In Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook, the author attempts to take the secular and sacred world of people of the African Diaspora and by analysis dispel some of the ambiguity surrounding classification and identification of the aforementioned subjects. The text so simplifies the categories that each is placed in a neat little pocket seeking to make each readily identifiable by unique characteristics that set it apart from the other two categories. The author cites numerous interviews with believers and non-believers to support his contentions that each category, hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure, can be identified by specific characteristics. As an addition to the scholarship already produced on folkloristics and belief systems, this book enhances the database on a subject that is constantly growing.
Unfortunately, the book fails to point out that the African Diaspora is not comprised of a generic and homogeneous belief system encompassing the whole of the people. If nothing else, there should be considerable attention brought to bear on the fact that regionalism has a huge effect on how elements of culture are perceived. In looking at regionalism one important aspect is language, and the author seems only slightly to have taken into account the fact that within the Diaspora often one word will refer to each of these three categories or to a way of thinking.
These traditions that exist within the African Diaspora are actually so complex on a psychological level that in reality they defy classification and quantification on anything but an esoteric level. The author attempts to show what criteria validate and authenticate each of these categories as an entity unto itself. This is reminiscent of the work done by Joel Chandler Harris and his Uncle Remus tales. Using poetic license as does Harris, the author presents each category as a unique classification with icons and symbols that set it apart from the others. In doing this the author makes it easier for the handbook to appeal to a broader audience. Excerpts from interviews with practitioners, believers, and non-believers in hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure, give the reader a view of just how diverse the belief systems are throughout the Diaspora.
For the serious scholar, the folklore handbook, Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure, provides material for future research into African American culture. In survey courses on African American culture, this book would be one that would go a long way in any analysis of the psychological significance of spirituality, past, present, and future, and its place within the various arms of the Diaspora.
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[Review length: 417 words • Review posted on March 9, 2009]