Seth Epling

Rush, Dana. Vodun in Coastal Bénin. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2013.

I found this book by using Professors Brennan’s recommendation. After she recommended this book, I went to the library and found that this book was a good reference point for the religion of Vodun in the west coast of Africa.  Rush focuses on the fact that Vodou is not a religion of the past. She emphasizes that this book is open ended and not finished. This is because Vodou is always being changed and this book needs to be updated and be discussed. She explains more about the the religion of vodou and not much about the my specific festival, this will be a good reference for the general practices and information about the deities and how they were derived from other religions and cultures.

Dana Rush perspective is one from the outside from research and personal trips. She has an acknowledgement in which she thanks all of the people who have helped her. She feels in debt to these people and for the actual religion of Vodun. This has a bias because she is looking from the outside. She is most likely looking at a glamorised version of the religion, she does have first hand account of the culture because she lived in places like Benin, Togo, and Ghana. I did not see anywhere that said that she is a follower of the religion so the writing and information may have a different view point.

Bay, Edna G. Asen, Ancestors, and Vodun. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

This was the other book that Professor Brennan recommended to me and I sought it out at the library and saw that it had lots of information to offer. This book was more about how art and artist in africa were changing. This is crucial for my research of my object because my object is a piece of metal work, a piece of art. There are sections in  the book about how metal work in Vodun religion has changed.  She has a section devoted to a festival of Hevioso which would be helpful in understanding the use of my scepter in certain festival. She also focuses in Asen, or using metal working to honor spirits or deities. In her work, she also studied the Kingdom of Dahomey which should bring parallels between the two works.

Unlike Rush, Bay seems to have separated her emotions out of the book. She focused strictly on the facts and tried not to put her own bias into the novel. This will influence the work because we are only getting her point of view on the festivals and customs. She uses many pictures and uses them to describe the practices. I do not see any first hand account from people who have lived or follow the religion. It is more of a textbook style of writing, very informational, goes through the history of asen and the ancestors and how that has changed. Her main goal is to inform people of this culture and not to tell a story.

Blier, Suzanne P. “King Glele of Danhomè, Part One: Divination Portraits of a Lion King and

Man of Iron.” African Art 23, no. 4 (October 1990): 42-53. JSTOR (3336943).

I found this article using JSTOR and CATQuest and I used the keywords: Benin, Vodun, and Hevioso. As I was skimming through it, I saw that she uses King Glele, a king from the Kingdom of Dahomey, to describe many rituals and use of certain tools. I found that King Glele used a scepter similar to the scepter I am studying. Both scepters were used to represent the deity Hevioso and similar aspects of the staff were discussed that I can draw conclusions to about my scepter. There are many times where in the article that say King Glele was empowered and fierce like a lion which I could bring connections due to some of the designs in my scepter.

Blier has a mixture of the two other writers. She has points in the article that she is very informative but at other points she is trying to tell a story. She is also an outsider looking in on the religious practices so there are little first hand accounts. She is tellings story brought down the generations by stories not by written accounts. Her goal is to bring those stories to have a meaning in history and relate them to the history King Glele reign. There will be bias in this piece because of the emotion that she puts into the piece. Since she is taking the accounts from other people there may be misunderstanding and that is something to be wary of. She will be converting other people’s words into her own.

Ayorinde, Christine. Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity. Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 2004.

I found this source scanning through books in a section of the library that contained many titles relating to Santería. Much of the book discusses the political history of Cuba, and the diasporic mixing of religions that created Santería, however she also writes quite a bit about rituals of Santería, including animal sacrifice, healing, spiritual possession, and a small segment about what typically happens during initiation into the “cult” of Ochosi. While most of this book is about the politics of Cuba, and the history of Cuba, the Cuban revolution, and the influence of other countries on the development of Cuba, there are small gold mines of information relevant to my research throughout the book.

Ayorinde herself is hard to find information on, but she writes a little bit about her experiences in her books. She herself is Nigerian, yet her family in Nigeria doesn’t practice Orisha worship. According to personal anecdote, she didn’t know about orisha worship until her journey to Cuba, a country that fascinated her and helped her learn more about their culture, and in turn her own identity. She mostly sources her own interviews with Cuban people and her first hand experience of religious events. She is biased by growing up in a Muslim-Christian family, yet she seems dedicated to bringing the true stories of native Cubans to paper.

Manuel-Núñez, Luis. Santería Stories. New York: Spring Publications, 2006.

I found this source after a discussion with Pat Mardeusz, in which she recommended this book to me. It is a collection of “ancient stories” told in Santería. This book is basically a mythology book collecting legends of Santería all in one place. As a source, it is incredibly useful to me because it not only describes many of the legends of Santería including one with Ochosi, it also provides information on fetishes, power objects, dances, clothing, and offerings of every Santería orisha. This gives me a lot of insight not just into what rituals and altars to Ochosi would look like, but what might be seen on many altars and at many rituals performed in Santería. All in all, this is an invaluable source for my research.

Like many of my sources, there is not a lot of information on Luis Manuel-Núñez. He has written several books on Santería, most notably Santería Stories and Santería: Practical Guide to Afro-Caribbean Magic. He was born in Cuba, and lived there until the age of 10 until immigrating to the United States for his education. It is unclear whether or not he has ever practiced Santería himself, or if he returned to Cuba to do research on Santería after moving to the United States.

Sandoval, Mercedes Cros. Worldview, the Orichas, and Santería. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.

I discovered this source while looking through the section in the library with many books about Santería. This book covers the development and traditions of Santería, the orisha of Santería, and how Santería functions in the modern world. Sandoval writes at length about the rituals and traditions of many aspects of Santería such as priesthood, paraphernalia, music and dance, beliefs, and practices. She also writes about the orisha of Santería, including Ochosi. Sandoval makes a point to discuss the difference between Ochosi’s presence in Nigeria versus his presence in Cuba, and why he has lost importance in Cuban culture. This writing combined with her discussion of ritualistic practices make this a great resource for my research.

As an author, Sandoval is well known as a writer on Santería. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Miami. She spent her childhood in Cuba, and researched it throughout her teenage and adult years. She attended the University of Havana and the University of Florida, and has spent her whole life studying the religion and culture of Santería. While she is not a practitioner of Santería, she isn’t completely an “outsider”, due to the fact that she was raised in Cuba.

Noah Stommel

Catholic Influence on Soup Tureen Bibliography

Bascom, William R. 1950. “The Focus of Cuban Santeria.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 64-68. The University of Chicago Press.

I found this source by searching JSTOR by using the keywords “santeria altar.” Some of the main ideas presented in this article included the discussion of the connection between Santeria and Catholicism. The article went into some depth about a certain level of syncretism that can be seen today between the two religions on the island of Cuba. The article also raised questions of how much Santeria has diverged from its African roots during its presence on the island. Perhaps most importantly, the article stressed the importance of stones in religious practices of Santeria. These consecrated stones have a strong basis in Catholicism, and are also a key principle in the activation of the soup tureen I am studying.

The author seems to stress the importance that Catholicism has in shaping Santeria to its current state, and that this European religion seems to lay at the core of Santeria. Bascom seems to show slight bias in the way he views Santeria more as a form of Catholicism than as a religion evolved from the African Yoruba. He argues that the use of consecrated stones, as well as herbs and blood allow for Santeria people to separate themselves from Catholic influences and form their own religious identity.

De La Torre, Miguel A. Santería: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America. Grand Rapids & Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.

I found this book when skimming shelves in the Santeria section of the library. Initially, I was searching for a different book, but when I got to the library, I noticed the vast array of sources available, and this book caught my eye. One of the main reasons this book was valuable to my research was that it discussed in detail the impacts that Catholicism has had on Santeria throughout the years and how aspects of Santeria can be clearly linked to Christian influence. Because I intend to show the influence of Christianity on this particular soup tureen, this book will guide me in the right direction by giving me important background information on Christian-Santeria interrelationships, if not so much on the tureen itself.

The author’s perspective in this book shows a pretty critical analysis of the ways in which Santeria has been changed and continues to be shaped by forces in Christianity. The author allows us to see how this particular Yoruba-originating religion has distinguished itself from others due to the heavy integration it has undergone with Christianity. Although this Christian influence could be seen as disruptive to the practice of an Orisha religion, the author explains how this has become natural from Santeria practitioners, and that the religion is so unique because of this mixture.

Fardon, Richard, editor. Counterworks: Managin the Diversity of Knowledge. New York, Routledge, 1995.

This book was brought to my attention through my meeting with Patricia Mardeusz. I found this source particularly interesting because it raised arguments that Santería is not at all a product of Catholicism. I think that this book would therefore offer an interesting counterargument to what I am trying to show with my object analysis. In my analysis, I am trying to show how a soup tureen dedicated to the goddess Obba was originally used in Yoruba religion and the differences seen in its uses in Santeria due to the influence of Catholicism. However, this book’s claims would try to dismember my argument altogether, by insisting that Catholicism plays no role whatsoever in the practices of modern Santeria. I think it would be interesting to contrast this book’s arguments with information from other sources that supports my thesis.

Ultimately, Fardon is staking this claim in a small section of his book. This section is dedicated to showing how natives argue against many scholars’ beliefs that Santeria evolved under heavy Catholic influence. As Fardon quotes from a priest of Chango, “this religion is not Catholicism, and it has nothing to do with it. The origin of this religion is in the forests of the country previously called Yorubaland, better known today as Nigeria” (Fardon 83). Fardon is trying to instill an understanding that outside perspectives differ greatly from practitioners of Santeria. While perhaps he himself is not arguing completely for or against the viewpoints of the majority of scholars, he brings up other interesting and necessary opinions on this matter that would ultimately contribute to balancing my argument.

Alyssa Falco

Annotated Biography

Abimbola, Wande. “Aspects of Yoruba Images of the divine: Ifa divination artifacts.” Dialogue and Alliance 3, no. 2 (1989): 24-29.

This source was found by using a database, the ATLA Religion Database. The keywords entered in the search were Ifa and Divination. To summarize this article talks about three different tools used in Ifa Divination; the chains, the tray and a container, which does not pertain to my research. He ties the tools into a god, Orunmila, and describes how the tools or artifacts and associated with him. The author talks about what the objects mean and why they are important as well as giving details about what the objects may look like. He states how each object has a certain movement that is important. He gives a little background story of the objects to help better understand them. He was key on characteristics of the gods and how they may have behaved that would have an affect on the board in the way they were represented.

The author himself gave off a tone that was very resourceful. He did not use language that may offend the objects meaning in anyway. He was an outsider with background knowledge that he wished to share with the audience. He wrote in a way to help the reader understand why these objects mean something, and by helping to enhance this, he added in quotes from poems. The author was very informative about meaning and the story behind the artifacts.

Clarke, J. D. “Ifa Divination.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 69, no. 2 (1939): 235-56. doi:10.2307/2844391

This source was found using JSTOR. I typed into the search bar of the title of a known article which was African Arts and in that I did a sub search using the words Ifa Divination to then come accross this article. This article can be summarized by an experience that took place in the author’s point of view. The author himself was present at an Ifa Divination ceremony and thus he was able to witness everything and give some sort of background information to the reader based on his previous knowledge. Not only does this article tell an actual story but in the beginning it gives the reader some background information on Ifa himself. Which in turn allows the reader to understand what is going on or why something is going on throughout the story. There were some pictures and charts as well that was accessible to the reader in order to understand what was happening or what some of the vocabulary meant. There is also background information on the Babalawo themselves and what their life might be like while having this profession. Some examples of some couplets and stories that might come up and are recited by the babalawo are also listed with a translation that may be confusing for the reader because of the Yoruba language.

The author tells this story in a way where he is almost in the same position as the reader. By being an outsider. By not actually taking part in the ceremony itself but by reiterating what is going on to then ask the same questions the reader might ask and in turn he may give some answers the reader has based on reading the story. The audience he addresses is to a group of people who have some but limited knowledge of Ifa Divination all together. Making it a little easier for the reader to follow along with what is being done during the ceremony.

Olupona, Jacob K., and Rowland O. Abiodun. Ifa Divination: knowledge, power and performance. N.p.: Indiana University Press, 2016.

This source was found by a request to look up from my professor. I used the library catalog to input the title of the book and was able to access the ebook. This book has a some personal stories inside it. There is a story of a woman going through her own Ifa Divination ceremony. She goes into detail about the things she experiences with the babalawo. Not only does it have primary sources as the stories being told first hand, but it also has essays from scholars that go on to give their professional thoughts about the process as well. The stories that are being told are what make the whole meaning of what the scholars say about this process from an outside perspective, really make the idea come alive to the reader and allow the reader to fully understand in two different ways, personally and professionally.

The author himself doesn’t ever make the reader feel like they should feel poorly about this process of Ifa Divination. He doesn’t deliver the stories in a way to try and persuade the reader from one side to another. He simple tells the story with the detail necessary to get the full picture. He writes the article that is in somewhat of an essay form but also in a personal informal way as well. He has some points that are studies that show research and then he has some personal experiences where he was able to have first hand experience in this ceremony.

Dan DellaPasqua

Bibliography of sources which research spirit possession among African Diaspora religions.

Matory, J. L. Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro- Brazilian       Candomblé. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 2005.

I discovered “Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé while using the keyword spirit possession on google scholar. This source is heavily illustrates Afro-Brazilian Candomblé by examining its routes and how transnationalism effected this religion as a whole. However, this source does outline many practices in Diaspora religion and the underlying mechanisms and intentions behind those practice .

This source is from an ethnographic point of view. On this note, the information is neutral and the content is research based. The tone of the author is anthropologic, using cultural relativism to talk about the culture in a way which aims to depict the true nature of the religion from a natives viewpoint.

Matory, J. L. Rival Empires: Islam and the Religions of Spirit Possession among the Ọ̀yọ́- Yorùbá. N.p.: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association, 1994.

I found this source using the keyword spirit possession within the Bailey Howe Library research database. This source directly examines spirit possession among Yoruba people, with a specific focus on possession among women. This source outlines motives behind possession, and how this helps to shape character and identity.

The source is written by Matory, an accomplished anthropologist. Matory writes strictly research based books where most of the information is from credible sources or first hand experience. With this being said, the information published is not biased it is ethnographic research aimed to published research regarding spirit possession within a broader religion.

Matory, J. L. Sex and the empire that is no more : gender and the politics of metaphor in Oyo Yoruba religion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.

This sources was recommended to me by Doctor Vicki Brennan, a professor at the University of Vermont. In this source Matory makes a case for the existence of “meta-tropes” of gender in Yoruba spirit possession, illustrating these practices are deeply embedded in Oyo politics. Matory explains possession within the social and political context of local government, as in the case of traditional Songo and Yemoja possession in Oyo Yoruba religion. While doing this Matory broadcasts a community’s negotiation of personal power and the metaphors of gender among priests and priestesses.

Matory Writes from a non biased view point, providing factual information with wise anecdotes and metaphors to help understand difficult ideas which are foreign to our culture. Matory writes and researches with the intention of understanding, therefore the information published is accurate not only factually, but to the culture being researched as well.