Poppet and the voodoo doll
A figure made to stand for a person; the pin-stuck voodoo doll of film is mostly a European and Hollywood idea.
Also: voodoo doll, image magic, pin doll, effigy
A poppet is a small figure of wax, cloth, clay or wood made to represent a person. In English folk magic it was used both to help and to harm, and wax images were involved in accusations at witch trials; similar figures appear in ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and China. The picture of a Vodou practitioner sticking pins into a doll is largely a European and American invention, spread by travel writing and by films from the 1930s. In Haitian Vodou, dolls serve in altars and as offerings, and the religion centres on service to the lwa and ancestors. In New Orleans the pin doll is sold as a souvenir. Using the term voodoo doll for such an object adds to a stereotype.