Living Santeria

Author : Michael Atwood Mason
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
ISBN 13 : 1588345483
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Living Santería written by Michael Atwood Mason and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992 Smithsonian anthropologist Michael Atwood Mason traveled to Cuba for initiation as a priest into the Santería religion. Since then he has created an active oricha “house” and has initiated five others as priests. He is a rare combination: a scholar-practitioner who is equally fluent in his profession and his religion. Interweaving his roles as researcher and priest, Mason explores Santería as a contemporary phenomenon and offers an understanding of its complexity through his own experiences and those of its many practitioners. Balancing deftly between a devotee's account of participation and an anthropologist's theoretical analysis, Living Santería offers an original and insightful understanding of this growing religious tradition.

Author : Michael Atwood Mason
Publisher : Smithsonian Inst Press
ISBN 13 : 9781588340528
Total Pages : 165 pages
Book Rating : 4.2X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Living Santeria written by Michael Atwood Mason and published by Smithsonian Inst Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992 Smithsonian anthropologist Michael Atwood Mason traveled to Cuba for initiation as a priest into the Santer'a religion. Since then he has created an active oricha house and has initiated five others as priests. He is a rare combination: a scholar-practitioner who is equally fluent in his profession and his religion. Interweaving his roles as researcher and priest, he explores Santer'a as a contemporary phenomenon and offers an understanding of its complexity through his own experiences and those of its many practitioners.

Author : Michael Atwood Mason
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
ISBN 13 : 1588340775
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Living Santería written by Michael Atwood Mason and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2002-08-17 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1992 Smithsonian anthropologist Michael Atwood Mason traveled to Cuba for initiation as a priest into the Santería religion. Since then he has created an active oricha “house” and has initiated five others as priests. He is a rare combination: a scholar-practitioner who is equally fluent in his profession and his religion. Interweaving his roles as researcher and priest, Mason explores Santería as a contemporary phenomenon and offers an understanding of its complexity through his own experiences and those of its many practitioners. Balancing deftly between a devotee's account of participation and an anthropologist's theoretical analysis, Living Santería offers an original and insightful understanding of this growing religious tradition.

Author : Raul J. Canizares
Publisher : Destiny Books
ISBN 13 : 9780892817627
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cuban Santeria written by Raul J. Canizares and published by Destiny Books. This book was released on 1999-03-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing window into the secret and seductive world of Santeria. • A Santeria priest discloses information never before revealed to outsiders. • Removes the veil of occultism from Santeria to show it as a highly spiritual, thriving religion. Initiated into the Santeria priesthood at the age of seven, Raul Canizares unveils in Cuban Santeria the secret and seductive world of this rapidly growing, yet largely misunderstood, Afro-Cuban religion. With the knowledge of an insider and the insight of a scholar, Canizares astutely examines the practice of Santeria, revealing many of its hidden dimensions while simultaneously providing a fascinating account of its unique textured mix of African, Cuban, and Catholic traditions. The Cuban-born author describes the practices and rituals of the followers of Santeria--from magical herbal prescription and healing to spiritism and animal sacrifice--and explains how for many years the religion has been maintained under the guise of Catholicism to avoid religious persecution. Most initiates are sworn to a code of silence, but Canizares believes that the time has come to move Santeria, a religion of beauty and resilience, out of the darkness and into the light so that a more accurate picture of this rich tradition can emerge.

Author : Miguel A. De La Torre
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 146743177X
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Santeria written by Miguel A. De La Torre and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2004-08-23 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book by Miguel De La Torre offers a fascinating guide to the history, beliefs, rituals, and culture of Santería — a religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression, and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the United States alone. Santería is a religion with Afro-Cuban roots, rising out of the cultural clash between the Yoruba people of West Africa and the Spanish Catholics who brought them to the Americas as slaves. As a faith of the marginalized and persecuted, it gave oppressed men and women strength and the will to survive. With the exile of thousands of Cubans in the wake of Castro's revolution in 1959, Santería came to the United States, where it is gradually coming to be recognized as a legitimate faith tradition. Apart from vague suspicions that Santería's rituals include animal sacrifice and notions that it is a “syncretistic” form of Catholicism, most people in America's cultural and religious mainstream know very little about this rich faith tradition — in fact, many have never heard of it at all. De La Torre, who was reared in Santería, sets out in this book to provide a basic understanding of its inner workings. He clearly explains the particular worldview, myths, rituals, and practices of Santería, and he discusses what role the religion typically plays in the life of its practitioners as well as the cultural influence it continues to exert in Latin American communities today. In offering a balanced, informed survey of Santería from his unique “insider-outsider” perspective, De La Torre also provides insight into how Christianity and Santería can enter into dialogue — a dialogue that will challenge Christians to consider what this emerging faith tradition can teach them about their own. Enhanced with illustrations, tables, and a glossary, De La Torre's Santería sheds light on a religion all too often shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding.

Author : Marta Moreno Vega
Publisher : One World
ISBN 13 : 0307567109
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Altar of My Soul written by Marta Moreno Vega and published by One World. This book was released on 2009-07-22 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long cloaked in protective secrecy, demonized by Western society, and distorted by Hollywood, Santería is at last emerging from the shadows with an estimated 75 million orisha followers worldwide. In The Altar of My Soul, Marta Moreno Vega recounts the compelling true story of her journey from ignorance and skepticism to initiation as a Yoruba priestess in the Santería religion. This unforgettable spiritual memoir reveals the long-hidden roots and traditions of a centuries-old faith that originated on the shores of West Africa. As an Afro-Puerto Rican child in the New York barrio, Marta paid little heed to the storefront botanicas full of spiritual paraphernalia or to the Catholic saints with foreign names: Yemayá, Ellegua, Shangó. As an adult, in search of a religion that would reflect her racial and cultural heritage, Marta was led to the Way of the Saints. She came to know Santería intimately through its prayers and rituals, drumming and dancing, trances and divination that spark sacred healing energy for family, spiritual growth, and service to others. Written by one who is a professor and a santera priestess, The Altar of My Soul lays before us an electrifying and inspiring faith–one passed down from generation to generation that vitalizes the sacred energy necessary to build a family, a community, and a strong, loving society.

Author : Carlos Hernandez
Publisher : Rosarium Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1495607429
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria written by Carlos Hernandez and published by Rosarium Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quirky collection of short sci-fi stories for fans of Kij Johnson and Kelly Link Assimilation is founded on surrender and being broken; this collection of short stories features people who have assimilated, but are actively trying to reclaim their lives. There is a concert pianist who defies death by uploading his soul into his piano. There is the person who draws his mother's ghost out of the bullet hole in the wall near where she was executed. Another character has a horn growing out of the center of his forehead—punishment for an affair. But he is too weak to end it, too much in love to be moral. Another story recounts a panda breeder looking for tips. And then there's a border patrol agent trying to figure out how to process undocumented visitors from another galaxy. Poignant by way of funny, and philosophical by way of grotesque, Hernandez's stories are prayers for self-sovereignty.

Author : Miguel A. De La Torre
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780802849731
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Santeria written by Miguel A. De La Torre and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2004-08-23 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to the history, beliefs, rituals, and culture of a religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression, and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the United States alone. Santería is a religion with Afro-Cuban roots, rising out of the cultural clash between the Yoruba people of West Africa and the Spanish Catholics who brought them to the Americas as slaves. With the exile of thousands of Cubans after Castro's revolution in 1959, Santería came to the United States, where it is gradually coming to be recognized as a legitimate faith tradition, one about which most people in America's mainstream know very little. De La Torre explains the worldview, myths, rituals, and history of Santería, and discusses what role the religion typically plays in the life of its practitioners as well as the cultural influence it continues to exert in Latin American communities today.--From publisher description.

Author : C. Lynn Carr
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813572665
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Year in White written by C. Lynn Carr and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Afro-Cuban Lukumi religious tradition—more commonly known in the United States as Santería—entrants into the priesthood undergo an extraordinary fifty-three-week initiation period. During this time, these novices—called iyawo—endure a host of prohibitions, including most notably wearing exclusively white clothing. In A Year in White, sociologist C. Lynn Carr, who underwent this initiation herself, opens a window on this remarkable year-long religious transformation. In her intimate investigation of the “year in white,” Carr draws on fifty-two in-depth interviews with other participants, an online survey of nearly two hundred others, and almost a decade of her own ethnographic fieldwork, gathering stories that allow us to see how cultural newcomers and natives thought, felt, and acted with regard to their initiation. She documents how, during the iyawo year, the ritual slowly transforms the initiate’s identity. For the first three months, for instance, the iyawo may not use a mirror, even to shave, and must eat all meals while seated on a mat on the floor using only a spoon and their own set of dishes. During the entire year, the iyawo loses their name and is simply addressed as “iyawo” by family and friends. Carr also shows that this year-long religious ritual—which is carried out even as the iyawo goes about daily life—offers new insight into religion in general, suggesting that the sacred is not separable from the profane and indeed that religion shares an ongoing dynamic relationship with the realities of everyday life. Religious expression happens at home, on the streets, at work and school. Offering insight not only into Santería but also into religion more generally, A Year in White makes an important contribution to our understanding of complex, dynamic religious landscapes in multicultural, pluralist societies and how they inhabit our daily lives.

Author : Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231539916
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Electric Santería written by Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Santería is an African-inspired, Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition, yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of Santería, in which racialized and gendered spirits, deities, priests, and religious travelers remake local, national, and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism. Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, and in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area, Beliso-De Jesús traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of Santería practitioners, mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and religious travel. Santería's spirits, deities, and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways, inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of Santería as a static, localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past," this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.