Overview

Known in the Dominican Republic and Togo as Vodu, in Benin as Vodún, and in Haiti as Vodou, West African religion has, for hundreds of years, served as a repository of sacred knowledge while simultaneously evolving in response to human experience and globalization. Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world. By examining the systems--ritual practices, community-based spirit veneration, and spiritual means of securing opportunity and well-being--alongside the individuals who worship, this rich collection offers the first comprehensive ethnographic study of West African spirit service on a broad scale. Contributors consider social encounters between African/Haitian practitioners and European/North American spiritual seekers, economies, and histories, funerary rites and spirit possessions, and examinations of gender and materiality. Offering much-needed perspective on this historically disparaged religion, Spirit Service reminds us all that the gods are growing, assimilating, and demanding recognition and respect.

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Christian N. Vannier is lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan, Flint. He is coauthor of An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo and coeditor of Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs. Christian N. Vannier is lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan, Flint. He is coauthor of An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo and coeditor of Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs. Eric J. Montgomery is assistant professor of anthropology at Michigan State University and Saperstein Senior Fellow and faculty in the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University. He is coauthor of An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo and editor of Shackled Sentiments. Eric J. Montgomery is assistant professor of anthropology at Michigan State University and Saperstein Senior Fellow and faculty in the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University. He is coauthor of An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo and editor of Shackled Sentiments. Timothy R. Landry is associate professor in the departments of anthropology and religious studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of Vodún: Secrecy and the Search for Divine Power. Timothy R. Landry is associate professor in the departments of anthropology and religious studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of Vodún: Secrecy and the Search for Divine Power. Ron Butler is a Los Angeles-based actor, Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator, and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits. Most kids will recognize him from the three seasons he spent on Nickelodeon's True Jackson, VP. He works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has voiced a wide variety of audiobooks. He is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company and an Independent Filmmaker Project Award winner for his work in the HBO film Everyday People.

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