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#2590: Dolls in Vodou : Craig comments : Morris replies
From:Mysteries@aol.com
<< In regards to dolls with pins jabbed into their bodies, I will suggest
that, more likely than European witchcraft sources, these "charms" are
derived from Dahomean Bocio forms ( see African Vodun by Suzanne Preston
Blier) and from Kongo Minkisi charms and Nkondi figures (see Robert Farris
Thompson's Flash of the Spirit and Wyatt McGaffey's Astonishment and Power)
which all have sharp pegs or nails driven into their surfaces to incite
and/or placate spiritual forces. >>
Great letter. But it is not only to incite or placate but often to drive
home in a ceremonial gesture the importance of the contract formed. It is
also a form not so much of piercing but rather of binding. It binds the
object, the moment and the binder together in a ceremonial space.
Randall