Jeffrey E. Anderson

Jeffery Anderson's CONJURE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETY is by far the most scholarly book on hoodoo practices and beliefs I've ever read. Often academic books such as this can be rather dry, but Anderson kept it fascinating. I found it to be a real "page-turner", as they say. He discusses the history and evolution of hoodoo in America and compares how it developed differently in different parts of the country. For example, in the Gulf states hoodoo had an obvious "Latin" influence as immigrants from Caribbean islands brought a Catholicized version of folk magick, while hoodoo in Georgia, S. Carolina, and the Appalachians had a markedly "Anglo" or Protestant influence. He also includes biographies and written accounts of some of famous root doctors from the 19th century.

One thing I really liked: Anderson stresses the fact that hoodoo is a home-grown American magickal system. It's truly a "melting pot" of folk magick. Other authors (usually black authors) like to narrowly portray hoodoo as "African magick". This is only partly true. Hoodoo is about equal parts African beliefs, Native American practices, and European witchcraft, plus a few things that are purely American in origin and somewhat modern. Most black authors on hoodoo don't like to admit it has non-African progenitors. Anderson titles his book "CONJURE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETY" because it was mostly practiced by blacks during the latter part of the 19th century (with some whites and Indians). However, today it is largely practiced by whites.

The book was a fascinating read. The only gripe was that he went with endnotes instead of footnotes. But that’s just me being nitpicky. It’s a great book.… (mer)

This is a book on hoodoo and conjure. Stylistically, it's written in a format useful to cultural researchers rather than a "how to" recipe book for practitioners. From what I can tell, Anderson is a hoodoo scholar rather than a practitioner. Because of this, his research is based on documented information rather than belief. It's a very thorough and up-do-date book. For example, it includes how hoodoo/conjure has been revitalized in recent years due to the proliferation of internet hoodoo shops and internet courses.

I'd say Anderson's book is required reading material for any practitioner or researcher of the subject. It's extremely well documented. In fact, a full quarter of the book is devoted to footnotes, works cited, index, glossary, suggested reading, and internet sites. My only gripe with the book is that some of the information is duplicated from his previous book, CONJURE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETY.… (mer)