MATERIAL CULTURE, MATERIAL RELIGION, AND POLITICS

In September of 1894, New Orleans police arrested Annie Gould, a Creole woman of mixed background, for practicing Voudou. Voudou, perhaps better known by its twentieth-century Americanized spelling of Voodoo, is an alternative Black religious tradition in the Gulf South. As a syncretic tradition, it pulled from traditions from West and West Central coastal regions of Africa and Catholicism, as well as adding new elements developed there in slavery and beyond.¹ Like other practitioners of Voudou in the late-nineteenth century, Gould utilized a variety of material culture to create power objects and ceremonial practices to aid those who sought her help. Some wanted better luck at poker, others wanted to stop spousal infidelity, and some sought revenge. When the police arrested Gould, they claimed she led dances of “an indecent character,” in addition to selling charms. She and her husband kept an altar in their home that allegedly included human and animal bones, candles, large bottles filled with offerings, and more. Adding insult to injury, the local paper identified Gould as a “bogus Voudou queen” and claimed most of her promises to customers never came true.² Reports such as these were common in New Orleans newspapers in the late-nineteenth century-hyper-sensationalizing Voudou for its materiality while ignoring the significance of material culture in the city’s mainstream religions.