Bêtes noires : Sorcery as history in the haitian-dominican borderlands. / Lauren Derby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Derby, Lauren.

, UCLA, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

2025.

Durham Duke University Press, [2025]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In Bêtes Noires , Lauren Derby explores storytelling traditions among the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, focusing on shape-shifting spirit demons called baka/bacá . Drawing on interviews with and life stories of residents in a central Haitian-Dominican frontier town, Derby contends that bacás—hot spirits from the sorcery side of vodou/vodú that present as animals and generate wealth for their owners—are a manifestation of what Dominicans call fukú de Colón , the curse of Columbus. The dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses that Columbus brought with him are the only types of animals that bacás become. As instruments of Indigenous dispossession, these animals and their spirit demons convey a history of trauma and racialization in Dominican popular culture. In the context of slavery and beyond, bacás keep alive the promise of freedom, since shape-shifting has long enabled fugitivity. As Derby demonstrates, bacás represent a complex history of race, religion, repression, and resistance.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE. FROM THE MOUTH OF THE GOAT

INTRODUCTION. SPIRITS, HISTORY, & POWER

CHAPTER ONE. PRETERNATURALIA OF TALKING COWS

CHAPTER TWO. THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF JAVIER

CHAPTER THREE. THE INSCRUTABLE JAILBREAK OF CLÉMENT BARBOT

CHAPTER FOUR. CREOLE PIGS AS MEMENTO MORI

CHAPTER FIVE. SPECTERS OF COLUMBUS

CHAPTER SIX. BIG MEN & TALL TAILS

CHAPTER SEVEN. BECOMING ANIMAL: FOOD, SEX, & THE ANIMAL GROTESQUE

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed January 21 2026)

ISBN:

9781478094401