Talk:Hoodoo (folk magic)/Archive 1

hoodoo or voodoo
i used to get voodoo and hoodoo confused.

i've lost track of all the references to hoodoo i've seen in blues... Gringo300 00:50, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No Loas in Hoodoo
I have removed this piece of text, and will explain why:

Many etnomusicologists see charm musical scales in        hoodoo music. For instance, in "Wonderful World" one can notice common elements with the invocation of the voodoo Loas.

0) "Etnomusicologusts" is not an English word -- but i presume the intended word was "ethnomusicologists.

1) There is no Wiki entry for charm musical scales.

2) There is no such thing as "hoodoo music." Hoodoo is a form of African American folk magic and belief. It is i topic of life that is mentioned in any number of popular African American forms of music, including folk music, work songs, ragtime, blues (both pre-war WW II acoustic vblues and post WW II electric blues), jug band music, popular music, rhythm and blues, and rap. In none of these genres is there a uniform subset called "hooodoo music," nor does :"hoodoo music" exist as a form of which these musical genres are subsets. A theoretical class of "hoodoo music" cannot be identified with respect to any recognizable meloodies, tempi, time signatues, or lyrics, because the GENRES are predominate here and the subject of hoodoo is only that -- a subject or topic of lyrical comment. Simply put by analogy: many pieces of African American music in all of the above musical genres deal with, for instance, ungulate animals (horses, sheep, goats, and cows), but there is no attempt to create an over-arching category of "ungulate msic."

3) "Wonderful World" (a song sung by Louis Armstrong) does not mention hoodoo at all. It was composed by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, nether of whom were practitioners of hoodoo -- or African American by ethnicity (Weiss was a Jew; Thiele was of German descent) -- thus any "Loa" (West African) "elements"  it contains ae no-existent, coincidental, or the result of copying and extant West African song.

4) "The voodoo Loas" do not have anything to do with hoodoo as an African American folk belief. Voodoo (which, as a religion, must be capitalized" Voodoo) is an African religion from what is now Benin; it survived in modified form in Haiti among members of the Ewe and Fon language group and their descendents. Hoodoo, on the other hand, shows definite retentions from Central Africa -- the current Congo, Angola, and Gambia regions, where the inhabitants are within the Bantu language group. Words that survive in hoodoo usage in America are universally Bantu, not Fon / Ewe. Adherents are Christians, mosty Protestants; they do not "invoke" Loas or any West African deities.

The fact that i have taken time to defend this deletion is an indicator that i, being new to Wikipedia, take the Wiki aim of VERIFIABLE, neutral, supported factuality seriously, but i doubt that i will be able to continually keep up the effort necessary to stop people from just throwing BS unsupported claims into an article.

Is this common?

Catherineyronwode 05:22, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

No Cajun "Sacred Food Offerings" in Hoodoo
I have delted the following text:

"In many cajun food recipes it is possible to      find out the sacred food as offerings. "

Here are my reasons:

1) Cajun refers to French Acadians, not to African Americans. Hoodoo is found all over the USA, wherever Black people live; it is not a phenomenon connected to Acadian French people in Louisiana.

2) There are no enty in Wikipedia for sacred food as offerings.

3) There are no examples of sacred food offerings in hoodoo. The person who wrote this may be thinking of Santeria or Voodoo, two religions in which sacred foods are offered to specific deities. These religions are not prcticed by French Acadians.

Someone is just throwing unverifiable stuff in here, and it is tedious to remove it.

I am going to suggest moving hoodoo outof the category it is in (Vodun, a West African and Afrcian Diaspric religion) and putting it where it belongs, with other forms of folk magic.

More Voodoo Stuff deleted
The article had additions made which contradicted earlier statements. Older versions explained that hoodoo is not Vodoo. Newer version asserted it was. It's not. Rather than simply revert, i rewrote the article in stronger, clearer (i hpe!) terms.

I will now suggest moving it to a new category -- it does not belng in the Vodun category and never did.

I am off to research categories...

Catherineyronwode 06:13, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I may not know too much about hoodoo, but this statement sounded ridiculous:

"Hoodoo has actually been a part of Voodoo ritual practice since the beginning of time."

I have therefore deleted it without trial. User 13 June 2006.

English Hoodoo is B.S. Cultural Appropriation and Disrespectful to Black Amricans
The fact that some English author has decided to appropriate hoodoo from African Americans and call it English hodoo is not gonna fly. The English were the privileged SLAVE-OWNERS who captured the Africans who developed hoodoo. It's like if i invented something called German Kabbalah!!!!! Give me a break. And give the African American people a break, for the love of God. Also, in England, the word "hoodoo" refers to a series of sports team losses, not to magic. (Check google news for the word hoodoo and you will see primarily UK, AUS, and NZ sports stories). This English usage derives from the concept that hoodoo consists only of jinxes or curses -- as if all the magic of black people was evil (which is untrue, as there is plenty of blessing and healing work in hoodoo) -- so the idea of English hoodoo is just like so NOT THERE. I think it should not even have a page at Wiki. I think it is total bullshit. Catherineyronwode 04:51, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Left Side?
Why is the left side used in hoodoo?? like left shoe, left arm pit? what does the right mean? --Niki