The secret of the living dead

"The man was lying, without evident signs of life. Around him were naked black people. An old black man with a bracelet of ivory shouted something. On checking whether this man was truly dead, no heartbeat or reaction of the pupils were to be found.

This man was dead. The black people surrounded him and began to scream. They believed that he would wake up and roar and the dead man did exactly that. The man lifted up, and stared at us with glazed eyes ... "

Describes a British doctor in the early twentieth century of the ritual to revive the dead in Tahiti. Since then, voodoo rituals occupy an important place in literature. But art distorts the true ritual.

According to ethnographers who were studying beliefs in Tahiti, voodoo rituals has African roots, but has undergone changes under the infl...[ More ]

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