I AM GREATER THAN YOU X2
Therefore you are < me
The kappa alpha order is steeped in history and tradition.
This article seeks to show and examine how Voodoo has come to be perceived in American modern culture. He begins the article with an introduction which contains the three main typified perceptions of voodoo in the United States. Bartowski’s three main topics are voodoo and its modern affiliation with black magic, the notion of voodoo being nothing but hex and lies, and the relation of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice with voodoo.
Beyond the introduction the article begins with an explanation of how anything comes to be perceived in a culture. Bartowski uses a constructionist outlook in which he states that “…a social issue only becomes a social problem when it is defined as oppressive or intolerable to a particular group of people, or when it is construed as a serious threat to the welfare of society at large.” Bartowski uses this theory to investigate the perceptions Americans hold in relation to the three aforementioned topics regarding voodoo. Secondly Bartowski draws all his conclusions from media reports which of course influence and represent the culture of a country.
Bartowski first tackles the American perception of voodoo as black magic. He states that the most driving force behind this perception comes from the American invasion of Panama wherein U.S. military forces accredited dictator Noriega with practicing voodoo along with his witch doctor. American specialists deduced that Noriega used voodoo to do his people harm through diabolical means. Since then voodoo has been looked upon in an evil, diabolical entity.
Bartowski next addresses the notion of voodoo being superstition. He states that the term “voodoo economics” shows the cultural bias Americans hold towards voodoo as anything short of superstitious trickery.
Bartowski rounds out his three part cultural thesis concerning voodoo with the subject of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice. A media story pertaining to the death of about twelve people in Mexico by the Hernandez drug smuggling family has given the acts of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice to be incorporated with voodoo practices in the public eye. This is because media programs and free-lance journalists wrote articles which included the use of the Hernandez family of a witch who used rituals to bring about good fortune for the Hernandez family. This little fact was inevitably spun out of control by the media to the effects of cannibalism and ritualistic killing under the name of voodoo practices.
Bartowski ends his journal entry with a ‘discussion’ section which acts as a conclusion. In this section Bartowski talks more about media’s influence on culture, specifically American culture and its part in casting a dark shadow on the voodoo religion.
Robert E. Lee is the spiritual founder of KA. Voodoo, also known as Vo-du, or Vo-dou, is a religion surrounded in mystery and intrigue. Vo-du can loosely be translated from the language of the Fons, an African tribe, as introspection into the unknown . When the word Voodoo is used, many think of voodoo dolls and black magic, undoubtedly due to the extortion of the Voodoo religion in Hollywood movies and by the media . In this case, that particular image is taken from a very small percentage of Voodoo practitioners, maybe as little as five percent, who follow a particular sect of Voodoo known as Petro . Petro Voodoo does in fact have practitioners of black magic through the angry spirits of Voodoo. However, Voodoo should be looked at not in this dark sense as portrayed by modern society, but as a peaceful religion with millions of followers predominantly located in Africa, The Caribbean, South America and the southern states of the United States .
The origins of Voodoo can be traced back to West Africa before the colonial slave trade brought many Africans to the Americas. As Christian slave owners discovered of the secret Voodoo religion of the Africans, they attempted to completely destroy it by not allowing the practice of it . However, the slave-owning oppression only strengthened the resolve of slaves to continue to secretly practice Voodoo. The Voodoo practiced today in the Americas is undeniably a hybrid of many tribes’ versions of Voodoo . Yet many of the core principles were shared by the African tribes, so far as to say the almost all had the same essential meaning, with minor differences. In this way many slaves could not only unite under their oppressed lifestyle but also through religion .
The Voodoo religion is best described as Monotheism and Pantheism hybrid with the addition of loas, from the French word Lois, for laws . These loas can loosely be looked at as spirits of ancestors and as spirits that embody the major forces of the universe. This is why Voodoo has sometimes been referred to as an ancestor cult. All of the Voodoo religion acknowledges a supreme being known as Bondieu. Bondieu is in everything and also has complete control over the universe and the loas. Some historians of voodoo say that the forced conversion of many Africans to Christianity may have played some part in the formation of Bondieu . However all historians can do for the time being is speculate as to the origin of a monotheistic God in the Voodoo religion. Although Bondieu exists, it seems much more attention is given to the loas in the Voodoo religion due to the fact that humans can interact with these spirits.
Voodoo has hundreds of loas, as can be imagined by the geographical and cultural differences of those who practice Voodoo and the hybridization of the religion as it came over from West Africa to the Americas. The first two loas as can be located still in African religions to this day include Legba and Ezrulie . Legba represents a sort of sun god, where as Ezrulie is the moon goddess, and Legba’s wife . Legba, however, seems to have survived the Diaspora of Africans much more securely. Before any service Legba must be sung to to open the gate to the spirit world . He is portrayed by many as an ordinary Creole man and is revered for being the oldest spirit . It seems, like a polytheistic religion, that there is a loa for every emotion and earthly object; however loas are of course not looked at as “gods.” Ezrulie I believe can be seen in modern Carribbean Voodoo as Aizan, Guardian of Public Places. She is depicted as an old woman who is nomadic and poor; poor due to her generosity to her followers . Aizan is also looked at as one of the oldest spirits, if not the second oldest spirit . Further examples of prominent loas would be Zaka, Minister of Agriculture, Ezili, Propagator of Love, and Marosa, Protector of Children . The most interesting fact about these loas is there ability to take hold of members of the Voodoo congregation.
Although loas can inhabit any member of the congregation, the most prominent ones, as those mentioned above, can only come into a host of great ability such as the Priests and Priestesses of the Voodoo Religion. The Priests and Priestesses of the Voodoo religion are called houn’gan and mam’bo respectively. The houn’gan or mam’bo is seen almost as a pope to each separate congregation they lead for the reason that only they can host every spirit, great or small, at any time, and therefore are the hosts of oldest and wisest spirits. Although those possessed do not remember what is said, they’re words are heard by the audience and taken as direct advice from the spirits themselves.
The loas live in the boundaries of the Voodoo temple called
Following in Lee's example, KA's are known on campuses to uphold traditional gentlemanly values.
