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Religion

Elizabeth McAlister

Selected Works

Haiti

Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Color Of Christ In Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2013

The Color Of Christ In Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Haiti is an officially Roman Catholic country, and the popular religion
of Vodou incorporates many Catholic elements. Why, then, is Jesus
Christ relatively deemphasized in both traditions, while Mary and
the countless saints and spirits have a greater presence in the religious
lives of most Haitians? This article delves into the Roman Catholic
and Kongolese Catholic history of Haiti to explore why Jesus Christ
is a relatively remote figure and why he is represented as white in a
Black-majority country.

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Le Festival Rara En Haiti: Travail Religieux Et Divertissement Public En Temps D'Insécurite Et De Troubles, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2013

Le Festival Rara En Haiti: Travail Religieux Et Divertissement Public En Temps D'Insécurite Et De Troubles, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Le Rara est un festival annuel Haitien qui est religieux et carnivalesque.

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Slaves, Cannibals, And Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race And Religion Of Zombies, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2011

Slaves, Cannibals, And Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race And Religion Of Zombies, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

The first decade of the new millennium saw renewed interest in popular culture featuring zombies. This essay shows that a comparative analysis of nightmares can be a productive method for analyzing salient themes in the imaginative products and practices of cultures in close contact. It is argued that zombies, as the first modern monster, are embedded in a set of deeply symbolic structures that are a matter of religious thought. The author draws from her ethnographic work in Haiti to argue that the zonbi is at once part of the mystical arts that developed there since the colonial period, and …

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From Slave Revolt To A Blood Pact With Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting Of Haitian History, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2011

From Slave Revolt To A Blood Pact With Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting Of Haitian History, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Enslaved Africans and Creoles in the French colony of Saint-Domingue are said to have gathered at a nighttime meeting at a place called Bois Caïman in what was both political rally and religious ceremony, weeks before the Haitian Revolution in 1791. The slave ceremony is known in Haitian history as a religio-political event and used frequently as a source of inspiration by nationalists, but in the 1990s, neo-evangelicals rewrote the story of the famous ceremony as a ‘‘blood pact with Satan.’’ This essay traces the social links and biblical logics that gave rise first to the historical record, and then …

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En Haiti, La Musique Prend Le Pouvoir, Elizabeth Mcalister Apr 2011

En Haiti, La Musique Prend Le Pouvoir, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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Listening For Geographies: Music As Sonic Compass Pointing Towards African And Christian Diasporic Horizons In The Caribbean, Elizabeth Mcalister Jan 2011

Listening For Geographies: Music As Sonic Compass Pointing Towards African And Christian Diasporic Horizons In The Caribbean, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Can musical sounds reveal history, or collective identity, or new notions of geography, in different ways than texts or migrating people themselves? This essay offers the idea that the sounds of music, with their capacity to index memories and associations, become sonic points on a cognitive compass that orients diasporic people in time and space. Whereas researchers often focus on the national diasporas produced through the recent shifts and flows of globalization, I illustrate some of the limits of the concept of national and ethnic diaspora to understand how Caribbean groups form networks and imagine themselves to be situated. This …

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Poster Child, Elizabeth Mcalister, Lovely Nicolas Dec 2009

Poster Child, Elizabeth Mcalister, Lovely Nicolas

Elizabeth McAlister

Lovely Nicolas reflects on being chosen as a Unicef poster girl in a campaign to end child slavery in Haiti, in a conversation with her second mother, anthropologist Elizabeth McAlister

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Roundtable: Haitian Music (Part 2) "What Does Revolution Sound Like?", Elizabeth Mcalister Jul 2009

Roundtable: Haitian Music (Part 2) "What Does Revolution Sound Like?", Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Five writers continue their conversation about music and history in Haiti for The New Yorker.

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Roundtable: Haitian Music (Part 1), Elizabeth Mcalister Mar 2009

Roundtable: Haitian Music (Part 1), Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Five writers discuss music and history in Haiti for The New Yorker.

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Rara As Popular Army: Hierarchy, Militarism, And Warfare, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2008

Rara As Popular Army: Hierarchy, Militarism, And Warfare, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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Catholic, Vodou, And Protestant: Being Haitian, Becoming American, Elizabeth Mcalister, Karen Richman Dec 2008

Catholic, Vodou, And Protestant: Being Haitian, Becoming American, Elizabeth Mcalister, Karen Richman

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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Music And The Story Of Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2006

Music And The Story Of Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

This 6-minute Afropop Worldwide radio essay explores how music formed history and identity in Haiti, from Vodou to hip hop. Hosted by Georges Collinet. (This is an mp3 file)

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Amour, Sexe Et Genre Incarnés : Les Esprits Du Vaudou Haïtien, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2003

Amour, Sexe Et Genre Incarnés : Les Esprits Du Vaudou Haïtien, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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Voyage Autour D'Une Bouteille De Sorcier, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 2002

Voyage Autour D'Une Bouteille De Sorcier, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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A Sorcerer's Bottle: The Art Of Magic In Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 1994

A Sorcerer's Bottle: The Art Of Magic In Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

No abstract provided.

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Serving The Spirits Across Two Seas: Vodou Culture In New York And Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister Dec 1991

Serving The Spirits Across Two Seas: Vodou Culture In New York And Haiti, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

Paired with the most acclaimed photographers working in Haiti at the time, this article describes the religion of Vodou and how Haitians and those in the Haitian diaspora use the ancestral spirits for support, healing, and to make sense of their world.

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