...observer.” This anthropologist, trained in the pursuit of academic objectivity, soon realized that “the heart of the system, its ability to heal, would remain closed” to her, if she persisted in studying Voodoo objectively — in the traditional sense. Karen McCarthy-Brown...

...spirits, and the initiation through which she becomes a devotee herself. Of her participation, she says: “I realized that if I brought less to this Vodou...its ability to heal, would remain closed to me” (1991: 11). In Translated Woman (1993), Ruth Behar lets her Mexican friend Esperanza tell her own compelling...

...after three years in the field Brown decided to undergo a process of initiation into vodou practice. 'If I persisted in studying vodou objectively, the...system, its ability to heal, would remain closed to me' (Brown, 1991:10).Yet it is also clear that this move was not made solely on the basis of researcher...

...after three years in the field Brown decided to undergo a process of initiation into vodou practice. ‘If I persisted in studying vodou objectively, the...system, its ability to heal, would remain closed to me' (Brown, 1991: 10).Yet it is also clear that this move was not made solely on the basis of researcher...