Subject: Charter of this Newsgroup: Newcomers and Visitors Please Read
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 11:08:44 GMT
From: deoliver@pipeline.com (Denise Oliver)
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc.
Newsgroups: alt.religion.orisha

alt.religion.orisha is an unmoderated forum for the discussion of African-based and derived belief systems throughout the African diaspora.

These belief systems fall into several main categories:

• The Yoruba Orisha religion in Africa and the Diaspora (Santeria),
• The Fon religion and Voudun (Voodoo) and
• Kongo (Palo in the Diaspora).

We welcome all comers to this newsgroup; practitioners, researchers, students, and those simply seeking a better understanding of widely practiced but often misunderstood belief systems.

Some of the potential topics include: recent books, scholarly articles and tapes, ethnography, information on acquisition and use of herbs in ritual practice, ritual music, instruments and dance, divination systems, the changing role of traditional practice in modern times, the law and repression of ritual practices.

This is also a forum for the sharing of personal experience, keeping in mind our primary purpose of informed discussion, on a non judgmental basis, with emphasis on quantitative rather than qualitative values. We aim to provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and shared experience.

We ask that all who subscribe, and post to this group, enter with respect, agree to disagree, and warmly welcome those seekers of information who may not adhere to the beliefs expressed in this newsgroup.

In the spirit of the orishas and loas, we welcome you.