Science Fair Project Encyclopedia The term Voodoo (Vodun in
Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in
Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the
branches of a West African ancestor-based Theist-Animist
religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples
of West Africa, in the country now known as Benin, formerly the
Kingdom of Dahomey, where Vodun is today the national religion
of more than 7 million people. In addition to the Fon or
Dahomeyan tradition which has remained in Africa, there are
related traditions that put down roots in the New World during
the days of the transatlantic African slave trade. Voodoo or
vodun is probably the most ancient religion in the world,
directly derived from Prehistoric systems of belief. This
"primitivism" grants it an exceptional interest in the
Paleoanthropological field. The more or less "pure" Fon
tradition in Cuba is known as La Regla Arara. In Brazil, the Fon
tradition among former slaves has given rise to the tradition