UC Santa Barbara

The field of vexillology is, by nature, a multidisciplinary one. It is difficult to understand the significance of an individual flag or group of flags without examining the context within which those objects were created and used.  This paper will present a case study of a multidisciplinary investigation of one type of flags.  Haitian vodou flags (drapo vodou) are little known to vexillologists, but have been studied by scholars in the fields of art, anthropology, African-American studies, and other disciplines.  An investigation of prior scholarship from these areas demonstrates that this category of flags, while significantly different than the flags usually examined by vexillologists, has much to teach us about the study of flags as a multidisciplinary exercise.