Correction of a Falsified Image
19
Picture 1 (Personal photo; ancestor altar in Rosalie Alley, New Orleans, LA, March
2010)
This altar serves to honor our “biological ancestors, the universal
archetypal ancestors, or both.”6 It holds pictures of the deceased, flowers,
colored candles, and a bowl of blessed water. At the very top of the altar
Stands a white candle7 substituting for the poteau-mitan (the center-post
of the holy space).
In contrast to the altar in Picture 1, the altar in Picture 2 does not
hold any personal memories, pictures or artifacts. In being less personal
but more universal than the first, it fiilfills the function of remembrance
and worship of the
guede,“the loas of the dead and of cemeteries”
(Rigaud 58), among which Baron Samedi is seen as the “ultimate suave
and sophisticated spirit of Death” (Alverado, Voodoo Hoodoo 27).