There are "'zombies" only in Hollywood, but not in Dahomean Vodoun.
The Hollywood verison of Vodoun cruelly depicts Vodoun healers, priests/ess, and diviniers as littlemore than "mumbo jumbo" talking frauds, cannibals and witchdoctors, whose only goal is to steal the souls of their unsuspecting vicitms, rendering them helpless, walking zombies in the end.
Additionally, the over embellished and sensationalized Wes Craven movie which he alleges is based upon the book by Wade Davis "Serpent & the Rainbow," did little to educate the public about the true Vodoun religion. Craven's movie instead only served to reinforce the racist and degrading sterotypes created by Hollywood and Christian evangelists of the Vodoun religion.
Though there are socerers who might attempt such as feat, they are a seperate and distinct group from the ANCESTRAL RELIGION of Vodoun. The same as "Satanism" and its practitioners are viewed and considered the antithesis to Christianity by Christians.
:
There are no "Voodoo dolls" used in Dahomean Vodoun.
A uniquely
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What is a fetish in voudon and what are they used for?
The word "fetish" (fetiche) was first introduced by Portuguese merchants who did not possess any other word in their spiritual vernacular or experience, to describe the earthen mound and wooden vodou images enshrined in Dahomey.
Today in West Africa, the word "fetish" is used universally and interchangeably with the word "spirit," to describe the vodou.
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*What are VOODOO DOLLS and how are they used?
There are
no "Voodoo dolls" used in Dahomean Vodoun.
A uniquely
AMERICAN HOODOO phenomenon, and Hollywood stereotype, "voodoo dolls" actually have their current origins/usage from
pagan Europe.
Originally, known as
"poppet dolls" (in early Europe), these dolls were used frequently as part of European folk magic and witchcraft as a form of both beneficent and maleficent magic.
In Dahomen Vodou carved wooden images, known as
"Bochio" were used largely for this and other purposes. However, due to the laws in the U.S and Canada that specifically prohibited Africans from practicing their ancestral religions, the carving of wooden images were also outlawed.
In their place, the European "poppet doll" was modified and used in lieu of the wooden carved images employed in Vodoun, to symbolized a person, to
PROTECT them from socerey and witchcraft. This is still being done in the magico-botonical art of
HOODOO, but
not in the
ANCESTRAL RELIGION of Vodoun.
Lastly, Vodoun does not offer "how-to advice" to the non-initiated. That is also the domain of the tradition of "HOODOO."
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