UC Merced

Haitian Vodou is a syncretic religion that combines elements of West African beliefs and indigenous Taíno culture with a rigid framework of forced Catholicism. Western cultures have always been fascinated by, yet fearful of, Vodou and commonly depict it as devil-worship and witchcraft. It is in large part due to this pervasive view of Vodou in Haiti, as well as the challenging conditions that come with working in Haiti, that little academic interest has been paid to the nuances of the modern practice of Vodou, particularly the use of caves. In this dissertation, I incorporate ethnographic and archaeological methods to present the first comprehensive study of how modern Vodou practitioners across Haiti have incorporated caves into their syncretic ritual repertoire.

Through interviews, observation, participation, and an assessment of the ephemeral material remains left behind by Vodou practitioners, I describe what forms and purposes these rituals take, determine which parts of caves are associated with different aspects of Vodou, and compare the demographics of cave practitioners to those of Vodou practitioners in general. I argue that while Vodou, as it is practiced in public and at home, follows the definitions of religion, the aspects of Vodou as it is practiced in caves are more in line with definitions of magic, and I propose three reasons for this.

This research has two purposes. First, it is an ethno-archaeological study intended to fill in gaps in the academic body of work regarding Vodou in Haiti where cave usage has been ignored. As ethnography, it has the potential to inform not just academics, but a broader audience, and to correct misconceptions regarding Vodou in particular and Haiti in general. Second, this project may be of use to archaeologists, particularly those who work in caves or other ritual spaces, whose data may be influenced by the activities of past caretakers. Every cave that in this study had some form of active caretaker and the model of caretaker presented in this study may be of use in interpreting archaeological sites that share a similar economic and social structure to modern Haiti.