Culture and Customs of Haiti

197 Pages·2001·1.003 MB·English

by  Dash, J.M.

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-