hampshire_1365-OBJ (3)

Therefore, popular religious practices differ depending on the history of each region where they
exist.
The Dominican popular religion, Vodú, commonly belittled and misconstrued by
mainstream media to represent possession­based cults, has been historically misunderstood by
non­practitioners. Cultural anthropologist Robert Lee Adams, Jr., intent on exploring the “many
aspects of Dominican culture [that] remain obscured and ignored as a result of the consolidation
49
of Dominican nationalism, ​Dominicanidad​,” concisely defines “Vodú” as “a web of
Afro­Dominican religious institutions – secret societies, carnival groups, Catholic brotherhoods,
50
and healing cults." This description serves as a strong base to build from. Understanding the
complexities of Vodú’s religious structure, the diversity of practices from region to region, and
the nature of popular religions, forming through the needs of their society, Adams’ base can then
be built on by revisiting Vodú in the Dominican Republic, focusing on the shifts of its presence.
Vodú can be seen as a living religion which adapts to the societies it’s placed in. This adaptable
nature of Vodú has in fact created a continuum that goes from Vodú to Catholicism: where many
51
Dominicans identify as Catholic, yet participate in Vodú practices. In summary, Vodú can only
be understood through its historical context and analyses of the ways associated religious
practices, varying throughout regions and times, reflect contemporary conflicts.
Palo is central to the holy calendar of Dominican Vodú. Many ceremonies of this
calendar include practices that reflect the conditions of the people that engage in them. The
52
central figures of this holy calendar are the ​misterios​. Originally the Orishas of western Africa,
49
Robert Lee Adams, Jr., ​History at the Crossroads: Vodú and the Modernization of the Dominican Borderland
(2006) 2.
50
Adams, Jr. 3.
51
The continuum between Catholicism and Vodú will be revisited throughout the ethnography in chapter 3.
52
Misterios refers to the deities within the pantheon of Dominican Vodú.
17