Abstract
The monograph of Douglas J. Falen, an American professor of cultural anthropology - currently at the University of Georgia - provides an extremely inspiring treatment of witchcraft, the Vodun religion, traditional healing, and their complex relationships in southern Benin.
The author originally researched the issue of gender and marriage in the area, himself without much interest in religion, personally without religion. In his field research, however, he still encountered the issue of witchcraft and the religion of Vodun, to such an extent and intensity that he first added these phenomena to his research, and eventually the research focused entirely on them.
Benin society - and this is doubly true of the area of South Benin and the Fon ethnic group - is not only permeated by Vodun and witchcraft, but is directly shaped; it is a structuring force and part of Benin's identity.