Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique Explained

Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique (18 May 1965  -  5 January 2018)[1] was a Haitian anthropologist and Vodou mambo.

Early life

Beauvoir-Dominique's father was Max Beauvoir, a Haitian biochemist, and her mother was Elisabeth Marchand, a French national and a mambo. She was raised along with her sister Estelle Beauvoir Manuel in USA and Haiti.[2] She was born in 1965 while he was working as a researcher at the Cornell Medical Center in New York City.[3] In 1973 Max Beauvoir abandoned his career in chemistry, returned to Haiti, became a houngan and founded a Hounfour.[3]

Academic and religious career

Beauvoir-Dominique attended Tufts University where she studied cultural anthropology, and then the University of Oxford, where she studied social anthropology.[4] She had been a critic of the Duvalier dictatorship and returned to Haiti to help rebuild following the regime's 1986 collapse.[4] Beauvoir-Dominique joined the faculty of the University of Haiti, where she taught anthropology and Haitian culture.[4]

In 1987, Beauvoir-Dominique and her husband, architect Didier Dominique, published Savalou E, a book about Vodou but also about Haiti's peasant society. Rather than an academic text, they intended the book to be accessible to the many Vodou practitioners who participated in their research. The book is written in Haitian Creole and they adapted it for radio to be broadcast in Haiti. The book was awarded the 1989 Casa de las Américas Prize.[5] The book was republished 2003.

In the 1990s she collected oral histories in communities near Bois Caïman, the site of the 1791 meeting and Vodou ceremony where the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution is believed to have been planned.[6] Her scholarship has helped bolster the claim that the meeting was, in fact, an historical event and not apocryphal.[6] In 2000, she published a book on the subject, titled Investigations autour du sites historique du Bois Caïman.[6]

Beauvoir-Dominique and her husband were untiring advocates and defenders of Vodou.[7] They curated international museum exhibits dedicated to the religion in Chicago[8] and Ottawa.[9] In 2012 she was part of a group that successfully petitioned the Library of Congress to replace the outdated "Voodoo" with their preferred term, "Vodou", explaining that the former reflects a history of racism and is pejorative.[10] Like her father, they both practiced Vodou; she was considered a mambo (or priestess) and, after the deaths of his wife (2018) and his father-in-law (2015), Dominique is considered the "heir" to Max Beauvoir, who had been the most important figure in Haitian Vodou at the time of his death.[11]

Death

Beauvoir-Dominique died of cancer on 5 January 2018.[7] Her funeral in Mariani was attended by members of the government, Haitian Vodou officials, members of the Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen, representative of Religions for Peace, journalist Liliane Pierre-Paul, former cabinet minister Marie Michèle Rey, former prime minister Michèle Pierre-Louis, and other Haitian and international luminaries.[7]

Works

Selected papers

Chapters

Books

Radio

Notes and References

  1. Why Rasanblaj, Why Now? New Salutations to the Four Cardinal Points in Haitian Studies . Gina Athena . Ulysse . Journal of Haitian Studies . 23 . 2 . Fall 2017 . 58–80. 10.1353/jhs.2017.0017. 26431818. 149441838.
  2. Nou la, We Here: Remembrance and Power in the Arts of Haitian Voudou . Leslie Anne . Brice . 2007 . PhD . University of Maryland.
  3. News: New head of voodoo brings on the charm . Lacey . Marc . New York Times . 4 April 2008 . 15 September 2011.
  4. News: Death of Professor Rachel Beauvoir Dominique . Haiti Libre . 6 January 2018 . 9 August 2020.
  5. Web site: Entre Nous: "Savalou E" Rachel Beauvoir, Didier Dominique (2) . 12 February 1989 . Duke University Libraries . Repository: Collections & Archives.
  6. Web site: Literary Accounts, Oral Tradition, and Cultural Texts of Bois Caïman . The Black Atlantic . 15 April 2014 . Duke University . 9 August 2020.
  7. News: Émouvant hommage à Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique . fr . Le Nouvelliste . 9 January 2018 . 9 August 2020.
  8. News: Inside 'Vodou: Sacred Powers of Haiti' . Aimee . Levitt . 23 October 2014 . The Bleader . 9 August 2020.
  9. Rare Artifacts Reveal the Real Meaning of Haiti's Vodou Tradition . Canadian Museum of History . Canadian Museum of History . 14 November 2012.
  10. Replacing the Term "Voodoo" with "Vodou": A Proposal . Leslie G. . Desmangles . Journal of Haitian Studies . 18 . 2 Special Issue on Vodou and Créolité . Fall 2012 . 26–33 . Center for Black Studies Research . 41949201 .
  11. News: Vodou: l'héritage symbolique de l'Ati national feu Max G. Beauvoir . 14 September 2018 . Le National . fr . 9 August 2020.

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