What do you think?
Rate this book
Comparative Studies in Religion and Society
Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
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 importance of women's religious practices along with related themes of family and of social change. Weaving several of her own voices--analytic, descriptive, and personal--with the voices of her subjects in alternate chapters of traditional ethnography and ethnographic fiction, Brown presents herself as a character in Mama Lola's world and allows the reader to evaluate her interactions there. Startlingly original, Brown's work endures as an important experiment in ethnography as a social art form rooted in human relationships. A new preface, epilogue, bibliography, and a collection of family photographs tell the story of the effect of the book's publication on Mama Lola's life.
440 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 1991
58 people are currently reading
1916 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
May 26, 2019
The author was writing her PhD thesis on Voudou and over ten years grew close to Mama Lola, Alourdes, the mambo - priestess of her local Haitian community. It's a very well-rounded book, with as much about Mama Lola and her family and parishioners as about the lwa - the spirits and gods - rituals and ceremonies performed.
It's an interesting religion concerned more with the here and now than creation and after-life. Some rituals sound like shaministic magic until you think them through. One favoured 'treatment' is the aromatic bath of herbs and other materials, which sticks to the skin for up to three days. What brings back memories faster and more intensely than smell? You only have to have a whiff of something you haven't smelled in years for it to take you back to that moment. There is a psychological base to most of the curative rituals, it isn't just a 'placebo' effect.
In Haiti, but not Brooklyn, the religion which has become syncretised with Catholicsm, serves a quite different purpose. Haitians have been ruled by greedy dictators and an unbelievably rich upper class that employs private 'armies' to protect their interests since the time of their freedom. Their only means of political protest is to be 'possessed' by a spirit, to be the 'horse' of that god, put on the accoutrements, top hat, dress, whatever, and take to the streets to say whatever they like. They are not responsible, it is the gods speaking. No one, not even the worst dictator, would dare to the stop them being as they too are adherents of the religion.
There is a twist at the end of the book, a very, very annoying twist. Karen McCarthy Brown, this PhD anthropologist of religion, journeys to Haiti and becomes an initiate and then a mambo herself. As a priestess she feels unable to give away any of the 'inner' secrets of voudoo and there the book ends.
Read in 1996, reviewed 26 May 2019 and the book lost none of his power during those intervening years.
It's an interesting religion concerned more with the here and now than creation and after-life. Some rituals sound like shaministic magic until you think them through. One favoured 'treatment' is the aromatic bath of herbs and other materials, which sticks to the skin for up to three days. What brings back memories faster and more intensely than smell? You only have to have a whiff of something you haven't smelled in years for it to take you back to that moment. There is a psychological base to most of the curative rituals, it isn't just a 'placebo' effect.
In Haiti, but not Brooklyn, the religion which has become syncretised with Catholicsm, serves a quite different purpose. Haitians have been ruled by greedy dictators and an unbelievably rich upper class that employs private 'armies' to protect their interests since the time of their freedom. Their only means of political protest is to be 'possessed' by a spirit, to be the 'horse' of that god, put on the accoutrements, top hat, dress, whatever, and take to the streets to say whatever they like. They are not responsible, it is the gods speaking. No one, not even the worst dictator, would dare to the stop them being as they too are adherents of the religion.
There is a twist at the end of the book, a very, very annoying twist. Karen McCarthy Brown, this PhD anthropologist of religion, journeys to Haiti and becomes an initiate and then a mambo herself. As a priestess she feels unable to give away any of the 'inner' secrets of voudoo and there the book ends.
Read in 1996, reviewed 26 May 2019 and the book lost none of his power during those intervening years.
February 23, 2008
Walking between the worlds
Karen McCarthy Brown has penned a masterpiece! Mama Lola, known to family and friends as Alourdes, is a Mambo, an initiated priestess of Voudou who earns a modest living by serving her immigrant countrymen in America as a traditional healer and by conducting Haitian Voudou rites in her Brooklyn home. In 1978, Brown, then a professor of religion at New Jersey's Drew University first encountered Mama Lola while doing an ethnographic survey of the local Haitian population. Intrigued by the priestess and her misunderstood and maligned tradition, Brown became at first a friend, then a member of Mama Lola's extended family and finally an enthusiastic participant in many of the rites that comprise the corpus of Voudoun devotional life.
Mama Lola, her daughter Maggie, their children and their ancestors, and the 'Lwa' (spirits) who frequently 'possess' them are an engaging, wonderfully diverse crowd: deeply spiritual, profoundly thoughtful and often humorous characters marvelously skilled in surviving conditions of extreme deprivation and oppression and in adapting to the conditions of life (or, afterlife) in the strange world of urban America.
By the time I had completed this delightful book, I felt myself deeply involved in Mama Lola's life and that of her extended family. Brown's writing is textured and a pleasure to read. The author goes far out on a limb, leaving her observer role and social scientist expertise and becomes an initiate into the religion, wedding the 'etic' of academia to the 'emic' of an ecstatic, profoundly sensual, Earth-centered religiosity.
The arrangement of the text adds to its readability, with odd chapters offering stories about Mama Lola's family and heritage and even chapters devoted to the pantheon of lwa (spirits) of the Voudou tradition. A glossary of Voudou terms has been added, which is indispensible to readers new to the subject.
Students and scholars of Haiti, the African Diaspora and African religious traditions will enjoy and benefit from this work immensely. I recommend it as well to the general public for a most worthwhile reading adventure.
Karen McCarthy Brown has penned a masterpiece! Mama Lola, known to family and friends as Alourdes, is a Mambo, an initiated priestess of Voudou who earns a modest living by serving her immigrant countrymen in America as a traditional healer and by conducting Haitian Voudou rites in her Brooklyn home. In 1978, Brown, then a professor of religion at New Jersey's Drew University first encountered Mama Lola while doing an ethnographic survey of the local Haitian population. Intrigued by the priestess and her misunderstood and maligned tradition, Brown became at first a friend, then a member of Mama Lola's extended family and finally an enthusiastic participant in many of the rites that comprise the corpus of Voudoun devotional life.
Mama Lola, her daughter Maggie, their children and their ancestors, and the 'Lwa' (spirits) who frequently 'possess' them are an engaging, wonderfully diverse crowd: deeply spiritual, profoundly thoughtful and often humorous characters marvelously skilled in surviving conditions of extreme deprivation and oppression and in adapting to the conditions of life (or, afterlife) in the strange world of urban America.
By the time I had completed this delightful book, I felt myself deeply involved in Mama Lola's life and that of her extended family. Brown's writing is textured and a pleasure to read. The author goes far out on a limb, leaving her observer role and social scientist expertise and becomes an initiate into the religion, wedding the 'etic' of academia to the 'emic' of an ecstatic, profoundly sensual, Earth-centered religiosity.
The arrangement of the text adds to its readability, with odd chapters offering stories about Mama Lola's family and heritage and even chapters devoted to the pantheon of lwa (spirits) of the Voudou tradition. A glossary of Voudou terms has been added, which is indispensible to readers new to the subject.
Students and scholars of Haiti, the African Diaspora and African religious traditions will enjoy and benefit from this work immensely. I recommend it as well to the general public for a most worthwhile reading adventure.
July 22, 2014
This is an extraordinary book. Karen McCarthy Brown spent over a decade getting to know the Haiti-born mambo (or Vodou healer) known in her Brooklyn community as Mama Lola. In this account, she is part anthropologist and part friend. Mama Lola comes off as an utterly real person: temperamental, sometimes unkind, but a woman of great gifts and insight. (Her grown daughter too is "coming up" in the line of family mambos.) Brown also does a good job of conveying what life is like for Haitian emigres still half connected to the country of their birth (or their parents' birth) and half absorbed into American society. The Vodou religion is widely misrepresented and misunderstood outside of Haiti (and even inside it), and this book, with its mix of anecdote, history, folk tale, travel narrative, and accounts of actual Vodou rituals (the author underwent her own initiation but does not describe that here, as the details of that are considered sacred) brought me far closer to understanding than any other that I've consulted. I learned to my sorrow that Brown developed an rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's in the late 2000s and will not be able to bring us any more of her probing work. This volume was published in 1991 but has been updated a couple of times--I read the original edition.
May 30, 2020
Last week, Mama Lola passed into the spirit world. Woukoukou, a great tree has fallen. She was my Lucumí Godmother's mother in Vodou, and I'd always hoped to meet her. Since finding out about her passing, I reread Karen McCarthy Brown's Mama Lola: a Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn for the first time in over a decade. What an astonishing and moving book it is - both as a portrait of a Vodou manbo, and a surprisingly frank discussion of the many complexities of a multi-decade interracial religious mentorship between Lola and Karen.
The book was originally published in 1991, and in places it shows. Some of the language that was in common usage among academics at the time is now awkward and even somewhat offensive ("Third World women," for example, which no one would say now but which was a progressive field of study in the 1980s). Still, as a whole the book continues to be vibrant, in equal parts due to Lola's singular voice and to Karen's self-reflective writing. It is no surprise that this book radically transformed the field of ethnography, and that it continues to be widely read and taught - both by academics and by practitioners of Afro-Diasporic religions (and especially those who have a foot in both of those worlds).
Mama Lola is now a beloved ancestor. Her legacy extends through her family, out across her Vodou family, and throughout the world by way of this book. May her name never be forgotten and she spirit forever be served.
The book was originally published in 1991, and in places it shows. Some of the language that was in common usage among academics at the time is now awkward and even somewhat offensive ("Third World women," for example, which no one would say now but which was a progressive field of study in the 1980s). Still, as a whole the book continues to be vibrant, in equal parts due to Lola's singular voice and to Karen's self-reflective writing. It is no surprise that this book radically transformed the field of ethnography, and that it continues to be widely read and taught - both by academics and by practitioners of Afro-Diasporic religions (and especially those who have a foot in both of those worlds).
Mama Lola is now a beloved ancestor. Her legacy extends through her family, out across her Vodou family, and throughout the world by way of this book. May her name never be forgotten and she spirit forever be served.
July 15, 2016
Finally got my copy back and it's returned to its shelf in my library. This is one of those books I'm forever lending out because I absolutely loved it and I think more people should read it. I first read it in an anthropology class that dealt with magic, religion, and spirituality and it stuck with me.
May 9, 2010
This is a really fascinating look at Vodou. Brown talks about it largely from the perspective of the people she grew to know in the course of writing the book, and from her own perspective as she became involved with the religion herself, rather than as an outsider looking at a little-understood (and much-misunderstood) religion. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about Vodou, and to people who want to know more about Haiti, since while the focus is on Haitian immigrants in Brooklyn, their lives and experiences are very much tied to Haiti and the importance of Vodou in Haiti.
June 2, 2014
This is a book hard to rate. Some parts of it is quite interesting - on the modern (read 1980s) use of vodou in Haiti and how it transforms and translates to life for Haitian immigrants in New York. That really IS quite interesting. The presentation of Alourdes (Mama Lola) is okay though I might found it a bit too personal, in a way that the book doesn't really warrant.
But what really made me want to hurl the book to the other side of the room from time to time is Karen's personal involvement - not in the vodou life herself (that's up to her) but in the book. I can perfectly 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. It's most cringing in the short stories (in themselves a bit cringing) where she writes about herself in third person.
But if you can look past that it's an interesting book.
But what really made me want to hurl the book to the other side of the room from time to time is Karen's personal involvement - not in the vodou life herself (that's up to her) but in the book. I can perfectly 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. It's most cringing in the short stories (in themselves a bit cringing) where she writes about herself in third person.
But if you can look past that it's an interesting book.
June 10, 2015
This is probably the first and easily the best ethnographic study done of Haitian vodou to date. Brown writes carefully about her subject and notes, as anyone who tries to look at vodou purely from an academic standpoint will tell you, that the only way to really understand what vodou is and does is to go inside and join the religion, which Brown did.
As someone who found vodou before he found Mama Lola, the book reverberates as a taste of home--the practices detailed are familiar and the lwa written about mirror the spirits I know. An excellent book for anyone curious about the religion or people involved in it, or anyone who wants a solid ethnography to chew on.
As someone who found vodou before he found Mama Lola, the book reverberates as a taste of home--the practices detailed are familiar and the lwa written about mirror the spirits I know. An excellent book for anyone curious about the religion or people involved in it, or anyone who wants a solid ethnography to chew on.
July 4, 2007
This is a really fascinating look at what kind of religion makes sense for people whose lives are extremely different from our own. Brown's sympathetic treatment of Vaudou helped me to understand not only Haitian religion, but also the religious culture of ancient pagan societies; it also gave me a better appreciation of the social functions that the modern global religions serve in our own society.
I wonder, though, whether there isn't some irony in Brown's highly positive treatment of Vaudou. She clearly feels the charisma of Mama Lola intensely, but Vaudou's focus on immediate survival and family is largely incompatible with anthropology's tendency to reach out (successfully or not) to other cultures. Where does this study cease to be a disinterested study of another culture and instead become an idyll inaccessible to educated, first-world men and women? I suspect that Brown is highly aware of this issue in her work, but that doesn't mean she is able to transcend it. Perhaps none of us who experience the world through writing (and its audio-visual adjuncts) can.
I wonder, though, whether there isn't some irony in Brown's highly positive treatment of Vaudou. She clearly feels the charisma of Mama Lola intensely, but Vaudou's focus on immediate survival and family is largely incompatible with anthropology's tendency to reach out (successfully or not) to other cultures. Where does this study cease to be a disinterested study of another culture and instead become an idyll inaccessible to educated, first-world men and women? I suspect that Brown is highly aware of this issue in her work, but that doesn't mean she is able to transcend it. Perhaps none of us who experience the world through writing (and its audio-visual adjuncts) can.
November 7, 2013
I didn't know anything about Haitian Vodou prior to reading this book (other than common stereotypes from popular culture). A friend of mine is pursuing her doctorate in religion and mentioned this book during a "Bible study" session. (By Bible study, I refer to a group of people from my church who meet once a week to discuss all sorts of spiritual questions, issues, disciplines, etc.--whether or not they derive from a Christian perspective.)
Mama Lola fascinated me. Karen McCarthy Brown weaves together stories of Haitian family lore with current Vodou practices. 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. The book is very dense -- full of detailed stories of the various Vodou spirits (often a blend of African spirits and Roman Catholic saints). More than anything though, it dispelled misinformation I had about "voodoo" culture and shed light on a spiritual culture that strives to heal, understand, and connect in times of both suffering and joy.
Mama Lola fascinated me. Karen McCarthy Brown weaves together stories of Haitian family lore with current Vodou practices. 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. The book is very dense -- full of detailed stories of the various Vodou spirits (often a blend of African spirits and Roman Catholic saints). More than anything though, it dispelled misinformation I had about "voodoo" culture and shed light on a spiritual culture that strives to heal, understand, and connect in times of both suffering and joy.
April 4, 2012
It thought it was a really interesting read. I doubt I would have picked this book up if it weren't for the class I read it for, but I liked it non-the-less.
Karen McCarthy Brown becomes transformed through her anthropological field work of Haitian Vodou, and it challenged a lot of assumption she had about life. It really made me think about the "truths" that I hold and broadened my perspectives.
It was also pretty eye opening of to the hardships that Haitians and Haitian immigrants faces. Life in Haiti is really hard, especially for women, but life for them once they immigrate to the United States is not cake walk. Haitians often experience must discrimination because they practice Vodou. I never realized how much prejudice there is against Vodou until reading this book and talking about it in class. It was really eye opening.
Karen McCarthy Brown becomes transformed through her anthropological field work of Haitian Vodou, and it challenged a lot of assumption she had about life. It really made me think about the "truths" that I hold and broadened my perspectives.
It was also pretty eye opening of to the hardships that Haitians and Haitian immigrants faces. Life in Haiti is really hard, especially for women, but life for them once they immigrate to the United States is not cake walk. Haitians often experience must discrimination because they practice Vodou. I never realized how much prejudice there is against Vodou until reading this book and talking about it in class. It was really eye opening.
August 20, 2015
Excellent book. I learned not only a lot about Voodoo but also quite a bit about the struggle of the Haitian immigrant community in 1980s New York. I particularly liked author's personal stories of Aloudes, the priestess who is the subject of the book, and her family. Informative, personal, touching and occasionally funny - a much more accessible scholarly book than most.
If you're new to Haitian Voodoo, try reading Alfred Metraux's Voodoo in Haiti first. Metraux's book is a broad study, whereas Brown's is much more intimate. Both are excellent studies that shed much-needed light the colorful and vibrant world of Voodoo.
If you're new to Haitian Voodoo, try reading Alfred Metraux's Voodoo in Haiti first. Metraux's book is a broad study, whereas Brown's is much more intimate. Both are excellent studies that shed much-needed light the colorful and vibrant world of Voodoo.
June 4, 2007
When I saw this book on one of my college courses mandatory reading lists I was dreading it. After the first chapter it had me hooked. The book is a terrific research into a religion that I was completely ignorant on. Voodoo to me was what I had seen in all the movies and cartoons, monsters and witch doctors. After reading the book I became very interested in learning more on the Voodoo Gods and Ceremonies.
June 27, 2013
I read this book for one of my anthropology classes in college, then wrote a paper on it. I found this book very intriguing as well as educational. I learned a lot about vodou and the culture behind it. 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.
April 13, 2014
A great book to get a sympathetic reading on voodoo. For an ethnography it is very easy to read. I recommend this, and offer further thoughts at: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
April 15, 2007
Packs in a lot of textbook information, without sounding like one. Personal, touching, and more tangible than any other anthropological piece I've read.
June 7, 2012
I liked this book, but the author is too involved I think. Is this some kind of text book? Is it a memoir? Can it be both?
It was an interesting subject to read about.
It was an interesting subject to read about.
May 13, 2015
An interesting book - subject was fascinating, though I did find the writing a little disjointed at times.
January 21, 2022
Like Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, which I also loved, this is an ethnography that focuses on one woman informant. Well, one woman and her family. Mama Lola faces a lot of drama, in her own life and in the lives of the Brooklynites she helps by serving the spirits, so there are a lot of amazing stories in here. Brown alternates between chapters written like gonzo journalism and chapters that are more in line with anthropology, which allows for more freakiness than other academic disciplines, but still, strives for something like "truth." I don't know if Haitians or Vodou practicing people think this book is true, but I thought it was amazing. Even at the distance of a few decades and thousands of kilometers, I thought some of the spiritual insights here and theories of magic were helpful for me personally. I also kept flashing back to bits of Nalo Hopkinson stories and memories of encounters with Santeria when I lived in NYC, which was nice. All in all this is an exciting, warm, and loving book.
October 2, 2023
I read this for my comparative religion course, it was honestly pretty good. It was extremely in-depth and I feel like I really did learn a lot about Vodou and what it means to the people who practice it.
September 5, 2007
[granted I read this almost 4 years ago!... ;) preface this review with a heavy "As I recall"...]
My blasé attitude toward this book has very little to do with the content. It is, in fact, a very fast and pleasant read... certainly worthy (at least) of a plane ride/summer peruse. Alourdes' (Mama Lola) tale is an important one... and certainly words like "inspirational," "admirable" and "touching" are not undeserved.
At the risk of sounding a tad ornery, I suppose my issue with the book stems from the fact that-- given my background in religious studies-- I am no longer struck by narratives which attempt to explore the charm and value of difference. 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. "As Alourdes and I became friends, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain an uncluttered image of myself as scholar and researcher in her presence." "The only was I could hope to understand the psychodrama of Vodou was to open my own life to the ministrations of Alourdes." "A great guffaw exploded from her, and, with one hand planted on each thigh, she threw her head back: 'Karen, you too smart for me!'" I understand the value of tracing the development of your own transformation as a reader along with the transformation of your author... but why hit me over the head with it? I get it, it's hard to be so edumacated and then turn around to endorse goat sacrifice as a generative practice... but why make that explicit? To hook me in and personalize the story? In my opinion, Alourdes can do the heavy lifting on her own. (As is the case as the novel wears on...)
Despite my lack of mercy, I do recommend you at least give it a try. I've jokingly recommended this for the "chicken soup for the soul" crowd. That's simply the tenor of the first 100 of so pages... its true voice emerges after KMB's slightly awkward maneuvering at the onset.
My blasé attitude toward this book has very little to do with the content. It is, in fact, a very fast and pleasant read... certainly worthy (at least) of a plane ride/summer peruse. Alourdes' (Mama Lola) tale is an important one... and certainly words like "inspirational," "admirable" and "touching" are not undeserved.
At the risk of sounding a tad ornery, I suppose my issue with the book stems from the fact that-- given my background in religious studies-- I am no longer struck by narratives which attempt to explore the charm and value of difference. 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. "As Alourdes and I became friends, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain an uncluttered image of myself as scholar and researcher in her presence." "The only was I could hope to understand the psychodrama of Vodou was to open my own life to the ministrations of Alourdes." "A great guffaw exploded from her, and, with one hand planted on each thigh, she threw her head back: 'Karen, you too smart for me!'" I understand the value of tracing the development of your own transformation as a reader along with the transformation of your author... but why hit me over the head with it? I get it, it's hard to be so edumacated and then turn around to endorse goat sacrifice as a generative practice... but why make that explicit? To hook me in and personalize the story? In my opinion, Alourdes can do the heavy lifting on her own. (As is the case as the novel wears on...)
Despite my lack of mercy, I do recommend you at least give it a try. I've jokingly recommended this for the "chicken soup for the soul" crowd. That's simply the tenor of the first 100 of so pages... its true voice emerges after KMB's slightly awkward maneuvering at the onset.
March 26, 2016
This book was absolutely wonderful, and deepened my understanding of Vodou tremendously. Mama Lola, since the time that the book was written, has become one of the most important Haitian-American spiritual leaders in the diaspora, and this book is a stunning account of her life. My only criticism is that, since this book is first and foremost an ethnography, the author is sometimes a bit too analytical. She has to be, because she is an academic, but too much analysis takes away from the orthopracitcal core of Vodou. It is a religion that depends more on what a person does rather than what he or she believes in, and this notion gets somewhat lost when the author expounds her thoughts on spiritual matters. However, on the whole, this book is very good, easy-to-read, and highly enjoyable.
![Profile Image for [Name Redacted].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1347082397i%2F287915._UY200_CR0%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
December 14, 2007
Entertaining, but more of an autobiography than a scholarly work. Brown quickly and easily falls under Alourdes' charismatic sway, yet as an outsider from a Western academic background is incapable of truly understanding the dynamics of Haitian vodou.
She neglects the reality of male vodou practitioners (who are, for their part, possessed by female spirits), the subjective nature of her own analyses, and the limited nature of her experiences with one particular individual's approach to one particular branch of voodoo. She is herself an excellent case against the experiential focus advocated by Schleiermacher and Otto.
She neglects the reality of male vodou practitioners (who are, for their part, possessed by female spirits), the subjective nature of her own analyses, and the limited nature of her experiences with one particular individual's approach to one particular branch of voodoo. She is herself an excellent case against the experiential focus advocated by Schleiermacher and Otto.
Read
March 1, 2009Vodou is a misunderstood religion - it is peaceful, individualistic, and deeply spiritual, not the demented caricature our society has created for us to believe. I love McCarthy Brown's delicate treatment of Haitians living in Brooklyn, as well as her clear rendering of vodou's most complicated theological features. This is an important book and a great work of ethnography for those who have read little of it.
September 25, 2009
This is an intriguing ethnography that clearly is written from the ground up. 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. 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.
May 13, 2008
Really interesting ethnography of vodou, which I knew nothing about previously. For you anthropology nerds, there is a funny note in the foreword about how the author was doing fieldwork while the whole post-modern controversy was going. Immediately after its publication, her book was hailed as this great example of post-modernism and she had no idea what they were talking about.
September 23, 2014
Beautiful piece of scholarship. In embracing her subjectivity, McCarthy Brown created a complete work that denied most misconceptions people have about Haitian religion. Of course you would need more literature to do some work on Vodou, but still, Mama Lola should be required reading for anyone studying Afro-Caribbean religion. More than a book about religion, it is a book about humanity.
May 14, 2007
i loved reading this book. i love learning about new religions and this was a perfect way to learn abotu one. the author converts to become part of the vodou community and its cool to walk through her process while she writes about it. its as if you, yourself are converting to this religion too.
June 29, 2007
Excellent overview of Haitian Rada vodou in Brooklyn. Both Alourdes and Karen McCarthy Brown emerge as complex individuals harnassing physical and spiritual resources to solve deep social problems associated with immigration and poverty in America.
January 4, 2010
The chapters alternate between biographical stories spanning multiple generations of Mama Lola's family and information about the lwa. It's well written and fascinating. Gives a very nice overview of Vodou and Haitian culture.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews