Voodoo People Like Us －私たちのようなブードゥー人間－

“Magic people: Voodoo people,

The voodoo who do what you don’t dare do, people.”

From the Prodigy song, “Voodoo People”

Do you remember the scene in the Indiana Jones movie, “The Temple of Doom” in which an evil child sticks a pin into a doll?  The doll represented Indiana Jones, and whenever the pin was stuck into the doll’s body, the real Indiana Jones started screaming in pain. 

This scene seems to be based on the idea of a Voodoo doll.  The movie is set in India and Voodoo originated in West Africa, so it was a little strange to use it in the movie.  But I can’t think of a better example of Voodoo dolls in popular culture. 

Not many people reading this blog will believe that sticking a pin into a doll representing your enemy can really cause that enemy to feel pain.  But it is not hard to believe that sticking the pin into the Voodoo doll can bring you pleasure! 

I recently read about a scientific study in which people were asked to remember a time when they were the victim of an injustice – for example, to remember a time when they were bullied at work.  Then half of the people studied were given the chance to stick a pin into a representation of the person who had wronged them, and half were not.  According to the researchers the people who stuck the pins in (actually, they stuck “virtual pins” into an image on a computer screen) experienced positive mental benefits.  Their feelings of injustice and victimhood were lessened by the symbolic act of revenge.  Even though their enemy in the real world was not harmed, they still got some psychological benefit from taking action to harm a representation of their enemy. 

So now you know what to do the next time your boss asks you to do overtime.