People make pilgrimages to a series of holy sites. Those sites became popular in association with manifestations of particular saints and are marked by unusual geographic features such as the waterfall at Saut d'Eau, the most famous of sacred sites. Waterfalls and certain species of large trees are especially sacred because they are believed to be the homes of spirits and the conduits through which spirits enter the world of living humans. Death and the Afterlife. Beliefs concerning the afterlife depend on the religion of the individual.
Strict Catholics and Protestants believe in the existence of reward or punishment after death. Concepts of reward and punishment in the afterlife are alien to vodoun. The moment of death is marked by ritual wailing among family members, friends, and neighbors.
Funerals are important social events and involve several days of social interaction, including feasting and the consumption of rum.
Family members come from far away to sleep at the house, and friends and neighbors congregate in the yard. Men play dominoes while the women cook. Burial monuments and other mortuary rituals are often costly and elaborate. People are increasingly reluctant to be buried underground, preferring to be interred above ground in a kav , an elaborate multi chambered tomb that may cost more than the house in which the individual lived while alive.
Expenditures on mortuary ritual have been increasing and have been interpreted as a leveling mechanism that redistributes resources in the rural economy. Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, intestinal parasites, and sexually transmitted diseases take a toll on the population.
Estimates of HIV among those ages twenty-two to forty-four years are as high as 11 percent, and estimates among prostitutes in the capital are as high as 80 percent. There is less than one doctor per eight-thousand people. Medical facilities are poorly funded and understaffed, and most health care workers are incompetent.
Life expectancy in was under fifty-one years. In the absence of modern medical care, an elaborate system of indigenous healers has evolved, including Women are typically responsible for household maintenance and marketing garden produce. People have tremendous faith in informal healing procedures and commonly believe that HIV can be cured.
With the spread of Pentecostal evangelicalism, Christian faith healing has spread rapidly. Associated with the beginning of the religious season of Lent, Carnival is the most popular and active festival, featuring secular music, parades, dancing in the streets, and abundant consumption of alcohol.
Carnival is preceded by several days of rara bands, traditional ensembles featuring large groups of specially dressed people who dance to the music of vaccines bamboo trumpets and drums under the leadership of a director who blows a whistle and wields a whip.
Other festivals include Independence Day 1 January , Bois Cayman Day 14 August, celebrating a legendary ceremony at which slaves plotted the revolution in , Flag Day 18 May , and the assassination of Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti 17 October. Support for the Arts. The bankrupt government provides occasional token support for the arts, typically for dance troupes.
Haitian literature is written primarily in French. Graphic Arts. Haitians have a predilection for decoration and bright colors. Haitian painting became popular in the s when a school of "primitive" artists encouraged by the Episcopal Church began in Port-au-Prince.
Since that time a steady flow of talented painters has emerged from the lower middle class. However, elite university-schooled painters and gallery owners have profited the most from international recognition. There is also a thriving industry of low-quality paintings, tapestries, and wood, stone, and metal handicrafts that supplies much of the artwork sold to tourists on other Caribbean islands. Performance Arts. There is a rich tradition of music and dance, but few performances are publicly funded.
Enquete Mortalite, Morbidite et Utilisation des Services, — Courlander, Harold. Crouse, Nellis M. The French Struggle for the West Indies —, DeWind, Josh, and David H.
Kinley III. Harvard University, Fass, Simon. Geggus, David Patrick. Herskovits, Melville J. Life in a Haitian Valley, Lowenthal, Ira.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Lundahl, Mats. Metraux, Alfred. Voodoo in Haiti, translated by Hugo Charteris, , Metraux, Rhoda. Moreau, St. Description de la Partie Francaise de Saint-Domingue, , Murray, Gerald F. Columbia University, Rotberg, Robert I.
Haiti: The Politics of Squalor, Rouse, Irving. Schwartz, Timothy T. University of Florida, Gainesville, Simpson, George Eaton. Smucker, Glenn Richard. New School for Social Research, Toggle navigation. Culture Name Haitian. History and Ethnic Relations Emergence of a Nation. Food and Economy Food in Daily Life.
Social Stratification Class and Castes. Political Life Government. Social Welfare and Change Programs The infrastructure is in a very poor condition.
Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations Per capita, there are more foreign nongovernmental organizations and religious missions predominantly U. Marriage,Family, and Kinship Marriage. Socialization Infant Care. Religion Religious Beliefs. Medicine and Health Care Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, intestinal parasites, and sexually transmitted diseases take a toll on the population. Secular Celebrations Associated with the beginning of the religious season of Lent, Carnival is the most popular and active festival, featuring secular music, parades, dancing in the streets, and abundant consumption of alcohol.
The Arts and Humanities Support for the Arts. Farmer, Paul. The Uses of Haiti, James, C. The Black Jacobins, Leyburn, James G. The Haitian People, , Moral, Paul.
Le Paysan Haitien, Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier, Also read article about Haiti from Wikipedia.
User Contributions: 1. Eboni A. Randy G. Well written i must say This article truly revealed some forgotten facts about Haiti and it's culture Very helpfull!!! This article helped undestand more about the haitian culture. Even tho i was just looking for info on the medical practices and beliefs i'm glad i found this because it help me understand more about this culture. I'm From the D. R and i remember having a haitian guy worked at my gandmother house when i was a little girl, he was the nicest man ever.
And after many years we're still in touch with him. Shedeline Box and Tayler Mack. Me and my friend both agree that this is helpful we are in the 6th grade and doing a culture project and it is helping us find the information we need for this project. This is very helpful!!!!! Amanda Nakashian. I am going on a mission trip to Haiti, and this article has been very helpful in understanding the culture better! I am Haitian but i have been living in the United States my whole life.
This article was very interesting and gave me a better understanding of my culture. QUira Wilkins. I've been living in the US for the past 23 years, I learned more about my culture today then I've ever been told Thank you for this lovely article I am very proud to be Haitian American My only regret is the the lack of understanding of Haiti's culture This is a well written article and helped me to see my childhood years better in the context of my culture.
Much of what is stated is true specifically the importance and value of education in our culture. Thanks to all who attributed to this article. I sponsor a child in Haiti and wanted to learn about his culture. Your site is broken down to where one can understand and gain much knowledge compared to other articles I have read.
Thanks again. What a great resource! Thank you!!! I will definitely use this website as a resource in the future. Thanks so much i hjad no information for my project until i found this website!
Jason R. Sthelie Jean. Haiti is where I came from. I was born and raised there. Even though I spent 12 years in Haiti, I did not know all of this information about it. So thank you for this article. It is really helpful. I hope you continue with the good work. I love my country no matter what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My daughter is marrying a wonderful man, whose parents are from Haiti. This helps me a great deal understand them and the culture they grew up in.
They both came here to the US, went to school and are both RNs. Very impressive article. We are Jewish, and I hope they take the time to learn about us as well! We are all G-d's children. I like to reference this article however, there is no reference to the date this was written. It has great info that you don't find on the web regarding Haiti and gives you a much better understanding of the country.
Thank you. I am very happy to see this well written aritcle about my culture and my home. I am very much of Haitian discent and I am pleased to see interest in our practices and culture. Thank you very much. Oh dear, it was all going so well until the religious nutcases jumped on the bandwaggon. Anyway, an interesting article, which I only discovered when trying to find out more about the country after the earthquake.
Things you do when bored early morning in snow swept England! Being a American-Haitian mixed, I appreciated the consolation and the ability to become at ease and one with an identity I had not known much about. Great article, many valuable info for me, i am looking for info about all rules of World. I am very impressed with this site!
William Shaw. I first checked wikipedia who had 2 or 3 paragraphs on Haiti and it's customs and peoples. This site was most informative in every respect. Watching the pictures of the earthquake, brought on many conversations about Haiti, which no one had the answers. Thanks to your website we now all know much more about Haiti.
Our sympathy is with the people. Thank You. I read this artical due to earthquack in haiti. Thanks for such a informatic,orgonized and very helpfull articall being a pastor.
It is to good and easy for me to share and explain the culture,religion and history of haiti to the pakistani peoples. May God blesyou a lot. I really never bothered to learn about Haiti until the recent earthquake.
I wanted to know how the mass burials deviated from the normal burial traditions. My sister father and brother went to Haiti for a mission trip and arrived home safe only 3 days before the earthquake. Since they have been home I've been really interested in Haiti and this site has a lot of good information. I just wish I could've gone with to help and I want to go now and get hands on help, instead of just sitting and watching the destruction in my safe and fortunate home.
I want to know more about the clothing they wear. I hope that soon we will be able to send clothing and bedding directly, and it appears to me that women and girls wear dresses and skirts, not jeans and shorts. I want to start collecting things to send, and I want to send the correct items for the Haitian Culture and climate.
Please contact me if you can advise, or post this info here. I would like to "adopt" a family or two or three if it is possible. This was very interesting thank you. I was doing a project on haiti and this had all the infrmation i needed. Those informations are really good to know because most people don't know the haitian culture that well, I think that its a good way to inform people so they can have better view of the culture. This is a very good website with many accurate information. This have helped me a lot and thank you very much.
Although there are many modern cultures being informed to us, researchers, but not much on traditional, such as the culture of the Arawak Indians taino. This was extereamly helpful for my Haiti report. This article was very helpful. I got a good grade on my report about Haiti for school.
Thanks for the information! I really appreciate this article. I am in the seventh grade, and we were required to write something about our culture.
This really helped a lot. I am in Girl Scouts and we had to pick a country for our thinking day. We picked Haiti. This is great information about the country and it's people.
I enjoyed reading the info and found the pictures an added bonus. This article will help us to give our presintation to fello girl scouts.
Very informative and though i am of haitian decent i was enlightened to read of somethings i haven't seen written but have seen certain behaviours i could not explain. Thank you for this enlightment A street vendors sells items in Cite Soleil, an extremely impoverished and densely populated slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Dec. Friday marks eight years since a devastating earthquake on Jan.
A boy stands in a crowd while watching a ceremony marking the th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Dessalines led the victorious Haitian Revolution against the French slave masters, making Haiti the world's first black republic in Dessalines promised to divide the land among the slaves who fought with him to end French colonial rule, a policy that led to his assassination.
Jodel Lesage, lieutenant-general of the reconstituted Haitian Armed Forces, reviews his troops during a ceremony marking the th anniversary of the battle that led to Haiti's independence from France, in Cap Haitien, on Nov. During the ceremony, the Haitian president officially reintroduced the army some 22 years after the national army was disbanded. A student balances on stones as she crosses sewage water on her way to class in Cite Soleil on Nov.
Metelus Obnes pours clairin for a client as Deluson Michel, 15, drinks a small bottle of the sugar-based alcoholic drink in Cite Soleil on July 11, One week after Matthew: This is what Haiti looks like. Show Caption. Hide Caption. Two days after Hurricane Matthew ravaged Haiti's remote southwestern peninsula, officials dramatically raised the death toll to more than as they finally began to reach corners of the country that had been cut off by the devastating storm.
Share your feedback to help improve our site! The geographic makeup of the Island of Hispaniola is such that the mountainous regions tend to cut off the rainfall needed to grow crops and sustain livestock. The northeast trade winds that blow across the island often favor the DR, causing the Eastern part of the island to be greener and more attractive. Although Christopher Columbus colonized the entire island in the name of Spain, the languages slowly but steadily diverged.
The Eastern half, which would become the Dominican Republic retained the Spanish language while the Western Half, modern day Haiti developed a French-influenced Creole as the common tongue. As the two countries continued to grow and change, the French began to take a greater toll on the Haitian side of the island through farming and finances.
They exploited the Haitian coffee and sugar farmers, taking their valuable crops without exchanging a fair wage.
As the land of modern day Haiti continued to struggle, the Eastern side of the Island became more light skinned as they intermingled with white settlers, causing them to look down on their darker skinned neighbors and employ them as common field hands and hard laborers. Finally, the country of Haiti has more people and less food in fact Haiti is one of the most food impoverished nations in the world and cannot produce enough food to sustain its people.
0コメント