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Okay...it''s easiest to start with what is the same...may just drag in webpages to thrash out what is different.
Voodoo, etc. are all magico-religious structures developed within the framework of the African Diaspora, and specifically within the plantation-slave and maroon cultures of the Caribbean and South America, and, to a lesser extent, the cotton-producing South...which is an interesting case that needs to be explored seperately.
While there is a great deal of contention regarding the precise derivative composition of the seperate religions, it is generally understood that all of these religions synthesize together elements of various African relgious structures and Christianity, mostly Catholicism.
South America can be differentiated from the Caribbean in that the belief and practice systems of the native peoples were also thrown into the mix. Given that Taino, Carib, and all other indigenous cultures were wiped out within fifty years of the beginning of colonization, no such claim can be verified for the Caribbean, although speculation ensues endlessly.
There is equal contention about the African source-derivatives. African slaves were drawn from all along the sub-Saharan west coast of Africa, representing hundreds of seperate cultures. Like pre-Christian Europe, there was an overlap between the generalized structures of each culture's religions. Further confounding the question of derivation is the fact that slaves were intentional seperated from others of the same tribal group, to insure confusion and lack of organized resistance during and after transpor. The seperate Afro-Caribbean religions may represent the attempts of different slave communities, composed of cultural and linguistically diverse individuals, to establish a common "language" of ritual practice...each individual recognizing the homologies in the ritual activities of others, and then attempting to negotiate and resolve the similarities and differences between metaphysics.
The nomenclature, cosmetic, and praxal differences between the very similar-seeming body of Afro-Caribbean religions may be the result of how seperate island communities [and communities within the islands] generated a shared religious identity, and the demographics of what proportion of slaves came from where.
The most obvious African kin of Caribbean religions are the practices of the Yoruba and the Fon, confederations/kingdoms both from the Gold/Slave Coast of West Africa. Indeed, Yoruba and santero nomenclature are almost identical, while Voodoo seems to draw more of it terminology from Dahomeian practices.
Terminologically, it can also be noted that the language of the colonizer/slaver-owner has profoundly effected the divisions in Caribbean religion. Voodoo is a product of Haiti, and reflects this in its Francophone Creole, while Santeria is Cuban in in origin and Spanish-Creole in language. In Brazil, as well as the rest of S. America, the language of candomble and lesser-known syncretic religions is marked by Yoruba, local indigenous languages [Quechua, Aymara, etc.], and Portugese/Spanish.
The impact of Catholicism must also be recognized: it is interesting to note the typified "syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion" occurred laregly in Catholic colonies...those of Franch, Portugal, and Spain. The parity between the functional domains of saints and martyrs and the specialization of intercessor-spirits [loa, orisha], and the inaccessibility of G-d through direction communication were points of union between African religion and Catholicism. In Protestant colonies, such as those of Britain and the Dutch, slave-maroon religion tended to manifest differently, although candomble and other creole religions were eventually imported through cultural circulation.
Metaphysical similarities:
1) G-d is big, G-d is far away.
Oblatala, Gran Mait...whatever the term. The initiator of the universe is too big, transcends understanding, and is this above day-to-day concerns. G-d is worshipped not because of what he can do for you in a functional sense, but out of reverence for his absoluteness. In many Caribbean religions, this is why you go to [Catholic] church on Sunday. Interestingly though, G-d is paradoxically morally blank to the micro-events of the universe, but ultimately good, given that existence exists and all.
2) Between Man and G-d are intercessors
G-d handles the big stuff...but who's there to help you out with the day-to-day? In pretty much all Caribbean religion, there exists a hierarchy of spirit-forms that can help or hinder the practioner with any and all undertakings.
The best known are the pantheon of "intermediates," or, as I like to think of them, "toolbox spirits." These the orisha, loa, etc. depending on which group you ask. Invisibles readers will be familiar with Guede/Ghede, to whom Jim Crow is a
cheveaux (horse). These spirits possess specialist domains in which they can help the invoker...love, farming, violence, etc. Over time, these spirit-forms fuse, conjugate, and bud, like one-celled organisms, creating new-yet-still-part-of-the-old spirit-forms that govern sub-domains, or appropriate new ideas. Thus Ghede has seven or eight aspects that monopolize different aspects of his meme kingdom. These figures are considered synonymous with the pantheon of Catholic saints, given the obvious functional similarity. While some pairing are uncontested - like Ghede as Saint Barbara - there are sometimes debates about which intercessor is which saints, if not more than one.
There is also a reverence of ancestor spirits, and necessary banishings of evil ones. In candomble and more of the traditions with indigenous American influences, there further gradations of nature and animal spirits, etc., often not clearly organized into a reified pantheon.
3) Reciprocal Exchange - Family Relations and Trade Relations
To invoke [or appease] a loa [orisha, etc.]is to engage in a kind of spiritual barter-economics. You have to offer something to get something. Appropriate categories of "gifts" for favors are often pre-codified as personality traits of the spirit-form...Ghede likes rum and sweet things, Yemaya like sea-shells, etc.
Specific tasks require specific types of gifts, generally with a proportional exchange rate. Often a priest-figure [houngan, babalwo] will set the price for a request.
What complicates the exchange process is that the spirit-forms are socially intertied, and have amours and spats, just like the Greek gods. So not only do you have to appease the spirit-form you're trading with, but any competitor/affiliate that might take offense. For example, in Voodoo, all rituals must begin with an invocation of Legba, the opener of ways - otherwise, he would keep the routes of communication to the other loa shut, and nothing would be achieved.
Continuing in the intellectual vein of the "reciprocal" exchange meme, there exists a specialized relationship, where the worshipper is adopted by a spirit-form, and officially becomes an initiate of that particular cult: trade relation become a familial one. This generates priviledges/guarantees for the initiate, but also ritual responsibilities. Additionally, initiates are almost exclusively "ridden" by their "owner" spirit-forms. But within the special relationship of being a "child" or "horse" of a spirit-form, one must tend first to one's master, lest they get offended adn whup you like your mama used to.
4) Horses and Mounting
The single feature of Caribbean religion that is the most noticable, most characteristic, is the process of ritual possession that takes place at mass celebration. Most commonly, this phenomenon is referred to as "mounting" or "riding."
This event is the intersection of my previous bits about trade and family, because the process of being "mounted" by a loa [etc.] is at once both.
It is a familial relationship in that it marked a bond of affection and attention between "horse" and "loa": the latter has decided to attend to the former. As mentioned prior, loa generally corral their "horses," and become upset or agitated when a favorite is mounted by someone else.
On the other side of things, the loa is extracting value in the form of material experience...something that it is deprived of in it's general state. Mounted individuals tend to engage in extravagent behaviors...excess eating, drinking, smoking, fighting, flirting, dancing, etc....as the spirit-forms plays with the limits of the physical form, and attempts to pack in as many sensations as possible into a short time.
[ 27-02-2002: Message edited by: [stupid, stupid monkeys] ] |
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