The serpent and the rainbow book review

Thank you! This book defies simple characterization, which is in keeping with its subject, the all-encompassing philosophy known as voodoo, or vodoun, as Davis here calls it. Haitian vodoun, properly understood, is concerned not merely with what is called witchcraft, but with a broad system of traditional wisdom and practical knowledge with its roots in Africa--among the peoples of the Guinea coast, all the way from the bolongs of the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Casamance to the lagoons of Togo and Benin formerly Dahomey , down to the towering rain forests of the Congo and beyond. The author begins his story and quest as a student at Harvard. His assignment is to determine the precise nature of the powerful anaesthetic which creates the state of suspended animation in a ""zombi""--one who is to all appearances dead, but is revived with an antidote and brought under the spiritual domination of another.

At Harvard University. He ended up in Haiti working on a mystery that has intrigued people for years. Davis tried to discover whether there was any truth to the stories that zombis or zombies existed. If zombies were real, Davis wanted to try to explain the science behind the phenomenon. For an academic, Davis proves to be a surprisingly talented writer with a nice ear for dialogue. You cannot avoid touching the glass, but it is just a means of support. It is the water that slakes your thirst and it is the water, not the glass, that keeps you alive.