Nontraditional Society of Haiti

We do not have to wait for the book proper to be apprised of the author's biases. In his "Editor's Foreword," the arrogant Joseph Campbell denounces traditional society, which he sees as a child of Christianity, and praises non-traditional society:

To some it will be incredible that an illiterate people should preserve in their traditions an arcanum lost to popular Christianity (which is today largely dogmatic rather than initiatory, moral rather than metaphysical), but no one acquainted with the true character of any so-called primitive religion will be surprised (xi).

Campbell, as representative of the author, charges Christianity with "driv[ing] the entire modern world . . . into a frenzy of absolutely despiritualized materialism," and praises Haitian Voudoun for "invest[ing] the most ravaged victims of the Christian debauch with the living radiance of the timeless symbols, of which the Christian symbols are b

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[soul] of a living person and become the animating force of his physical body. . . . Since it is by such manifestations that the divinities of the pantheon make known their instructions and desires and exercise their authority, this phenomenon is basic to Voudoun (16). The problem of understanding Voudoun for non-Voudouners is made difficult enough because of biases about what appears to be such an "exotic" religion. However, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that believers in Voudoun themselves inadvertently compare the two religions in ways which confuse and dilute the true distinctions between them. For example, the confusion between the Catholic priest and the Voudoun houngan is inadvertently misrepresented by the believer in Voudoun himself, because he is aware of the priest in Catholicism but he does not understand the great differences between priest and houngan: A houngan . . . is like a Catholic priest in that he is responsible for the preservation and performance of complex religious traditions and rituals. But Voudoun is not a centralized church organization, and the houngan has no organizational authority behind him (17). In addition, Deren notes, the houngan performs what amount to doctor's duties in his he
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Approximate Word count = 1658
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)