Vodun in coastal Bénin : unfinished, open-ended, global /

Rush (Univ. of Illinois) has written a global and critical assessment of vodun as practiced in the West African city of Ouidah, as well as an examination of the religion in Togo, Ghana, North America, and Brazil. She mines extensive ethnographic research in multiple settings to offer a rich and nuanced interpretation of the religion. The author's original focus was on Afro-Brazilians in Ouidah, but she expanded her research to include other groups after discovering that most of Ouidah's Brazilian population no longer practiced vodun. Rush gives special attention to vodu rituals and aesthetics. She convincingly argues that vodun is a practical religion that prioritizes action and is open to constant change. Perhaps the author's greatest contribution is her observation that vodun does not merely assimilate elements from other religions. It engages newly arriving elements as if they had already been a part of the system (e.g., Shango, Jesus, and the Buddha are all seen as vodu gods). Rush gives special attention to often-vain attempts to discover vodun's true origins, ultimately concluding that vodun should best be seen as the product of long-standing transcultural interactions between and among religions of Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. S. D. Glazier University of Nebraska--Lincoln