Culture and Customs of Haiti PDF
Preview Culture and Customs of Haiti
Culture and Customs of Haiti J. Michael Dash GREENWOOD PRESS Culture and Customs of Haiti RecentTitlesin CultureandCustomsofLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean CultureandCustomsofArgentina DavidWilliamFoster,MelissaFitchLockhart,andDarrellB.Lockhart CultureandCustomsofColombia RaymondLeslieWilliamsandKevinG.Guerrieri CultureandCustomsoftheDominicanRepublic IsabelZ.Brown CultureandCustomsofEcuador MichaelHandelsman CultureandCustomsofCostaRica ChaleneHelmuth CultureandCustomsofChile GuillermoI.Castillo-Feliu´ CultureandCustomsofGuatemala MaureenE.Shea CultureandCustomsofCuba WilliamLuis Culture and Customs of Haiti 4 J. Michael Dash Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean Peter Standish, Series Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Dash,J.Michael,1948– CultureandcustomsofHaiti / J.MichaelDash. p. cm.—(CultureandcustomsofLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean,ISSN1521–8856) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0–313–30498–X(alk.paper) 1. Ethnology—Haiti. 2. Haiti—Sociallifeandcustoms. I. Title. II. Series. GN564.H2.D37 2001 306'.097294—dc21 00–033126 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:1)2001byJ.MichaelDash Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,without theexpresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:00–033126 ISBN:0–313–30498–X ISSN:1521–8856 Firstpublishedin2001 GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.greenwood.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica TM Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Everyreasonableefforthasbeenmadetotracetheownersofcopyrightmaterialsinthisbook,butin someinstancesthishasprovenimpossible.Theauthorandpublisherwillbegladtoreceiveinformation leadingtomorecompleteacknowledgmentsinsubsequentprintingsofthebookandinthemeantime extendtheirapologiesforanyomissions. For Nanou, my bright and morning star Contents Series Foreword ix Preface xi Chronology xv 1 Context 1 2 The People and Society 29 3 Religion 51 4 Social Customs 75 5 Mass Media and Cinema 81 6 Literature and Language 95 7 The Performing Arts 119 8 The Visual Arts and Architecture 135 Bibliography 153 Index 157 A photo essay follows p. 79. Series Foreword “CULTURE”isaproblematicword.Ineverydaylanguagewetendtouseitin at leasttwosenses. Onthe one handwespeakofculturedpeopleandplaces full of culture, uses that imply a knowledge or presence of certain forms of behavior or of artistic expression that are socially prestigious. In this sense large cities and prosperous people tend to be seen as the most cultured.On the other hand, there is an interpretation of “culture” that is broader and more anthropological; culture in this broader sense refers to whatever traditions, beliefs, customs, and creative activities characterize a given com- munity—in short, it refers to what makes that community different from others. In this second sense, everyone has culture;indeed,itisimpossibleto be without culture. Theproblemsassociatedwiththeideaofculturehavebeenexacerbatedin recentyearsbytwotrends:lessrespectfuluseoflanguageandagreaterblur- ringofculturaldifferences.Nowadays,“culture”oftenmeanslittlemorethan behavior, attitude, or atmosphere. We hear about the culture of the board- room,ofthefootballteam,ofthemarketplace;therearebookswithtitleslike TheCultureofWarbyRichardGabriel(Greenwood,1990)orTheCultureof Narcissism by Christopher Lasch (1979). In fact, as Christopher Clausen points out in an article published in the American Scholar (Summer 1996), we have gotten ourselves into trouble by using the term so sloppily. People who study culture generally assume that culture (in the anthropo- logicalsense)islearned,notgeneticallydetermined.Anothergeneralassump- tionmadeinthesedaysofmulticulturalismhasbeenthatculturaldifferences should be respected rather than put under pressure to change. But these as-
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