6865: 6855: Re: 6929: Sexuality scholarship--McAlister comments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dennis Taylor <taylor@bc.edu>

I attended an excellent conference on Haiti at Bates College, 
Maine, perhaps already discussed here, and compiled a brief summay of 
some of the talks if the list is interested.  
Leslie Desmangles and two other vodoun priests whose names I canÕt 
remember spoke about Vodoun, its deep spirituality, its bad press 
("Voodoo economics"), its admixture of Catholic elements.
My own sense is that powerful spirituality (I hope this is not a 
condescending term) of the Haitian people comes from the mixture of 
Voodoun and Catholicism and of course suffering.  The "humanity" of the 
people is astonishing, to me an outsider, and keeps being affirmed each 
time (four times) that IÕve visited.
Dennis Taylor