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Abstract            Volume:14  Issue-9  Year-2026         Original Research Articles


Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215
Issues : 12 per year
Publisher : Excellent Publishers
Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Speaking, Remaining Silent, Transmitting: An Ethnography of Micro-Narratives and Moral Socialization in Vodun Fon
Hospice Bienvenu HOUNYOTON1 and Pascal Sossou AMALY2*
1Department of Socio-Educational Activities - National Institute of Youth, Physical Education and Sport (INJEPS), Department of Sociology of Faculty of Languages, Arts and Humanities (FLASH)/Adjarra, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Benin & Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), France
2English Department, Faculty of Letters, Languages, Arts and Communications, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC)
*Corresponding author
Abstract:

In the Vodun convents of central Benin, stories circulate through countless “little narratives”—anecdotes, confidences, rebukes, laughter, fragments of experiences. These minor narratives, told in a joking or secretive tone, form the core of an implicit moral and educational pedagogy. Based on observations and interviews conducted in six communes of the Zou region, this article demonstrates that the anecdotes circulating in Vodun Fon convents constitute a discreet yet essential form of transmitting community values, regulating behavior, and facilitating ritual socialization. Through storytelling, initiates learn to speak truthfully, to situate themselves within the symbolic order, and to engage with spiritual power within a living collective memory.

Keywords: Vodun, anecdote, socialization, oral history, anthropology of religion, Benin.
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How to cite this article:

Hospice Bienvenu HOUNYOTON and Pascal Sossou AMALY. 2026. Speaking, Remaining Silent, Transmitting: An Ethnography of Micro-Narratives and Moral Socialization in Vodun Fon.Int.J.Curr.Res.Aca.Rev. 14(9): 90-94
doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcrar.2026.1409.009
Copyright: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.


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