RT Article
T1 Danbala/Ayida as Cosmic Prism: The Lwa as Trope for Understanding Metaphysics in Haitian Vodou and Beyond
JF Journal of Africana religions
VO 1
IS 4
SP 458
OP 487
A1 Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick
A1 Michel, Claudine
LA English
PB The Pennsylvania State University Press
YR 2013
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1812465750
AB This essay decenters notions of centrality and periphery as we aim to delineate the metaphysical elements of Haitian Vodou, a Diasporic religion in the Americas, and the manner in which its metaphysics becomes a national ethos of sorts, rooted in time, both past and present. We aim to use Danbala and Ayida as motif to explore Vodou hierophanies and irruptions of the sacred; as motif of negotiated relationships with divine energies, of ritual lineage and human ancestry, of complex gender notions; and as meditations on the natural world. These themes reveal important notions of oneness of being, of equilibrium and balance, as well as konesans, the all-encompassing wisdom that merges with knowledge—all represented by the great cosmic egg of the rainbow-serpent entities Danbala and Ayida.
K1 Metaphysics
K1 Haiti
K1 Vodou