Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion

By Michael Atwood Mason

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588340775
• ISBN13: 9781588340771
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Very Honest

This Mr Mason has been there and is very good a explaining the "real" deal. I buy all the books on the Religon that I think would help me and pass to my Godchildren. I felt I was back in Cuba. His book will save to alot of explaining. Buy the book, it is well worth it. Many are not.Emi OmoKan Koosha Leri Omo Obatala Ewin Leti Oluo de Orunmila Ogbe Sa IFA Alardora" Kuanaldo "Osa Wori"

Interesting

This book needs more practical information. The author is a first rate scholar and if scholarship is what you desire this is the book for you. But if you need plain easy to read info in great amounts,read another book.

Experience Santeria

In "Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion," Michael Mason takes the reader on a fascinating journey through his own exploration of Santería, beginning as an observer, then becoming initiated into the priesthood of Santería, and finally initiating others into the priesthood. Mason's main argument is that Santería, like any religious practice, is performative, and is thus best understood by incorporating some of this performativity into his written analysis. Using each chapter to focus on a key ceremony within Santería (including a client's divination session; an acquaintance's reception of the guerreros, or warrior deities; and a neophyte's initiation into the priesthood of Santería), Mason emphasizes the body as an important site for ritual learning and individual transformation through the practice of Santería.Mason is steeped in the philosophical writings of hermeneutical phenomenology, and is able to apply the ideas of Mauss, Bourdieu, Marcus, and Jackson to the praxis of Santería in informative and useful ways. Although many books have been written about Santería, most have been written by practitioners who are not scholars, and none has been able to make this analytical connection so successfully. Mason, a folklorist and curator, also highlights the importance of material culture. Certain rituals of Santería have been adumbrated in some detail by previous authors (J. Mason, L. Cabrera), but none has presented as thorough and compelling a picture of the asiento as Mason. And most important, Mason is himself a priest and practitioner of Santería, with more than ten years "in the religion." This makes his perspective invaluable, and provides the strongest component in this tripartite approach to understanding Santería. Because of his first-hand knowledge of this religious tradition and his first-rate academic and practical training, Mason is able to synthesize his socioreligious experiences in a way that few others can.Mason represents a rare combination: a scholar-practitioner who is as respected in his profession as he is in his religion. I would compare Mason's work favorably to Karen Brown's Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (1991). Mason's work is greatly influenced by theorist Michael Jackson, and can also be favorably compared to some of Jackson's essays on the nature of ethnographic inquiry. Certainly, Mason has been influenced by the great Cuban ethnographers Lydia Cabrera and Fernando Ortíz in the scope and detail of his writing, but neither Cabrera nor Ortíz focused their efforts on sociological analysis. Mason's work picks up where Cabrera, Ortíz, and others left off, connecting the litany of ritual detail with intricate webs of meaning, theorizing about the subjectivity of individual experience. The book will be of considerable interest to scholars and others who are interested in the practice and process of Santería. Folklorists, anthropologists, religious practitioners, performa