Syncretism

Religious syncretism exhibits blending of two or more sacred belief organizations into a in the altogether system, or the incorporation into a ghostly tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. In the case of Haitian Vodou, Vodou blends two or more religious beliefs into one system, therefore it can be characterized has syncretism. Vodou is a syncretic system derived from deeply rooted African beliefs and compound French Catholicism. As a reaction to being torn violently from their roots, the slaves tried to resume their cultural and religious traditions.Ancestral spirits were invoked and celebrated in secret, far from the masters eyes. The worship of saints and the Catholic sacraments served as a screen and a support for African beliefs. The creation of a coherent belief system was extremely important in the development of a feeling of mavin among the slaves which would provide them with a sense of self and community. The process of syncretization among the African piety s helps to apologise why Vodou found it relatively easy to accept and integrate split of Christian religious belief and practice into the local religious activity.Resistance to diversity was met with terrible violence, so Africans already saddled with the horror of being a slave would also suffer extra depreciations because they wished to celebrate their native religion. A solution fell into speckle though, and this solution was nearly identical completely across the Americas. The Africans would pretend to convert to Catholicism, and secretly continue their religious traditions chthonic the guise of Christian worship. Catholic symbols, like the Eucharist and the Saints, came to have recapitulate meanings.Initially this integration was pu deposit functional, providing a cover of legitimacy for religions that were severely proscribed. Naturally, more or less Africans did not want to leave behind their old traditions. But later a few generations a real syncretism became part o f the duality of beliefs of the slaves themselves, who short found it possible to accommodate both religious systems. One carriage in which one can see clearly an example of syncretism is that Vodou recognizes a supreme deity and so does Catholicism.However, this god does not interact promptly with humanity. Humans must rely on lesser celestial beings know as laws and in Roman Catholicism humans must rely on lesser celestial beings known as angels and saints. These creatures might show up as gods, though they are more like helpers and messengers for the supreme creator. It was a primary matter of marrying the imagery of lwas with saints and angels. Then it was simple to go to perform and pray to St. Patrick to invoke Damballah, or pray to St. Anthony to invoke Legba.There was also no need to change the structure of the supreme deity. Vodou does not reject the whim that the Christian god is any different than their supreme deity. How did Haitian Vodou induce to this point? Vo dous evolution is marked by four major developments. The first one is the integration of African beliefs and practices around the dominant Fon religion. The entropy was the classification of gods and emergence of fresh ones. The third gear one was the discount of Catholic elements and finally the fourth one was appropriating Amerindian religious symbols.The reason that the Fon beliefs became the dominant ones was for the simple fact that the Dahomean culture was the most populous. Vodou gained the majority of its deities from the Fon received from other African religions are the terms for gods (laws), mambos, the Congo word for priestess, and special deities lie Ogun, which absorbs the place of Gu in Dahomey. The classification for gods/laws changed over the time of Vodous development. At first it was classified according to African ethnic origins Rada, Kongo, Nago, and Ibo.Later, with the emergence of new deities in Haiti two major categories of deities emerged Rada and Petwo d eities. The Rada deities originate from Africa while the Petwo deities originated in Haiti, except are still believed to visit from Africa (nan ginen). Synthesis of the Catholic faith with Vodou began with the code Noir in 1685. This code outlawed all religions except for Catholicism. According to the label Noir, slaves must be baptized. It stated that each slaves word sense into the church must be preceded by a period of religious instruction in the Catholic faith.This led to restrictions for the slaves. Some of these restrictions included slaves not being able to leave the plantation, prohibit slaves from night gathering, rituals, dances, etc. , and the change of goats were prohibited. Three theories could explain what happened. The first one simply states that both amalgamate together to make one. The second theory, symbiosis, explains that African elements and Catholic elements existed side by side as part of a mosaic, not having true fusion.The third theory, unless drape d over the African dissimulation, states that Catholic elements of ritual were merely draped over the African ones in efforts to conceal traditional religious practices in an environment that was hostile to their survival. The last theory is what I ring explains this scenario the best. Vodou is more closely related to African traditions than the Catholic faith Vodou dependable utilize the Catholic faith as a disguise.I believe if the Catholic faith was not there, it Vodou could have still emerged under Islam or Judaism, except it would have been much harder since the two latter religions are not as universal as Catholicism. The final step in the development of Vodou is the synthesis of Amerindian religions. Symbols for Vodou originated here and not in Africa. Things like the asson, the sacred rattle of the priests, and the objects used in rituals. One can conclude that Vodou started as a religion from mainly three other religions, but now Vodou has evolved into a new and unique religion.