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

Michael Atwood Mason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Atwood Mason is an anthropologist and exhibit developer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where he was a co-curator of the permanent African Voices exhibition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (August 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588340775
• ISBN-13: 978-1588340771
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experience Santeria, October 6, 2002

By 

A reader from Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion (Paperback)

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, performance theorists, scholars of religion, scholars of the Caribbean, and serious students of ethnography will be gratified by the style and substance Mason brings to his subject. General readers who are interested in Santería and other Caribbean religious practices will also be drawn to the book's accessible and engaging approach to the experience of Santería. In short, buy this book!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Experience without language, June 8, 2005

By 

A. Gil (Gainesville, FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion (Paperback)

LIVING SANTERIA

This book full of information about rituals, supported by a strong bibliography and notes.

On the other hand, I was left wondering about the extent of the writer's ability to understand his experience, and about the care demonstrated in the publishing process.

Mason claims to have been initiated in Cuba; yet he does not know seem to know the difference between the verbs "to help" and ''to greet''; and between the article "the'' and the pronoun ''he" in Spanish (see translation, p. 54) . One wonders how accurate his information can be, when the basic language is not known.

As for the publisher--the Smithsonian. One imagines that in the process between manuscript review, and printing someone with real knowledge of Spanish would have been asked to review the translations and make the proper corrections.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, January 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion (Paperback)

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.