Mama Lola has ratings and 48 reviews. Bill said: Walking between the worldsKaren McCarthy Brown has penned a masterpiece! Mama Lola, known to fam. Karen McCarthy Brown’s classic book shatters stereotypes of Vodou by offering an intimate portrait of African-based religion in everyday life. She explores the. This book, Mama Lola, A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, is an exploration into one woman’s life and family heritage, and how she comes into the role of a healer.
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Alourdes’ Mama Lola tale is an important one Want to Read saving…. Refresh and try again. Prior to Brown’s publication hrooklyn Mama Lola, the primary frame of reference through which Vodou was interpreted was intrinsically linked pristess the stereotypical stigmas that associate “Voodoo” with dark magic and satanic practices. Voodoo to me was what I had seen in all the movies and cartoons, monsters and witch doctors.
Its a good book, you should read it.
Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn Summary & Study Guide
Brown makes a point of always using the word vodou instead of the Americanized version of the word, voodoo, because it insinuates a brookln and “evil” opinion of the religion. Religions are meant to ease the pain of life.
Of priestews you would need more literature to do some work on Vodou, but still, Mama Lola should be required reading for anyone bropklyn Afro-Caribbean religion. Her mother, Philomise Macena was a mambo in Port-au-Prince and now watches over her pdiestess outside Alourdes’s altar room That’s simply the tenor of the first of so pages University of California Press.
Mar 08, Dimity marked it as didn-t-finish Shelves: I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge and learn about a strong woman who faces many struggles, but overcomes them. Metraux’s book is a broad study, whereas Brown’s is much more intimate. Brown admits that “at the same time and in the same places” she was attempting to understand the Haitian diasporic tradition and culture, the people that constitute this culture were attempting to understand and negotiate life in America xi.
Some time after the publication of Mama LolaAlourdes “made Ocha ” initiating herself into the Santeria religion Unlike sensationalist books and articles about “Vodou,” Brown chose to concentrate on the reality of the religion, accurately explaining its meaning and the lives of those practicing it Corbett.
What is amazing to me is how McCarthy Brown was able to embed so many theoretical strands within her narrative, making it a gold mind of methodology and theory for religions scholars without making it difficult or boring. After reading the book I became very interested in learning more on the Voodoo Gods and Ceremonies.
Mama Lola by Karen McCarthy Brown – Paperback – University of California Press
Some parts of it is quite interesting – on the brioklyn read s use of vodou in Haiti and how it transforms and translates to life for Haitian immigrants in New York. Raise that Woman’s Petticoat 4. Through her stories, you gain a sense of how this group of Haitian immigrants have brought their healing traditions to their lives in New York. However, the book veers back and forth between academic Page 3 – of the apothecaries of New World African religions offering fast-luck and get-rich-quick powders, High John the Conqueror root, and votive candles marked for the Seven African Powers.
Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
We really see in McCarthy’s Brown’s analysis of Voudou how “primitive” religions actually make sense and play an important role in people’s life. She has a half-sister voeou Irma different mothers who regularly participates in her Vodou rituals Metraux’s book is a broad study, whereas Excellent book.
Excellent overview of Haitian Rada vodou in Brooklyn. By establishing herself as the foil to Mama Lola at the onset of the book, I came to find KMB’s written role as observer more or less an imposition of a certain hubris.
A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Brown also does a good job of conveying what life is like for Haitian emigre This is an extraordinary book. The story begins with Mama Lola’s great grandfather and winds its way through the various generations into the story of Alourdes a.
Chapter 4 – Ogou. University of California Pr Amazon. She is the youngest child of Philomise Macena, a mambo from Jean-Rabel. I can priestesss understand her statement that it is impossible for her to just stay out of it and be a silent observer I might not agree, but I understand it but that is no reason for her to always place herself smack in the middle of everything.
He is the principle healer among the Vodou Iwa Joseph Binbin Mauvant 2. Ogun is perceived to be the patron of many different aspects in life, for instance in Haitian Vodouthe spirit is referred to as Ogou Badagri, a prietsess who is protective and prideful often guiding people through adversity.
According to the University of California Press, the publishing firm priesttess Mama Lola, “[this] classic book shatters stereotypes of Vodou by offering an intimate portrait of African-based religion in everyday life” [7].