The convergence of African religion and Christianity in the Atlantic world has inspired some of the most significant and most analyzed examples of syncretism in the study of religion. Scholarly discussions of these phenomena, however, tend to portray religions like Vodou in Haiti and Candomblé in Brazil as mergers of various Euro-Christian and ‘‘traditional’’ African elements that chiefly result from processes of cognitive ideation, thereby blurring the integrative somatic dimensions of religious syncretism. Modes of embodying knowledge, power, and morality are thus largely absent from the discussion of religious syncretism in Haitian Vodou and Catholicism, as well as other contact-cultural religions, whose congregational and performance spaces now span national boundaries. Drawing upon the historiography of Kongolese and Haitian religion, and on our multi-site ethnographic research among religious communities in Haiti, to think about religious syncretism in the African diaspora, this paper focuses on two key metaphors of mimetic knowledge and embodiment, mare and pwen (tying and point), arguing that they are both fundamental processes in Haitian religious syncretism and essential tropes for understanding Haitian Vodou and Catholicism, processes that are of predominantly Central African, and especially Kongolese, origin.
Parmi les exemples du syncrétisme religieux, les plus intéressants et les plus étudiés académiquement, sont ceux qu’a inspiré la convergence des religions africaines et de la chrétienté dans le monde atlantique. Cependant, l’analyse de ces phénomènes a trop souvent tendance à surestimer les processus cognitifs dans les religions comme le vodou, le candomblé, et le santeria, et de ce fait estompe les dimensions somatiques du syncrétisme religieux. Ainsi, la connaissance corporelle, la morale, et le pouvoir — choses importantes dans le vodou et le catholicisme en Haïti et dans sa diaspora — sont effectivement niés. Basée sur l’historiographie de la religion kongolaise et sur nos travaux de recherche ethnographiques dans diverses communautés religieuses en Haïti, notre réflexion ici porte sur le syncrétisme religieux à travers deux métaphores intégratives et somatiques dans le vodou et le catholicisme en Haïti: mare (amarrer) et pwen (point). Nous soutenons que l’on peut mieux comprendre le processus du syncrétisme en général en fixant notre attention sur mare et pwen, procédés essentiels qui signifient profondément l’influence centrafricaine, et surtout kongolaise, dans la religion haïtienne.
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