196 p., Argues that practitioners of Palo Monte/Mayombe in the city of Santiago de Cuba construct a religious genealogy inclusive of spirits to affirm their sense of an "African" identity in contemporary Cuba. Demonstrates that these practitioners' sense of being African includes an understanding that they are the ritual descendants and stewards of the blended spiritual knowledge created by sixteenth and seventeenth century AmerIndian Taíno and Kongolese inhabitants of eastern/Oriente, Cuba.
Blanes,Ruy Llera (Editor) and Espirito Santo,Diana (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2014
Published:
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
305 p., By stripping symbolism from the way we think about the spirit world, the contributors of this book uncover a livelier, more diverse environment of entities--with their own histories, motivations, and social interactions--providing a new understanding of spirits not as symbols, but as agents.
