Voodoo vs Obeah - What's the difference?
voodoo | obeah |
A religion of the Ewe/Fon of West Africa, practiced chiefly in Benin.
Any of a group of related religious practices found chiefly in and around the Caribbean, particularly in Haiti and Louisiana.
(pejorative) Any sort of magical or irrational approach to a problem.
(dated) One who practices voodoo; a native sorcerer.
* 1889 , Longman's Magazine (volume 14, page 557)
A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.
* 1997', James D. Rice, '''''Obeah'' , entry in Junius P. Rodriguez (editor), ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery ,
* 2001 , Holger Henke, The West Indian Americans ,
* 2011 , Margarite Fernández Olmos, Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Creole Religions of the Caribbean ,
A magician or witchdoctor of the magic craft.
* 1860 , R. W. Emerson, The Story of West-Indian Emancipation'', Moncure Daniel Conway (editor), '' ,
* 1986 , Kurt E. Koch, Occult ABC , 2nd Edition,
A spell performed in the practice of the magic craft; an item associated with such a spell.
* 1893 , Publications of the Folklore Society (Great Britain) ,
* 2009 , Lond Schiebinger, Scientific Exchange in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World'', Bernard Bailyn, Patricia L Denault (editors), ''Soundings in Atlantic History ,
As nouns the difference between voodoo and obeah
is that voodoo is a religion of the Ewe/Fon of West Africa, practiced chiefly in Benin while obeah is a form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.As a verb voodoo
is to bewitch someone or something using voodoo.voodoo
English
(wikipedia voodoo)Noun
- I want a real explanation, not this statistical voodoo .
- So a reporter of the Boston Herald (U.S.) has 'interviewed' a few local Voodoos . He has seen a dance round a boiling pot, seen some tomfoolery with spiders, and heard a lot of superstitious nonsense.
Alternative forms
* (religion of Africa or the Americas) vodoun, voudoun, vodun, voudou, VoodooSynonyms
* (religion) voodooismDerived terms
* voodoo death * voodoo doll * voodoo economics * voodooism * voodooist * voodoo programming * voodoo scienceSee also
* hoodoo * (Haitian Vodou) * (West African Vodun) ----obeah
English
(wikipedia obeah)Alternative forms
* obi, obea, oby, obiaNoun
page 477,
- Although lacking a self-perpetuating institutional structure, Obeah was a crucial element of Afro-Caribbean religions everywhere from Suriname's Maroon societies (communities of runaway slaves) to the Leeward Islands' slave societies.
page 89,
- However, quite often it is also applied to protect from obeah' spells which the client feels himself or herself to be suffering from. Since '''obeah''' can also cast protective spells (e.g., against other ' obeah spells), it is not entirely correct to dismiss it as an evil practice.
page 155,
- Obeah —a set of hybrid or creolized beliefs dependent on ritual invocation, fetishes, and charms—incorporates two very distinct categories of practice.
page 651,
- but he went down to death, with dusky dreams of African shadow-catchers and Obeahs hunting him.
page 299,
- I asked him if he had been charmed as a child by an Obeah'. ' Obeahs are the magicians of the Carribean islands.
page 254,
- Mr. M. J. Walhouse then read a paper on "Some Indian Obeahs'", and exhibited some photos of Kurumbars, and a piece of the bone of an elk and an iron cock's spur, with which a man had been murdered, both of which had been regarded as ' Obeahs .
page 320,
- Although Adair suspected that obeahs often employed poisons, he emphasized that the diseases induced by obeahs resulted from “depraved imagination, or a powerful excitement or depression of the mental faculties.”