Whiteness in the Ancestral Waters: Race, Religion, and Conversion within North American Buddhism and Haitian Vodou

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kyrah Malika Daniels, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-05-01
• Publisher: Hebrew College
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: JIRS is an open-access publication of Hebrew College, Boston University School of Theology, and Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, indexed in the ATLA Religion Database.
• Final Published Version (URL): https://irstudies.org/index.php/jirs/article/view/267
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: The Journal of Interreligious Studies
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 23
• Start Page: 90
• End Page: 102
• Keywords: whiteness studies; Haitian Vodou; conversion; Buddhism; comparative religion
• Research Categories: Religion, History of

Abstract

In the 1940s, Ukrainian American filmmaker Maya Deren traveled to Haiti and became initiated as a manbo (priestess) in Haitian Vodou. How did Deren become drawn to Vodou, and how did she cultivate relationships with fellow devotees? Further, what does her experience as a Vodouizan reveal about other North American whites converting to “exotic” religions practiced largely by people of color? In an exploration of race and religious belonging, this essay offers a theoretical framing of “whiteness,” and considers the history of North American conversions to Buddhism as a precursor to white initiation to African Diasporic traditions. The paper examines Maya Deren’s identity as an immigrant artist, resulting in an alternate experience of whiteness, and allowing her to conceive of her journey to Haiti as a spiritual homecoming. Ultimately, I argue that Deren became enmeshed in a ritual kinship system whose bonds reached far beyond the boundaries of mortal geographies.