Ethics in Religion Commons^™

Tapping The Wisdom Of The Ancestors: An Attempt To Recast Vodou And Morality Through The Voice Of Mama Lola And Karen Mccarthy Brown, Claudine Michel

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The focus of this Research Report is on morality as a culture-specific and contextual phenomenon. It argues that Vodou, as a religion, has largely been misrepresented in the West and has been portrayed as having no legitimate basis for morality mainly because of its African origins. This paper attempts to interpret morality in Vodou by presenting a model of ethics construction grounded in the history of the people and based on the true meaning of the religion. It argues that Haitians have turned to their ancestral religion and to their African past to survive isolation and ostracism from the West …