Description
Book SynopsisTourists to Ouidah, a city on the coast of the Republic of Bénin, in West Africa, typically visit a few well-known sites of significance to the Vodún religion—the Python Temple, where Dangbé, the python spirit, is worshipped, and King Kpasse''s sacred forest, which is the seat of the Vodún deity known as Lokò. However, other, less familiar places, such as the palace of the so-called supreme chief of Vodún in Bénin, are also rising in popularity as tourists become increasingly adventurous and as more Vodún priests and temples make themselves available to foreigners in the hopes of earning extra money.
Timothy R. Landry examines the connections between local Vodún priests and spiritual seekers who travel to Bénin—some for the snapshot, others for full-fledged initiation into the religion. He argues that the ways in which the Vodún priests and tourists negotiate the transfer of confidential, s
Table of Contents
A Note on Orthography and Style
Introduction
Chapter 1. Touring the Forbidden
Chapter 2. Receiving the Forest
Chapter 3. Secrecy, Objects, and Expanding Markets
Chapter 4. Belief, Efficacy, and Transnationalism
Chapter 5. Global Vodún, Diversity, and Looking Ahead
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Acknowledgments
