Saturday, May 9, 2009

That Voodoo That You Do



Reading the article on conceptual blending got me thinking about syncretism the blending of religion in general, the evolution that a faith undergoes when it encounters another.  Of particular interest to me is Voodoo, both the Haitian variety and that practiced in Louisiana. 

African slaves, faced with the destruction of their culture and their religion by their new masters found a way to blend their old ways with those of Catholicism and the local Indians, creating a religion which both met their spiritual needs and was able to pass undetected (or at least mostly unmolested) while surrounded on all sides by a hostile and alien faith.

This syncretism is the ultimate test of the strength of a religion.  Nothing in this world can remain static without eventually falling into stagnation and dying out.  Neither is it possible to avoid encounters with alien modes of thought or speech.  Thus, true long term survival demands adaptation and change.

A good metaphor for this phenomenon would be the composition of glass versus steel.  Glass is technically harder than steel, with stiffer molecular bonds.  But this makes it brittle.  When steel is struck with enough force to damage it, it bends and dents, becoming partially deformed but remaining essentially intact.  Glass, on the other hand, shatters at the first blow.


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