Found something strange in a graveyard when i was a kid in 1973?

Question

I just posted another question bout my mom but this just came to mind to ask here. When I was bout 8 or so I lived in Queens NY a friend of mine and I were just messing about in a graveyard (it was on the way home) we found this thing wrapped in cloth we brought it home and started unwrapping it inside was a coconut shell inside that was a little tiny plastic baby doll with pins in it. My friend was panamanian and his mom freaked out and made us throw it out, I wanted to fix it back and put it back but it got tossed. Did I break spell? what did that mean voodoo? Im kinda thinking that I might have cursed myself I dont belive in that stuff was just curious what the thing was.?

Answer 1

It was a voodoo doll and you should have kept your hands off other people's property - the doll is a silly superstitious practice of the most primitive people. Throwing it out was okay since the groundskeepers at the graveyard would have done the same.

You did not "curse" yourself. Since you wrote an intelligible question, you obviously have sufficient education to disbelieve such nonsense.

Interesting question - thanks

Answer 2

It sounds to me like rootwork or sympathetic magic. The person that did the work could have been petitioning The Baron, the lwa of the dead and cemeteries to heal someone. A coconut is used to cleanse and protect. It is not used for ill purposes. The pins could be in the places the person is sick at or having pain at. You could have stopped a healing work in progress. The muslin bag would have some type of oil on it also. It does not sound like something bad at all. You will never know unless you knew who the magic was aimed at.