Title:  Syllabus
Date:  March 31, 2009 1:13 PM
Category:  
Tags:  

WAC CM 139/CM 239
Black Atlantic Religions: Vodou, Candomble and Santeria

Spring 2009 T/R: 1-2:50, 101 Kaufman
Instructor: Donald  Cosentino
Office: 130D Kaufman. ext #61498.
cosentin@arts.ucla.edu
Teaching assistants: Kathy Smith, Jelani

Through a variety of lectures, readings, film and video, this course will explore the philosophies, rituals, art and aesthetics of Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomble and Cuban Santeria and their antecedents in Kongo and Yoruba. Our perspectives will be social and historical, comparative and contemporary. We will discuss and evaluate theories of retention, syncretism and transformation from African sources; processes and praxes of New World creolization, and the flourishing of neo-African religions in our own Santeria/Palo/Espiritismo strongholds of southern California.

Class Notes

The class will meet twice weekly to discuss assigned readings, as well as materials presented through lectures and discussion. All assigned materials should be read before class lectures. Students are expected to aprticipate in class discussions, either through responses to the assigned readings, or through the introduction of new material gained via field or personal experience, or through ancillary readings. 

Examinations:

1) There will be a mid-term take-home essay exam with questions derived from assigned readings, lectures, discussions and viewings.

2) There is no final exam. Students are expected to write a) final papers and/or b) engage in course related projects in lieu of a final examination.

a) Final Project: 10 pages based on library research or materials derived from participant-observation field research. Examples of such field research might include: the description of a religious ceremony or ritual (including a “reading” or consultation with a santero; curandero, espiritista, etc.); an analytical inventory of a botanica; or an interview with a practitioner or priest of any Black Atlantic Religion. 

OR

b) Project: With the permission of the instructor, students may elect to substitute a video, an art piece, a musical composition, a choreographed dance or a photographic essay for the term paper. The essential thing is to engage in some aspect of Black Atlantic religious practice; and to record or embody that engagement in some appropriate expressive form.

Required Books:

Donald Cosentino, ed. The Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou*
Patrick Polk, ed., Botanica, Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art in the City of Angels.*
Jim Wafer, The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble

* Pick up the first two books at the bookstore at the Fowler Museum. Tell the shopkeeper that you are a member of this course.

Week One
Class 1/March 31: The Black Atlantic
	Introduce Syllabus. Key Words
	In-class viewing: Black Dawn
	In-class reading: “A World Made by Magic”: An Interview with Andre Pierre

Class 2/April 2: Mami Wata: Goddess of Vodunland
	Required Reading: Cosentino, “Imagine Heaven,” SAHV, pp. 1-53
	In-class viewing: Mami Wata. Der Geist der weiben frau
	Recommended: Henry Drewal. Mami Wata. Fowler Museum, 2007

Week Two
Class 3/April 7: Roots and Routes
	Required Reading: Blier, “Vodun,” SAHV, pp. 61-90
				       Thompson, “From the Isle Beneath the Sea,” SAHV, pp. 91-122

Class 4/April 9: Kreyol
	Required Reading, Mintz and Trouillot, “The Social History of Vodou” SAHV, pp. 123-152
	Beauvoir-Dominique, “Vodoun Magic,” SAHV, pp. 227-242

Week Three
Class 5/April 14: Les Serviteurs 1
	Required Reading: Brown, “Serving the Spirits,” SAHV, pp. 205-225
				       Brown and Mama Lola, “The Altar Room,” SAHV, pp. 227-242
	In-class viewing, Mama Lola, BBC

Class 6/April 16: Les Serviteurs 2
	Required Reding: rene and Houlberg, “My Double Mystic Marriages to Two Goddesses of Love,” SAHV, pp. 287-304
	In-class viewing, Legacy of the Spirits

Week Four
Class 7/April 21: Divine Horsemen: the White Darkness
	In-class viewing, Divine Horsemen, Maya Deren

Class 8/April 23: Lwa
	Required reading: Cosentino, “It’s All for You, Sen Jak,” SAHV, pp.243-266
				      Houlberg, “Magique Marasa,” SAHV, pp. 267-286

Week Five
Class 9/April 28: Zonbi Attack!
	Required reading: McAlister, “A Sorcerer’s Bottle,” SAHV, pp. 325-356
				      Cosentino, “The Gedes and Bawon Samdi,” SAHV, pp. 396-415
	Guest lecturer: Kathy Smith

Class 10/April 30: Saluting the Spirits
	Required reading: Polk, “Sacred Banners,” SAHV, pp. 305-324
	Tour of the Fowler Museum collections of Vodou drapo

Week Six
Class 11/May 5: The Lips of Pomba-Gira
	Required reading: Wafer, Taste of Blood, pp. 3-120

Class 12/May 7: AXE
	Required reading: Wafer, Taste of Blood, pp. 121-194
	TAKE HOME EXAM

Week Seven
Class 13/May 12: Orixa: Hot and Cool
	In-class viewing: David Byrne, Ile Aiye (House of the World)

Class 14/May 14: Espiritismo in L.A. 1
	Required reading: Polk, Botanica, pp. 14-73
	Guest lecturer: Patrick Polk
	TAKE HOME EXAM DUE

Week Eight
Class 15/May 19: Hollywood Goes Voodoo
	In-class viewing, Serpent and Rainbow; The Believers
	Required Reading, Hurbon, “American Fantasy and Haitian Vodou,” SAHV, pp. 181-197
	Recommended viewing: Any of the drek Zombie classics (I Walk With the Zombies, White Zombies, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead...)

Class 16/May 21: Hace Santo
	Viewing: “The King Does Not Lie”

Week Nine
Class 16/May 26: Ifa
	Guest Lecturer: Babalawo Amos Dyson
	Required Reading: Polk, pp. 74-121

Class 18/May 28: Espiritismo in L.A. 2: El Congo Manuel
	Guest Lecturers: Santero Charley Guelperin & Manuel
	In-class viewing, Seeking Gede. Scott Edmondson

Week Ten
Class 19/June 2 In Extremis: Vodou Art and Social Collapse.
	In-class viewing, Atis Rezistans. Leah Gordon
	ALL PAPERS/PROJECTS ARE DUE

Class 20/June 5: Ayi Bobo & Ase
	Presentation of student projects