Biography of a Mexican Crucifix: Lived Religion and Local Faith from the Conquest to the Present Book

Good book that is refreshingly respectful of Vodou. There are some biases in which Desmangles refuses to be critical of either the US or the Catholic Church, both of whom established clearly racist policies against Haiti in her early independence. There is also a base assumption that Catholicism is a true, universal, humanist religion and therefore Vodou is interpreted in ways that make it more compatible with Catholicism's metaphysics. Finally, Desmangles seems uncritical of Maya Deren as a source and relies on her too much. This unfortunate leap of faith results in Desmangles framing the Vodou self as two-part (which strikes me as over-simplified since all of my other sources describe at least five components), and the distinctions between these two parts is a bit muddled. Beyond that, this book is sensible, compassionate and clearly interested in furthering understanding rather than exoticism. Worth reading.