This introduction to the Afro-Cuban religion called Santería explores how it emerged and developed in Cuba out of transplanted Yoruba beliefs, and continues to spread and adjust to changing times and contexts. Exploring every facet of Santería's worldview, the book examines how practitioners have adapted received beliefs and practices to reconcile them with new environments, from plantation slavery to exile in the United States. Offering a perspective based on a lifetime of research and firsthand knowledge, the book illuminates Santería as a theological system and as a vital, continuously evol ... More

This introduction to the Afro-Cuban religion called Santería explores how it emerged and developed in Cuba out of transplanted Yoruba beliefs, and continues to spread and adjust to changing times and contexts. Exploring every facet of Santería's worldview, the book examines how practitioners have adapted received beliefs and practices to reconcile them with new environments, from plantation slavery to exile in the United States. Offering a perspective based on a lifetime of research and firsthand knowledge, the book illuminates Santería as a theological system and as a vital, continuously evolving community. The adaptation process that gave birth to Santería was not the singular result of cultural resistance, the book argues, but a successful attempt to find meaning linked to alien religious elements in a way that appealed to a diverse following. Beginning with the transatlantic history of how Yoruba traditions came to Cuba and were established and adapted to Cuban society, the book provides a comparison of Yoruba and Cuban mythologies, followed by an overview of how Santería has continued to diffuse and change in response to new contexts and adherents—with an illuminating perspective on Santería among Cubans in Miami.