Haitian Vodou possession in Alfred Métraux’s ethnography

Record summary

Alfred Métraux’s Voodoo in Haiti, published in 1958, analyzes Vodou institutions, ceremonies, trance, possession and relations between practitioners, spirits and communities. It is a useful comparison point for altered-state classification because possession is described as an organized social and ritual process rather than simply an individual abnormal experience. The work also reflects the categories and limitations of mid-century anthropology, and details may not represent all Haitian communities or later scholarship. Its subject is a living religious tradition, not a laboratory demonstration of psi.