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houngan

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
houngan, hungan [ˈhuːŋgən ˈuːŋgən]
n
(Non-Christian Religions / Other Non-Christian Religions) a voodoo priest
[from Haitian Creole, from Fon hun deity + ga chief]


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It implies a specific mode of exegesis which starts out from the perceptible manifestations and infers from them the virtual causes, a procedure which Reed closely associates with the traditional "Work" of the houngan (or Voodoo healer), who recognizes the loas that are possessing people.
These words, houngan and bokor, are most elaborately explained by Reed in Mumbo Jumbo in the course of his deconstruction of the Faust legend; however, houngan is first defined in Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, and both are central not only to Mumbo Jumbo but to subsequent novels as well.
Voodoo's sexual content becomes a dignified component of a complex belief on the same order as the Virgin Birth" when the voodoo houngan describes the ceremony where the priestess reveals her vagina as the source of all life and the ultimate mystery (249-50).
 
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