Date of Defense
Fall 11-19-2022
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Art in Art and Design (MAAD)
Department
The College of the Arts and the School of Art and Design
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Dr. Jessica Stephenson
Concentration
Museum Studies
Committee Member
Dr. Cecile Accilien
Committee Member
Dr. Diana McClintock
Abstract
This thesis considers how Voodoo is presented and experienced in various tourism and heritage sites within New Orleans in the present moment. A variety of visual representations, verbal narratives and multimedia performances were documented and analyzed through participant observation. Current tourism relies on the city’s ghost stories, mythology, as well as Voodoo practices and lore, raising questions about the melding of fact and fiction in the potential perpetuation of sensational ideas about the city and its African heritage. Cultural sites discussed in this thesis include Congo Square, the New Orleans Voodoo Museum, Voodoo Authentica, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Isle of Salvation Botanica, two tours lead by guides, and attendance at a Voodoo initiation ceremony. These sites offer different lenses through which to represent and consume Voodoo as tourism and heritage ranging from touristic to the historically and spiritually meaningful.
Included in
African History Commons, African Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons