Price-Mars championed
Négritude in Haiti through his writing, which "discovered" and embraced the
African roots of Haitian society. Price-Mars was the first prominent defender of
vodou as a full religion complete with "deities, a priesthood, a theology, and morality." He argued against the prevailing prejudice and ideology which favored European cultures from the colonial period and rejected non-
white, non-
Western, elements of the cultures of the
Americas. His nationalism embraced a Haitian cultural identity as African through
slavery. Price-Mars' attitude was inspired by the active resistance by Haitian peasants to the 1915 through 1934
United States occupation. He deplored the elite's abandonment of the tradition that had emphasized the nation's achieving independence from French
colonialism, but he took pride in the conduct of the poor. He attacked the elite for their "inability to promote the welfare of the Haitian masses." ==Collective
Bovarysme==