The Voodoo religion, its history, rituals, and controversies associated with it, are discussed in five pages. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
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so to reconnect with a time, culture and history which had been taken from them. It also served as a unifying, shared experience around which a new culture could emerge.
But where did Voodoo come from originally? And why, after so many centuries does it continue to be practiced? ORIGIN Voodoo is a derivative from the religious practices of
ancient Africa. The majority of the Voodoo practices were brought by the African slaves when they were captured and transported overseas. However, it would be the slaves on the island
of Santa Domingua, later renamed, Haiti, that would give Voodoo the structure and organization that it now has today. The white slave owners arrogantly thought that by separating the various
culture groups from Africa that an insurrection would be more unlikely and that having no common ground would not be able to come together in any sort of community. Of
course, they were very wrong. The Africans all had some form of Voodoo which was practiced in their region of Africa and therefore when they came together were able to
reconstruct a new religion and a new form of Voodoo. This mixing and adapting to each others version of Voodoo created a totally new religion. The word Voodoo, itself, is
African for Spirit(Corbett). "Vodou is tolerant. It receives. It honors and respects us all as though we were gifts. It tells us that we are precious no matter who we
are"(Glassman 8). RITUALS AND RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS Voodoo practitioners do not believe that there are any accidents. Therefore, everything that happens was planned or caused to occur. Everything
is interconnected and like a ripple in a pond, what affects one, affects us all. Believers state that there is a sacred cycle shared between the living and the dead