Voodoo and Power : The Politics of Religion in New Orleans, 1881-1940 / Kodi A. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, Kodi A., 1979-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Religion.

African Americans.

Vodou--Louisiana--New Orleans--History--20th century.

Vodou.

Vodou--Louisiana--New Orleans--History--19th century.

New Orleans (La.)--Religious life and customs.

New Orleans (La.).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

Louisiana paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The racialized and exoticized cult of Voodoo occupies a central place in the popular image of the Crescent City. But as Kodi A. Roberts argues in Voodoo and Power, the religion was not a monolithic tradition handed down from African ancestors to their American-born descendants. Instead, a much more complicated patchwork of influences created New Orleans Voodoo, allowing it to move across boundaries of race, class, and gender. By employing late nineteenth and early twentieth-century first-hand accounts of Voodoo practitioners and their rituals, Roberts provides a nuanced understanding of who practiced Voodoo and why.Voodoo in New Orleans, a melange of religion, entrepreneurship, and business networks, stretched across the color line in intriguing ways. Roberts's analysis demonstrates that what united professional practitioners, or "workers, " with those who sought their services was not a racially uniform folk culture, but rather the power and influence that Voodoo promised. Recognizing that social immobility proved a common barrier for their patrons, workers claimed that their rituals could overcome racial and gendered disadvantages and create new opportunities for their clients.Voodoo rituals and institutions also drew inspiration from the surrounding milieu, including the privations of the Great Depression, the city's complex racial history, and the free-market economy. Money, employment, and business became central concerns for the religion's practitioners: to validate their work, some began operating from recently organized "Spiritual Churches, " entities that were tax exempt and thus legitimate in the eyes of the state of Louisiana. Practitioners even leveraged local figures like the mythohistoric Marie Laveau for spiritual purposes and entrepreneurial gain. All the while, they contributed to the cultural legacy that fueled New Orleans's tourist industry and drew visitors and their money to the Crescent City.

Contents:

Voodoo as American culture

Laveau and Anderson

The legacy and culture of voodoo in New Orleans

Messin' around in the work: the leafy Anderson model and new orleans voodoo

The work

Dame Zombi meets Jim Crow: race and voodoo in New Orleans

Yes Ise a women fixer: gender, sex, and power among New Orleans workers

The bisness: the centrality of economics and local culture to business models in New Orleans voodoo

Green money means success

The worst kind of religion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780807160527

0807160520

9780807160510

0807160512

OCLC:

922889327

Publisher Number:

heb40296 hdl