02114nam 2200397Ka 450 991104642780332120251120100028.29781478094401(CKB)43369506700041(ODN)ODN0012472582(EXLCZ)994336950670004120251029d2025 uy 0engurcn|---|||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierBêtes noires Sorcery as history in the haitian-dominican borderlands. /Lauren Derby20251 online resource9781478029359 In Bêtes Noires , Lauren Derby explores storytelling traditions among the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, focusing on shape-shifting spirit demons called baka/bacá . Drawing on interviews with and life stories of residents in a central Haitian-Dominican frontier town, Derby contends that bacás—hot spirits from the sorcery side of vodou/vodú that present as animals and generate wealth for their owners—are a manifestation of what Dominicans call fukú de Colón , the curse of Columbus. The dogs, pigs, cattle, and horses that Columbus brought with him are the only types of animals that bacás become. As instruments of Indigenous dispossession, these animals and their spirit demons convey a history of trauma and racialization in Dominican popular culture. In the context of slavery and beyond, bacás keep alive the promise of freedom, since shape-shifting has long enabled fugitivity. As Derby demonstrates, bacás represent a complex history of race, religion, repression, and resistance.NonfictionOverDriveHistoryOverDriveMulti-CulturalOverDriveSociologyOverDriveNonfiction.History.Multi-Cultural.Sociology.HIS024000SOC002000SOC008050bisacshDerby Lauren1860583BOOK9911046427803321Bêtes noires4466301UNINA