Across families
Chinese Folk Religion and Haitian Vodou
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.12 (0 would be identical).
Ancestors, local gods, Buddhist figures and Daoist ritual specialists used together without embarrassment, organised around efficacy rather than around creed. Belonging is to a family and a place, not to a doctrine.
A distant creator and a crowd of lwa who are served, fed and who ride their devotees in ceremony. Initiatory, communal, intensely embodied, and consistently misrepresented by everyone who has not looked at it.
Where they agree
A3 Plurality
Both sit at many powers and spirits — a gap of 0.00.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning a personal being one can address — a gap of 0.02.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at essential and prescribed — a gap of 0.03.
A4 Locus
Both sit at fully present within it — a gap of 0.04.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.04.
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.05.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at between one life, then judgment and cyclical return and leaning cyclical return respectively — a gap of 0.06.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound — a gap of 0.06.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at leaning animate and itself sacred and animate and itself sacred respectively — a gap of 0.06.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning a people, inherited — a gap of 0.10.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Chinese Folk Religion | Haitian Vodou | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.05 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning a personal being one can address | leaning a personal being one can address | 0.02 |
| A3 Plurality | many powers and spirits | many powers and spirits | 0.00 |
| A4 Locus | fully present within it | fully present within it | 0.04 |
| B1 Source of truth | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | 0.14 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | leaning metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.18 |
| B3 Institutional authority | between clergy and tradition decide and individual conscience decides | clergy and tradition decide | 0.33 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | continues in some form | 0.04 |
| C2 Shape of time | between one life, then judgment and cyclical return | leaning cyclical return | 0.06 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.06 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | leaning achieved by effort or insight | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | 0.13 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | essential and prescribed | essential and prescribed | 0.03 |
| D3 The body | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | leaning to be celebrated | 0.23 |
| E1 Exclusivity | many valid paths | leaning many valid paths | 0.20 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | between an intentional act and beginningless or natural | leaning an intentional act | 0.37 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning a people, inherited | leaning a people, inherited | 0.10 |
| E4 Standing of nature | leaning animate and itself sacred | animate and itself sacred | 0.06 |
Positions for Chinese Folk Religion rest principally on Ethnographic scholarship on Chinese popular religion (Feuchtwang, Yang); for Haitian Vodou, on Haitian Vodou ritual practice and Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.