In the Name of the Nation: Blood Symbolism and the Political Habitus of Violence in Haiti

Abstract

ABSTRACT Analysis of cultural categories such as personhood, family, and community, and the class of relations they imply, highlights how blood symbolism is paradigmatic in the production of social and political boundaries among Haitians. The principle that endows an individual or an individual's family with a social identity also functions as an exclusionary principle, allowing one to ritually, morally, and physically destroy rivals in the name of family, community, or nation. Drawing from research conducted in rural and urban Haiti as well as in the Haitian diaspora, this article explores how blood constitutes an organizing principle of the Haitian sociocultural universe. [blood symbolism, ritual of violence, Haiti and political habitus, anthropology of power and politics, witchcraft] RÉSUMÉ L’analyse des catégories culturelles comme le sang, la personne, la famille, la communauté, et les relations qu’elles impliquent, souligne à quel point le symbolisme du sang est paradigmatique dans la production de frontières sociales et politiques entre les Haïtiens. Le principe qui confère une identité sociale à un individu ou sa famille fonctionne également comme principe d’exclusion, permettant rituellement, moralement, et physiquement de détruire les rivaux, au nom de la famille, communauté ou nation. Puisant des recherches menées en Haïti et la diaspora haïtienne, cet article explore comment le sang constitue un principe organisateur de l’univers socioculturel haïtien.

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