Ever since its emergence in colonial-era Cuba Afro-Cuban Santería (or Lucumí) has displayed a complex dynamic of continuity and change in its institutions rituals and iconography. Originally published in 2003 Santería Enthroned combines art history cultural anthropology and ethnohistory to show how Africans and their descendants have developed novel forms of religious practice in the face of relentless oppression. Focusing on the royal throne as a potent metaphor in Santería belief and practice it shows how negotiations among ideologically competing interests have shaped the religion’s symbols rituals and institutions from the nineteenth century to the present. Rich case studies of change in Cuba and the United States including a New Jersey temple and South Carolina’s Oyotunji Village reveal patterns of innovation similar to those found among rival Yoruba kingdoms in Nigeria. Throughout the book argues for a theoretical perspective on culture as a field of potential strategies and usuable pasts that actors draw upon to craft new forms and identities – a perspective that will be invaluable to all students of the African Diaspora. |Santería Enthroned Art Ritual and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion | Anthropology
