277 p., Afro-Cuban (Santería ) drummers are trained ritual specialists in minority religious communities, initiated through secret rites into homosocial community groups. Historically, women and non-heteronormative men have been excluded from playing consecrated batá drums. This dissertation investigates how drummers construct the sensual and physical essence of musical sound around gender and sexual hierarchies in Afro-Cuban diasporic contexts (Havana, Miami, New York, and New Jersey). Drummers possess a theory of power based on concepts of how the feeling of aché (from Yoruban language, "the power to make things happen") is channeled during performance. Considers colonial-period Afro-Cuban social societies (cabildos ) as a source of possible residual patriarchal authority in the current male drumming cult community.
Spanish; Primarily in Spanish and Yoruba, with English subtitles;
Publication Date:
1993
Published:
Berkeley, CA: University of California, Extension Media Center
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
1 videocassette (37 min.), An ethnographic documentary which demonstrates the survival and strength of the Yoruba cultural and religious heritage in the contemporary life of Caribbean African-Hispanics. Documents a ritual ceremony that features dancing, singing, praying and drum beating, invoking the twenty-two Orishas, or deities of the Yoruba religion.
