Known in the Dominican Republic and Togo as Vodu, in Benin as Vodún, and in Haiti as Vodou, West African religion has, for hundreds of years, served as a repository of sacred knowledge while simultaneously evolving in response to human experience and globalization. Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world. By examining the systems—ritual practices, community-based spirit veneration, and spiritual means of securing opportunity and well-being—alongside the individuals who worship, this rich collection offers the first comprehensive ethnographic study of West African spirit service on a broad scale. Contributors consider social encounters between African/Haitian practitioners and European / North American spiritual seekers, economies and histories, funerary rites and spirit possessions, and examinations of gender and materiality. Offering much-needed perspective on this historically disparaged religion, Spirit Service reminds us all that the gods are growing, assimilating, and demanding recognition and respect.

Tourists to Ouidah, a city on the coast of the Republic of Benin, in West Africa, typically visit a few well-known sites of significance to the Vodun religion-the Python Temple, where Dangbe, the python spirit, is worshipped, and King Kpasse's sacred forest, which is the seat of the Vodun deity known as Loko. However, other, less familiar places, such as the palace of the so-called supreme chief of Vodun in Benin, are also rising in popularity as tourists become increasingly adventurous and as more Vodun priests and temples make themselves available to foreigners in the hopes of earning extra money. Timothy R. Landry examines the connections between local Vodun priests and spiritual seekers who travel to Benin-some for the snapshot, others for full-fledged initiation into the religion. He argues that the ways in which the Vodun priests and tourists negotiate the transfer of confidential, sacred knowledge create its value. The more secrecy that surrounds Vodun ritual practice and material culture, the more authentic, coveted, and, consequently, expensive that knowledge becomes. Landry writes as anthropologist and initiate, having participated in hundreds of Vodun ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. Examining the role of money, the incarnation of deities, the limits of adaptation for the transnational community, and the belief in spirits, sorcery, and witchcraft, Vodun ponders the ethical implications of producing and consuming culture by local and international agents. Highlighting the ways in which racialization, power, and the legacy of colonialism affect the procurement and transmission of secret knowledge in West Africa and beyond, Landry demonstrates how, paradoxically, secrecy is critically important to Vodun's global expansion.

Known in the Dominican Republic and Togo as Vodu, in Benin as Vodun, and in Haiti as Vodou, West African religion has, for hundreds of years, served as a repository of sacred knowledge while simultaneously evolving in response to human experience and globalization. Spirit Service: Vodun and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world. By examining the systems-ritual practices, community-based spirit veneration, and spiritual means of securing opportunity and well-being-alongside the individuals who worship, this rich collection offers the first comprehensive ethnographic study of West African spirit service on a broad scale. Contributors consider social encounters between African/Haitian practitioners and European / North American spiritual seekers, economies and histories, funerary rites and spirit possessions, and examinations of gender and materiality. Offering much-needed perspective on this historically disparaged religion, Spirit Service reminds us all that the gods are growing, assimilating, and demanding recognition and respect.

Tourists to Ouidah, a city on the coast of the Republic of Benin, in West Africa, typically visit a few well-known sites of significance to the Vodun religion-the Python Temple, where Dangbe, the python spirit, is worshipped, and King Kpasse's sacred forest, which is the seat of the Vodun deity known as Loko. However, other, less familiar places, such as the palace of the so-called supreme chief of Vodun in Benin, are also rising in popularity as tourists become increasingly adventurous and as more Vodun priests and temples make themselves available to foreigners in the hopes of earning extra money. Timothy R. Landry examines the connections between local Vodun priests and spiritual seekers who travel to Benin-some for the snapshot, others for full-fledged initiation into the religion. He argues that the ways in which the Vodun priests and tourists negotiate the transfer of confidential, sacred knowledge create its value. The more secrecy that surrounds Vodun ritual practice and material culture, the more authentic, coveted, and, consequently, expensive that knowledge becomes. Landry writes as anthropologist and initiate, having participated in hundreds of Vodun ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. Examining the role of money, the incarnation of deities, the limits of adaptation for the transnational community, and the belief in spirits, sorcery, and witchcraft, Vodun ponders the ethical implications of producing and consuming culture by local and international agents. Highlighting the ways in which racialization, power, and the legacy of colonialism affect the procurement and transmission of secret knowledge in West Africa and beyond, Landry demonstrates how, paradoxically, secrecy is critically important to Vodun's global expansion.