Hoodoo, also called rootwork or conjure, is an African American tradition of folk magic that took shape among enslaved and later free Black communities in the American South, blending West and Central African spiritual practices with elements of Christianity (especially the Bible and the Psalms), Native American plant knowledge, and European folk magic. It is important to distinguish it from Vodou and Santeria: hoodoo is a system of practical folk magic rather than an organized religion with a pantheon of deities, most practitioners are and have been Protestant Christians who understand their work as operating within a Christian framework, using the power of God, the saints, and scripture. Its practitioners (rootworkers, conjure doctors, "two-headed" doctors) work chiefly with the materials of the natural and domestic world: roots, herbs, minerals, animal parts, graveyard dirt, candles, and personal items, made up into "mojo bags," "gris-gris," dressed candles, powders, and washes to achieve concrete ends, healing, protection, luck in love, money, gambling, or legal trouble, and sometimes to cross or uncross an enemy.
Rich in its use of biblical text as incantation and shaped by the specific historical experience of African Americans, hoodoo preserved African spiritual sensibilities under conditions of enslavement and oppression, and it remains a living tradition, with a documented history in the great folklore collections of the twentieth century and a continuing practice today.