by Wade Davis
Perhaps the most illuminating analysis of the evolution of the contemporary peasant society is the work of Murray, G. F., “The Evolution of Haitian Peasant Land Tenure: A Case Study in Agrarian Adaptation to Population Growth,” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1977. Also of particular importance to me was: Fouchard, J., The Haitian Maroons-Liberty or Death, Edward W. Blyden Press, New York, 1981.
6. EVERYTHING IS POISON, NOTHING IS POISON
A good introduction to African religion may be found in Mbiti, J., African Religions and Philosophy, Anchor, New York, 1970. See also Parrinder, G., West African Religion, The Epworth Press, London, 1961. For a wonderful semipopular book see Watson, L., Lightning Bird—The Story of One Man’s Journey into Africa’s Past, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982.
7. COLUMNS ON A BLACKBOARD
Notes on the plant ingredients are mentioned in a variety of sources including: Dalziel, J. M., Useful Plants of West Africa, London, 1937; Githens, T. S., Drug Plants of Africa, African Handbook 8, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1948. Sofowora, A., Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Africa, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, 1982; Watt, J. M., and M. G. Breyer-Bandijk, Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa, 2d ed., E. & S. Livingston, Ltd., Edinburgh, 1962.
Sources for the information on Bufo marinus came from: Abel, J. J., and David I. Macht, The poisons of the tropical toad Bufo aqua, Journal of the American Medical Association 56 (1911): 1531-36; Chen, K. K., and H. Jensen, A pharmacognostic study of ch’an su, the dried venom of the Chinese toad, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association 23 (1929): 244-51; Fabing, H. S., Intravenous bufotenine injection in the human being, Science 123 (1956): 886-87; Flier, J., M. Edwards, J. W. Daly, C. Myers, Widespread occurrence in frogs and toads of skin compounds interacting with the ouabain site of Na+, K+, ATPase, Science 208 (1980): 503-5; Kennedy, A. B., Ecce Bufo: the toad in nature and Olmec iconography, Current Anthropology 23, no. 3 (1982): 273-90.
Reports of Bufo marinus as a possible hallucinogen include: Dobkin de Rios, M., The influence of psychotropic flora and fauna on the Maya religion, Current Anthropology 15 (1974): 147-52; Furst, P., Symbolism and psychopharmacology: the toad as earth mother in Indian America, XII Mesa Redonda—Religion en Mesoamérica, Mexico: Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, 1972; Hamblin, N., The magic toads of Cozumel, paper presented at the 44th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, B.C., 1979. See also Kennedy (1982). Tim Knab has described his experiences in an unpublished manuscript: Knab, T., Narcotic use of toad toxins in southern Veracruz, n.d.
The quote from Ian Fleming comes from page 248 of From Russia with Love, Berkley Books, New York, 1982.
There is an enormous literature on the puffer fish. Perhaps the best overview is provided in the excellent paper by C. Y. Kao, Tetrodotoxin, saxitoxin and their significance in the study of excitation phenomenon, Pharmacological Reviews 18, no. 2 (1966): 997-1049. An invaluable overview and summary of the symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning is provided in: Halstead, B. W., Poisonous and Venomous Marine Animals of the World, Darwin Press, Princeton, NJ, 1978. My own scientific findings are presented in: Davis, E. W., The ethnobiology of the Haitian zombi, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 9, no. 1 (1983): 85-104, and Davis, E. W., Preparation of the Haitian zombi poison, Botanical Museum Leaflets—Harvard University 29, no. 2 (1983): 139-49. For a complete list of references see Kao (1966) and Halstead (1978). Some of the most important papers referred to in my 1983 papers are:
Akashi, T. Experiences with fugu poisoning. Iji Shimbum 27 (1880): 19-23.
Clavigero, F. J. The History of (Lower) California. S. E. Lake and A. A. Gray, eds. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1937.
Fukada, T. Puffer fish poison and the method of prevention. Nippon Iji Shimpo 762 (1937): 1417-21.
________. Violent increase of cases of puffer poisoning. Clinics and Studies 29, no. 2 (1951): 1762.
Fukada, T., and I. Tani. Records of puffer poisonings. Report 1. Kyusha University Medical News 11, no. 1 (1937): 7-13.
_______. Records of puffer poisonings. Report 2. Iji Eisei 7, no. 26 (1937): 905-7.
_______. Records of puffer poisonings. Report 3. Nippon Igaku Oyobi Kenko Hoken 3258 (1941): 7-13.
Halstead, B. W., and N. C. Bunker. The effects of commercial canning process upon puffer poisoning. California Fish and Game 39, no. 2 (1953): 219-28.
Hashimoto, Y. Marine Toxins and Other Bioactive Marine Metabolites. Japanese Scientific Societies Press, Tokyo, 1979.
Kawakubo, Y., and K. Kikuchi. Testing fish poisons on animals and report on a human case of fish poisoning in the South Seas. Kaigun Igakukai Zasshi 31, no. 8 (1942): 30-34.
Mosher, H. S., F. A. Fuhrman, H. D. Buchwald, H. G. Fischer. Tarichatoxin-Tetrodotoxin: a potent neurotoxin. Science 144 (1964): 1100-1110.
Noniyama, S. The pharmacological study of puffer poison. Nippon Yaku-butsugaku Zasshi 35, no. 4 (1942): 458-96.
Tani, I. Seasonal changes and individual differences of puffer poison. Nippon Yakubutsugaku Zasshi 29, nos. 1-2 (1940): 1-3.
Yano, I. The pharmacological study of tetrodotoxin. Fukuoka Med. Coll. 30, no. 9 (1937): 1669-1704.
An informative popular article on the Japanese puffer fish, written by Noel Vietmeyer, appeared recently in National Geographic 163, no. 2 (August 1984): 260-70.
8. VOODOO DEATH
The Victorian concerns with premature burial, the protective measures they took, and a marvelous description and sketch of Count Karnice-Karnicki’s invention are outlined in: Hadwen, W. R., Premature Burial—And How It May Be Prevented, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., London, 1905. A number of historical incidences involving premature burial are mentioned in MacKay, G. E., Premature burials, The Popular Science Monthly 16, no. 19 (1880): 389-97. Other publications of the era were Fletcher, M. R., One Thousand Buried Alive by Their Best Friends, 1890, and Hartmann, F., Buried Alive, 1895, both of which were published in Boston. The Townsend case is discussed in Kastenbaum, R., and R. Aisenberg (1972) and mentioned in Watson, L. (1974).
The anthropological literature on voodoo death includes:
Cannon, W. B. Voodoo death. American Anthropologist 44 (1942): 169-81.
Cawte, J. Voodoo death and dehydration. American Anthropologist 83 (1983): 420-42.
Clune, F. J. A comment on voodoo deaths. American Anthropologist 75 (1973): 312.
Eastwell, H. D. Voodoo death and the mechanism for dispatch of the dying in East Arnhem, Australia. American Anthropologist 84 (1982): 5-18.
Glascock, A. P. Death-hastening behavior: an explanation of Eastwell’s thesis. American Anthropologist 85 (1983): 417-20.
Lester, D. Voodoo death: some new thoughts on an old phenomenon. American Anthropologist 74, no. 3 (1972): 386-90.
Lex, B. W. Voodoo death: new thoughts on an old explanation. American Anthropologist 76, no. 4 (1974): 818-23.
The medical cases of patients surviving near-death experiences (NDE) came from Sabom, M. B., Recollections of Death-A Medical Investigation, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982. The phenomenon is also discussed in Kubler-Ross, E., On Death and Dying, Macmillan, New York, 1969.
9. IN SUMMER THE PILGRIMS WALK
The biogenesis of tetrodotoxin is discussed in Halstead, B. W. (1978). The use of Duboisia myoporoides as an antidote to ciguatera poisoning is documented in Dufra, E., G. Loison, B. Holmstedt, Duboisia myoporoides: native antidote against ciguatera poisoning, Toxic on 14 (1976): 55-64.
10. THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW
An account of the apparition of the Virgin Mary is given in Herskovits, M.J. (1937).
For ethnological information on possession see: Bourguignon, E., Possession, Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 1976; Zuesse, E. V., Ritual Cosmos—The Sanctification of Life in African Religions, Ohio University Press, Athens, OH, 1980. For traditional medical studies see: Dorsainvil, J. C, Vodou et névroses, Imprimerie La Presse, Port-au-Prince, 1931; Mars, L. The Crisis of Possession in
Voodoo, Reed, Cannon & Johnson Co., Berkeley, 1977; Price-Mars, J. (1983). For descriptions of possession in the context of contemporary ritual see: Deren, M. (1953), and Lowenthal, I., Ritual performance and religious experience: a service for the gods in southern Haiti, Journal of Anthropological Research 34, no. 3 (1978): 392-415; Laguerre, M. S. The festival of gods: spirit possession in Haitian voodoo, Freeing the Spirit 5, no. 2 (1977): 23-35.
For discussions of the nature of the vodoun soul see: Métraux, A., The concept of soul in Haitian Vodu, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 2 (1946): 84-92; and Deren, M. (1953). My findings are at odds with both these sources in certain ways, but the most important difference is actually one of semantics. What I refer to as the “ti bon ange” for example, other investigators have called the “gros bon ange”; the actual functions of the two aspects of the vodoun soul are consistent. Métraux himself suggested that research into the nature of the vodoun soul is made “difficult by the wide range of beliefs and theories found among Haitian Vodu worshippers according to their intellectual sophistication, their religious background and contacts with the modern world” (Métraux, 1946, p. 84). Métraux based his interpretation largely on interviews of a single informant at the Bureau of Ethnology in Port-au-Prince. He notes that many of her statements were contradicted outright by the one houngan he also interviewed. Métraux based his conclusions on his “impression that [his informant’s] candid statements reflected more closely the general beliefs of the Haitian peasantry” (Métraux, 1946, p. 85). When I commented on the range of professional interpretations by anthropologists to one of my informants I was impressed by his response. He suggested that the diverse opinions reflected the anthropologists’ implicit assumption that every vodoun initiate or even every houngan necessarily had the answers to all complex theological questions. Would one expect, he asked, that every French peasant or parish priest would be able to or even be interested in addressing theological issues normally considered by the Vatican alone?
For papers on vodoun ethnomedicine see: Métraux, A., Médecine et Vodou en Haiti, Acta Tropica 10, no. 1 (1953): 28-68; Delbeau, J. C, “La Médicine Populaire en Haiti,” doctoral dissertation, Université de Bordeaux, 1969; Denis, L., Médecine populaire, Bulletin du Bureau d’Ethnologie d’Haiti 4, no. 29 (1963): 37-39.
Notes on Haitian ethnobotany are provided in: Brutus, et al. (1960); Leon, R., Phytothérapie Haïtienne, nos simples. Imprimerie de l’Etat, Port-au-Prince, 1959; Les P. Missionaires du T. S. Rédempteur, Haiti flore Médicinale, Monastère Saint Gerard, Port-au-Prince, 1943.
A comparison between Western scientific thinking and traditional ways of thought in Africa is discussed in Horton, R., African traditional thought and western science, Africa 37, no. 1 (1967): 50-71, 155-87. The entire concept of balance and equilibrium as a key to health in our society is given an excellent treatment by Weil, A. T. (1983).
11. TELL MY HORSE
In addition to the historical sources already noted, marronnage is discussed in: Debbash, Y., Le Marronnage: Essai sur la désertion de l’esclave Antillais, L’Année Sociologique 3 (1961): 1-112, 117-95; Débien, G., Le Marronnage aux Antilles Françaises au XVIIIe siècle, Caribbean Studies 6, no. 3 (1966): 3-44; Manigat, L. F., The relationship between Marronnage and slave revolts and revolution in St. Domingue-Haiti, in Rubin, V., and A. Tuden, eds., Comparative Perspectives on Slavery in New World Plantation Societies, The New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 1977; Price, R., ed., Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1979. The single most valuable source for my work was Fouchard, J. (1981).
There is an extensive literature on secret societies. Among the general sources are: MacKenzie, N., Secret Societies, Collier Books, New York, 1967; Mak, L. F., The Sociology of Secret Societies, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1981; Webster, H., Primitive Secret Societies, Octagon Books, New York, 1968. A theoretical discussion of the nature of secret societies is presented in Wolff, K., ed., The Sociology of Georg Simmel, The Free Press, Glencoe, IL, 1950.
Among the valuable references on the secret societies of West Africa are:
Agiri, B. The Ogboni among the Oyo-Yoruba. Lagos Notes and Records 3, no. II (1972): 50-59.
Bascom, W. “Secret Societies, Religious Cult Groups and Kinship Units Among the West African Yoruba.” Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1939.
Bellman, B. Village of Curers and Assassins. Mouton, Paris, 1975.
Butt-Thompson, F. W. West African Secret Societies. H. F. & G. Witherby, London, 1929.
Harley, G. W. Notes on the Poro in Liberia. Peabody Museum Papers 19, no. 2, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1944.
Harris, W. T., and H. Sawyer. The Springs of Mende Belief and Conduct. Sierra Leone University Press, Freetown, 1968.
Herskovits, M. J. Dahomey. 2 vols. J. J. Augustin, New York, 1938.
Jedrej, M. C. Structural aspects of a West African secret society. Journal of Anthropological Research 32, no. 3 (1976): 234-45.
_______. Medicine, fetish and secret society in a West African culture. Africa 46, no. 3 (1976): 247-57.
Little, K. The Poro as an arbiter of culture. African Studies 7, no. 1 (1948):
_______. The role of the secret society in cultural specialisation. American Anthropologist 51 (1949): 199-212.
_______. The Mende of Sierra Leone. London, 1951.
_______. Political function of the Poro, pt. 1. Africa 35, no. 4 (1965), 349-65.
_______. Political function of the Poro, pt. 2. Africa 36, no. 1 (1966): 62-71.
Magid, A. Political traditionalism in Nigeria: a case study of secret societies and dance groups in local government. Africa 42, no. 4 (1972), 289-304.
Morton-Williams, P. The Yoruba Ogboni cult in Oyo. Africa 30, no. 4 (1980): 362-74.
Murphy, W. Secret knowledge as property and power in Kpelle society: elders vs. youth. Africa 50 (1980): 193-207.
Ortenberg, S. Leadership and Authority in an African Society. University of Washington Press, 1971.
_______, ed. African Religious Groups and Beliefs. Archana Publications, 1982.
Weckman, G. Primitive secret societies as religious organizations. International Review for the History of Religions 17 (1970): 83-94.
For an excellent review article on the African ordeal poisons see: Robb, G. L., The ordeal poisons of Madagascar and Africa, Botanical Museum Leaflets—Harvard University 17, no. 10 (1957): 265-316. See also review in Holmstedt, B. (1972).
Zora Hurston’s account of her research in Haiti was published as Tell My Horse, first in 1938 in Philadelphia. It was reprinted in 1981 by Turtle Island, Berkeley. Her autobiography, edited by Robert Hemenway, is Dust Tracks on the Road, and a second edition came out in 1984, published by University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.
Typical of the perfunctory dismissals of the possible existence of zombis are: Bourguignon, E., The persistence of folk belief: some notes on cannibalism and zombies in Haiti, Journal of American Folklore 72, no. 283 (1959): 36—47; Laroche, M., The myth of zombi, in Smith, R., ed., Exile and Tradition, 44-61, Longman & Dalhousie University Press, 1976; Mars, L. P., The story of zombi in Haiti, Man 45, no. 22 (1945): 38-40.
The sentiment of these articles was prompted in part by the slew of popular travel books, among them: Craige, J. H., Cannibal Cousins, Minton, Balch & Co., New York, 1934, and by the same author in 1933, Black Bagdad, Minton, Balch & Co., New York. The first in this tradition was St. John, S., Hayti: Or the Black Republic, Frank Cass, London, 1971 [1884]. Others included Seabrook (1929) and Wirkus, F., and T. Dudley, Le Roi blanc de la Gonave, Payot, Paris, 1932.
The Haitian secret societies are mentioned in Métraux, A. (1972), Courlander, H. (1960), Herskovits, M. (1937). The traditional view of the Bizango as a diabolical force is presented in Kerboul, J., Le Vaudou: Magie ou réligion, Editions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1973. For a different view see: Hurbon, L., Sorcellerie et pouvoir en Haiti, Archives des sciences sociales des rél
igions 48, no. 1 (1979): 43-52. Michel Laguerre’s analysis appeared in 1980 in his article, Bizango: a voodoo secret society in Haiti, in Tefft, S. K., ed., Secrecy, Human Sciences Press, New York. A discussion of informal justice in rural Haiti appears in Montalvo-Despeignes, J., Le Droit Informal Haïtien, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1976.
The reference to the zombi powder that appears in the Old Penal Code [Article 249, cited in Leyburn, J. (1941), p. 164] reads:
Also to be considered as attempted murder, the use that may be made against any person of substances, which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the administering of such substances, the person has been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.
12. DANCING IN THE LION’S JAW
The paradoxical position of the Haitian chef de section is presented by Murray in his 1977 dissertation. For other discussions of the role of the chef de section see: Comhaire, J., The Haitian “Chef de Section,” American Anthropologist 57 (1955): 620-24; Lahav, P., The chef de section: structure and functions of Haiti’s basic administrative institution, in Mintz, S., ed., Working Papers in Haitian Society and Culture 4 (1975): 5-81, Antilles Research Program, Yale University.
13. SWEET AS HONEY, BITTER AS BILE
For an examination of land tenure see once again Murray’s analysis in his dissertation. A summary of his conclusions is presented in: Murray, G. F., Population pressure, land tenure and voodoo: the economics of Haitian peasant ritual, in Beyond the Myths of Culture: Essays in Cultural Materialism, Academic Press, 1980. Issues of land tenure and inheritance relevant to the case of Clairvius Narcisse are discussed in Comhaire, J. (1955), and Underwood, F. W., Land and its manipulation among the Haitian peasantry, in Goodenough, W., ed., Explorations in Cultural Anthropology (1964) 469-82.
