Untitled Document

[Mambo Marie during possession ceremony. Used with permission.]

Women's roles in Haitian Vodou

Haitian Vodou, unlike Zar Possession, is not an inherent characteristic of women's lives. Although many people who practice Vodou are women and many healers are women (Vodou priestesses are called manbos or mambos) possession happens pretty equally between the sexes. However, there are aspects of women's lives that make them more susceptible to possession than men. Such activities include being the primary caretaker for the family and the primary family member in charge of money. Whether a woman is single, married, married with children, or single with children she is generally the one who provides for her family. She provides both emotional needs and financial needs. In Haiti and New York where many Haitian immigrants move to, women like Mama Lola (the main informant of Karen McCarthy Brown's ethnographic fieldwork on Haitian Vodou) have a better chance of maintaining work than men. Domestic work is the main resource for those who need a job and women tend to fair better at it. This financial independence has a tendency to threaten men as well as women who don't see it as independence as much as a burden. (Brown, 1991)

[Espiritismo Cruzado ceremony. Used with permission from K. Wirtz.]

Not only do women often fill the role of primary caretaker, and thus take its responsibilities, but they must also serve the spirits who possess them in order to keep the lwa (Vodou spirits) satisfied and potentially helpful with daily issues. (Lwa come from a place called Gine which looks a lot like Haiti. According to Lowenthal there are approximately 21 different types of lwa each divided further into subtypes that hold different emotional and physical characteristics. Nations and subtypes are also associated with particular families, getting passed down through generations. (Lowenthal, 1978)) Serving the spirits is time consuming and expensive for women but it is also essential. One cannot avoid a spirit that as descended; if tried problems usually ensue. Bad luck is the most common ailment and can include, "anything from serious illness to problems with money, love, or work" (Brown, 1991, p. 48). According to Mama Lola, "everything feels threatening" (Brown, 1991, p. 48) until proper steps are taken to appease an angry lwa.

Serving the spirits requires more of woman then just their time and energy. It requires them to stop serving men. As a result many manbo become lonely. Although they are said to marry their spirit, the relationship between a male lwa and his female host does not completely mirror a marriage between a human man and woman. Women like Mama Lola are taught to be strong and depend only on themselves (unlike the women in Zar cults who require the assistance of zayran to do so). But as Mama Lola says, "Some thing you can't do for yourself. You need a man to love... to make love to you" (Brown, 1991, p. 236). Embodied possession by Vodou spirits takes this away from many women.

Website designed by Abigail Franklin, Anthropology 5450, Spring 2007