someone tells me that a common African American belief derives from "New Orleans Voodoo" i just smile. It is African, and it is EVERYWHERE. New Orleans is just a little part of everywhere.
Here is a really good article on it.
HOODOO ROOTWORK: Definition of terms
Hoodoo is an American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier, for African-American folk magic. Here is how i define the word "hoodoo":
Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable admixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.
Hoodoo is used as a noun to name both the system of magic ("He used hoodoo on her") and its practitioners ("Doctor Buzzard was a great hoodoo in his day"). In the 1930s, some practitioners used the noun "hoodooism" (analogous with "occultism") to describe their work, but that term has dropped out of common parlance. Hoodoo is also an adjective ("he layed a hoodoo trick for her") and a verb ("she hoodooed that man until he couldn't love no one but her"). The verb "to hoodoo" appears in collections of early pre-blues folk-songs. For instance, in Dorothy Scarborough's book "On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs," (Harvard University Press, 1925), a field-collected version of the old dance-song "Cotton-Eyed Joe" tells of a man who "hoodooed" a woman.
A professional consultant who practices hoodoo on behalf of clients may be referred to as a "hoodoo doctor" or "hoodoo man" if male and a "hoodoo woman" if female. A typical early reference occurs in Samuel C. Taylor's diary for 1891, in which he describes and illustrates meeting with a "Hoodoo Doctor" while on a train. Taylor, a white man, recounts that the word "hoodoo" was taught to him by the black Pullman porter on the train. The "doctor" he describes was both an herbalist and folk-magician.
WHAT HOODOO IS NOT: Voodoo, Santeria, etc
Hoodoo is not the name of a religion nor a denomination of a religion, although it incorporates elements from African and European religions in terms of its core beliefs.
As you may guess by now, it is not at all correct to refer to African-American hoodoo as "Voodoo." Voodoo (also spelled "Vodoun" and always capitalized, as a religion's name should be) is a Haitian religion that is quite African (Dahomean, in this case) in character. Above all, it is a RELIGION. The word "Voodoo" derives from an African word meaning "spirit" or "God."
One reason for the confusion between hoodoo and Voodoo is that the study of African American rootwork with respect to African systems of belief has only recently risen above the level of mere speculation.
Older accounts of hoodoo tended to emphasize West African linkages, in part because that area of Africa was heavily traversed during the 19th century by English speaking Christian missionaries who published books mentioning "native customs" -- which American slave-owners saw as similar to practices they observed among their slaves. This is why many 19th century accounts of hoodoo by white authors call it "Voodoo." However, by mid-20th century, with the publication of "Flash of the Spirit" by Robert Farris Thompson, scholarly focus shifted to the Congo as the source of most of what anthropologists would call "African retentions" in conjure -- beliefs, customs, sayings, or even complete rituals that have been recorded in Africa and that have survived in the United States through the many centuries that Africans have lived here.
As recent scholarship has uncovered, Congo African retentions more closely account for patterns of belief and practice found in American hoodoo than West African retentions do -- and this Congo emphasis also accords well with demographic reconstructions of the original homes of North American slaves.
Other African-diaspora religious syntheses sometimes confused with hoodoo include African-Cuban Santeria and Palo, African-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda, and African-Jamaican Obeah. In most of these religions, as practiced in the Americas, African deities are masked with Spanish, French, or Portuguese Catholicism, and the Yoruban, Fon, and Congolese spirits (Orishas, Loas, and Nkisi) are nominally replaced by proxy Catholic saints, sometimes called the Seven African Powers.
Until the 1970s American revival of interest in African religions, the only place Voodoo was openly practiced in the United States was New Orleans, where Haitian slaves (and their refugee masters) had settled after the Haitian slave rebellion of 1803. The New Orleans version of Voodoo was known at least as far back as the 1930s to be so debased as to have lost much of its claim to being a true religion and to have mingled greatly with hoodoo, spiritualism, and Catholicism -- rendering it as much a system of folk-magic as of religion. However, in recent years, contact with Haitians and an influx of interested white practitioners with backgrounds in Hermetic magic have led to a rebirth of the forms of the rituals practiced there, which has given New Orleans Voodoo new life.
Newcomers to hoodoo -- especially white folks with an interest in what they believe to be "exotic" or "other-cultural" -- often tell themselves (and, if they are authors, their unfortunate public) that the true and authentic source for all things hoodoo / Voodoo can be found only in New Orleans. This is manifestly untrue, and can be demonstrated to be a fiction by anyone who cares to interview rootworkers outside of the Crescent City.
Because hoodoo is at its core a Central African / Congo / Bantu system of magical practice, one way to identify the oldest and most authentic practices is to look for what anthropologists would call "African retentions" -- beliefs, customs, sayings, or even complete rituals that have been recorded in Africa and that have survived in the United States through the many centuries that Africans have lived here.
There are, of course, certain customs and beliefs which can be seen as more or less "Pan-African (ancestor veneration comes to mind as an example) and these need not be linked to one African group or another -- for virtually every African captive would have shared these beliefs.
One thing i look out for when trying to determine the actuality of African retentions over the course of hundreds of years in the USA is their distribution pattern. African captives themselves were distributed widely throughout the Americas, both North and South, in the Northeastern urbanized region as well as in the better-documented rural Southern "slave states." In ALL of those places, you will find common African retentions, such as -- to name three off the top of my head:
mixing pepper and salt and wearing it in your shoe for protection from witchcraft,
mixing up three-ingredient spiritual cleansing baths and floor washesthat have a mineral component,
working with live ants (in their nests) in an assortment of spells.
These ideas, and other similar African magical customs, will be found everywhere that black folks live in America, from Sandusky, Ohio to Atlanta, Georgia. Not everyone will "believe" in them or use them, but they are a common heritage in the culture and will be encountered on a regular basis -- just the way you will see Irish Americans all over the USA talking about hanging horseshoes with the points up "or the luck will run out."
So when someone tells me that a common African American belief derives from "New Orleans Voodoo" i just smile. It is African, and it is EVERYWHERE. New Orleans is just a little part of everywhere.
