Matrilineage

The family stories that Mama Lola spins for Karen McCarthy Brown add up to a matrilineage. The powerful lineage of Vodou in her blood began, it is true, with a man, Joseph Binbin Mauvant, but since then every story follows the line from mother to daughter. Once one of these special, powerful women is chosen to serve the spirits, it is no longer a choice. They must answer the call. If they do not, sickness, blindness and bad luck in all forms is the result. It is natural to resist the call, every one of the women in Alourdes's family did, but in the end the spirits will get their way. McCarthy Brown discusses this in chapter 10, where she explores Maggie's plight and how "coil upon coil, the spiritual crisis experienced by Sina, Philo and Alourdes provided the interpretative framework for Maggie's struggle. The lineage is a chain...