The afro-diasporic body in haitian vodou and the transcending of gendered cartesian corporeality

As a social construct, the body is pieced together differently in every cultural context. The discourse of embodiment in the Western philosophical tradition contrasts sharply with the more modular conceptualisation of the body found in Afro-Diasporic religious cultures. An explication of some canonical texts of Western philosophy and some filmic and literary texts from Haiti can demonstrate how these contrasting understandings of the body produce unique gendered and sexual categories of being.