From Vaudoux to Voodoo

The word vaudoux or vaudou, found in French-language accounts of colonial Saint-Domingue in, was borrowed by Anglophone writers from the 1850s, and eventually domesticated as voodoo by the 1880s. As an exercise in political etymology, this paper explores the pre-history of voodoo in English and sugg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forum for modern language studies 2004-10, Vol.40 (4), p.415-425
Main Author: Pettinger, Alasdair
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Colonialism
Creole
Ethnography
Haiti
Kréyol
Orthography
Travel-Writing
Vodou
Voodoo
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The word vaudoux or vaudou, found in French-language accounts of colonial Saint-Domingue in, was borrowed by Anglophone writers from the 1850s, and eventually domesticated as voodoo by the 1880s. As an exercise in political etymology, this paper explores the pre-history of voodoo in English and suggests how far it might have a bearing on the continuing debates over what form to use when referring to Afro-Haitian religious beliefs and practices.
ISSN:0015-8518
1471-6860
DOI:10.1093/fmls/40.4.415