Voodoo dolls are widely recognized in pop culture as terrifying tools of revenge where a mystical practitioner sticks pins into a little cloth effigy to inflict excruciating physical pain on their enemies.

A closer look

Voodoo dolls are widely recognized in pop culture as terrifying tools of revenge where a mystical practitioner sticks pins into a little cloth effigy to inflict excruciating physical pain on their enemies. In reality, this concept has almost nothing to do with actual Haitian Vodou or West African religions, and was largely adapted from European witchcraft practices called poppets used in traditional folk magic. Hollywood completely fabricated the idea of the sinister curse doll to make cheap horror movies in the 1930s, heavily distorting a complex, legitimate religion for box office thrills. It is deeply ironic that the most famous symbol of an Afro-Caribbean spiritual tradition is actually just a European magic trick that got an incredibly racist cinematic makeover