Santeria has the basic features and traditions of an ancient African religion practiced among the Yoruba in Nigeria. The basis of the Santeria religion is the nurture of a personal relation with the orishas, and one of the principal forms of devotion is an animal sacrifice. Belief that people can be possessed by spirits is more common among Latino evangelical Protestants (80%) than among mainline Protestants (63%), Catholics (56%) or the religiously unaffiliated (43%). De La Torre also edited Handbook of U.S. Theologies of Liberation, examining Christian concepts and the interrelationship between religion, community and culture from the perspective of U.S. marginalized communities. Each deity represents an aspect of nature, like thunder, and a human characteristic, like power." They are marred with dark mystery due to the secrecy that guards these esoteric segments of their practice. The city claimed "animal sacrifices jeopardize public health and violate its slaughterhouse and animal cruelty ordinances." Between 1940 and 1960, the immigrants from Cuba spread Santeria in the United States. Empirical Studies of African Independent/Indigenous Churches. Now, in some belief systems, say Hinduism, the person is defined as the soul that is contained or even imprisoned in the body. you will not have a place among the revered ancestors, comdemong the spirit to roam the earth. You can subscribe to the Occultist Newsletter to be informed of the books release via email and to receive other important announcements. The deceased is also ritually consulted to indicate his or her acceptance thus to be reintegrated into the family (Gundani in Cox, 1998, p. 201). (February 22, 2023). Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. apatron of those suffering from smallpox, HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and other infectious diseases. Olokun also presides over meditation, mental health, dreaming, psychic abilities and water-based healing. The Spanish words for these priests are santero or santera. There are many reasons why they are drawn to Santeria. Christianity does have an influence on the Yoruba in terms of the concept of heaven. Lets start with an elucidation of Santeria and then Voodoo before jumping into the list of similarities and differences, or feel free to skip ahead. New York, 1965. Lewiston, N.Y., 1992. Animals are cooked and eaten following all Santeria rituals (except healing and death rites, where the sickness is believed to pass into the dead animal). Portsmouth, N.H., 1969. The basis of the Santeria religion is the nurture of a personal relation with the orishas, and one of the principal forms of devotion is an animal sacrifice. The belief system of Santeria is reflected in its history. It is an amalgamation between the orthodox Yoruba religion in West Africa and Catholicism. thunder and power are two aspects of nature that are represented by the deity. Does Santera believe in the afterlife? Santeria is a religion that has beliefs of the Yoruba and it also has Roman Catholic elements (Types of Religion, 2016). Women always held power in the culture as well as politics. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. These myths also indicate that in God's original intentions, the world was orderly, and human beings led a happy life in a state of immortality as long as they were close to God, their creator. Animal sacrifice is central to Santeria. Santeria: A stigmatized religion. Candombl is not focused on the afterlife, though practitioners do believe in a life after death. Divination can be done by casting palm nuts, interpreting the fall of shells, or using a divided coconut. Although Idowu presented this idea of afterlife in the context of traditional Yoruba society, it is important to note that some scholars have questioned this apparently theological explication of the Yoruba notion of afterlife. This ritual involves throwing an ekwele, a chain of 8 shaped pieces. Their healthcare draws on Catholicism as well as African tradition; holy water is an ingredient in many Santeria medicinal formulas. The "orishas are the representatives of the supreme God, and . An Orisha is a manifestation of Olodumare (God). Rituals for summoning the, Read More My New Grimoire Goetia Rising is Now Available!Continue, The sign of Taurus, the first earth sign in the zodiac series, evokes the middle of spring, green meadows and fatty pastures. African Synod: Instrumentum Laboris. This use of the metaphor of a journey is related to the fact that in general, as indicated earlier, Africans view life itself as a journey. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Especially about birth, life, death and the Afterlife. These powers are thought to allow them to predict the future. This is reminiscent of rituals of communion with the deceased through shared meals and libations. There are a number of different orishas, and most of them correspond to a Catholic saint. For a long time Santeria was a secretive underground religion, but it's becoming increasingly visible in the Americas: Once dismissed as a ghetto religion practiced only by the Caribbean poor and uneducated, Santeria has a growing following among middle-class professionals, including white, black and Asian Americans. De La Torre, a regular columnist for EthicsDaily.com and assistant professor of religion at Hope College in Holland, Mich., is author of a recent book exploring the history, beliefs, rituals and culture of Santeriaa religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the United States alone. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Needless to say, Africans who have come into contact with Islam and Christianity have been influenced by the rather sharply defined eschatological notions featuring a final judgment, heaven and hell, and final resurrection as destinies of the soul. Thus, while Africans continue to see death as a "saying yes" to God's summons, this summons is a prelude to God's judgment, which determines one's final postmortem destiny in heaven or hell. Secretly the practitionres prayed to their ancestors gods as they hid behind Christian saints. It is said that going through the physical death process is exhausting to the sojourner and therefore the deceased needs a few days to recuperate before continuing in the next phase of the life journey. Kenyatta, Jomo. What can we do for our departed loved ones? In this discourse of "inculturation theology" ancestors still emerge as moral exemplars, and instead of Jesus dismantling the ancestors, he is portrayed in this theology as the "ancestor par excellence.". The world without photography will be meaningless to us if there is no light and color, which opens up our minds and expresses passion. Devotion to the orishas takes four principal forms: divination, sacrifice, spirit mediumship, and initiation. Instead of conceiving the person as a soul that is contained in a body, Africans define the person as an integral whole constituting the "outer person" (the body) and the "inner self." As a Living-Dead one continues to be involved in matters of the corporate group of family and clan and retains one's personal name and corporate identity in this context. Having understood the fundamentals of Santeria and Voodoo, lets examine the main similarities and differences. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Mugambi, Jesse, and J. Many testify that it was their experience of a life-threatening illness which first prompted their devotion to an Orisha. Followers believe that these spirits will give them help in life, if they carry out the appropriate rituals, and enable them to achieve the destiny that God planned for them before they were born. There are about three thousand African ethnic groups, each boasting a distinctive common history, culture, language, and recognizable belief system. It developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries during the Atlantic slave trade. The way in which these pieces fall is used to provide guidance. That a person is considered a composite and integral whole is also evident in that often, when people claim to encounter the dead through visions and dreams or when they communicate with them through ritual, they claim to have met or spoken with "so and so," a person identifiable by name, rather than the "ghost" of so and so. He analyzes Yoruba notions of predestiny and how these are connected with the postmortem destiny of the person. It's a choice. It explores marginalized views of global issues like poverty, war and the environment, as well as business issues such as corporate accountability and affirmative action. This ceremony invites the Orisha to join the community in drumming, singing and dancing. What is Santeria? Later on, the region came under Islamic influence, and today much of North Africa is Islamic and culturally Arabic. The essays analyze the legal ramifications of the case as well as religio-cultural and historical roots of the controversy and suggest that the controversy was symptomatic of the seeming clash between Western and indigenous African (specifically Luo) views regarding life, death, and the hereafter. Santeria is an Afro-Carribian religion that expanded during the time of the Cuban slave trade (Types of Religion, 2016). Based on Santera, people are born under a guardian Orisha, or saint, that must be worshipped throughout life. Both spirits Orishas and Loas are sometimes identified with Catholic saints. In Cuba, the practice became known as Santeria, while in Haiti, it started being referred to as Voodoo. Mortuary rituals also reveal that Africans consider death a paradox. The Swazi also bury their dead with all their vital earthly belongings, thus equipping them for the next phase of their life journey, beyond physical death. Our goal isn't to spend eternity sitting on a puffy white cloud in Heaven isolated from the world of the living. They are consumed by the community afterward. Musicians, painters, sculptors, and writers have found in the Orisha tradition sources of African artistry and pride. The religion emphasizes the here and now rather than the afterlife, and it focuses on natural forces. To some extent, Santeria includes magical practice, although this magical system is based upon interaction with and understanding of the orishas. Santera focuses on building relationships between human beings and powerful (but mortal) spirits or divinities called o risha. The myth suggests that this group believes that immortality is gone forever and only life and death within this world remain (Ray, 1976). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Of these ritual texts, the most notable are Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Netherworld; Ishtar 's Descent to the Netherworld; and Nergal and Ereshkigal. There is always something worth knowing even if you cannot attain its knowledge. What most viewers didnt realize, says author Miguel De La Torre, is that the songs title referred to a deity of an Afro-Cuban religion called Santeria. According to Mbiti (1969, p. 158), this continued remembrance of the Living-Dead and their sustained interaction with the living constitutes the individual's "personal immortality." Drawing examples from across the continent, Mbiti offers a systematic account of African beliefs. Download Full Image. Santeria also includes the Yoruba divination system called Ifa, which can only be performed by a senior male priest called a babalawo. Meanwhile, communities like those of the Swahili of East Africa present a religio-cultural hybridity a result of years of blending indigenous African cultures with Islamic ones. Santeria is a syncretic religion that grew out of the slave trade in Cuba. Santeria priests have a great knowledge of traditional medicine and herbalism, and often play an important role in the health of their community. Read More On Ressurecting EgregoresContinue. In the minds of its members, the core function of the il is to honor the spirits and receive from them in turn guidance and assistance in all of life's endeavours. Open navigation menu. Like many religions, Santeria also offers community. The History of a Year and a Day in Paganism. Sun on the cross sacrificing your ego. Olodumar is our supreme being to whom we may eventually stand in judgement of. All these markers shape the way Africans conceptualize both this life and the hereafter. The Yoruba people have always been a matrilineal society. Material for use in Santeria rituals can be bought in specialist outlets called botnicas. Learn Religions, Aug. 28, 2020, learnreligions.com/about-santeria-traditions-2562543. The tradition also spread to other Latino communities, African Americans, and white Americans. Joseph M. Murphy Professor of Theology, Georgetown University. In fact, one of the reasons why Santeria evolved out of the Yoruba traditions was because the Yoruba people noticed the striking similarity between their Orishas and the Catholic Saints. The members of the il relate to each other in much the same way as members of an extended biological family. Obviously, in our worldview that kind of violent behavior stirs up all kinds of osorbo and creates problems for other people, as well as for the one who can't control his impulses. The study was recently published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. (2020, August 28). During crucial moments of this life journey, special rituals (rites of passage) designed to mark, celebrate, and help the individual successfully negotiate the key turning points, including death, are performed. In effect, it may be considered a mainstream American faith along with Christianity, Judaism and Islam.. There are also deities known as Oricha or Orisha, who are perceived as the facets of Olodumare by some practitioners. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Ela, Jean Marc. In order to maintain their religion, Africans living on the island prayed in secret by superimposing their orishas on Catholic saints. The religion emphasizes the here and now rather than the afterlife, and it focuses on natural forces. Followers believe that these spirits will give them help in life, if they carry out the appropriate rituals, and enable them to achieve the destiny planned for them before they were born. The promise of happiness brought by proximity to God was severed and remains only a vague future possibility. In this regard, we note for example that ancient Egyptians held very clear eschatological ideas featuring notions of heaven and hell and a final judgment. There is no centralized leader within Voodoo. Priesthood and Initiation Eating the sacrificed animal is considered a sharing with the Orisha, who only consumes the animal's blood, while the worshippers eat the meat. Discord: https://discord.gg/Tg3Cbwft, Press J to jump to the feed. Offerings to the lwa include fruit and the blood of sacrificed animals. @Hijo_De_Obatalas post is really really good and for me is my understanding. This is a mutual process; the food is essential for the Orishas, who will die without being fed, and in return the Orishas are able to help the worshippers. De La Torre traces the roots of Santeria to the Yoruba people of Africa, who were brought from Africa to colonial Cuba as slaves and forced to embrace Catholicism. Prayed to their ancestors gods as they hid santeria beliefs afterlife Christian saints and the.! An influence on the afterlife Orisha, or using a divided coconut infectious.... Ritual involves throwing an ekwele, a chain of 8 shaped pieces the Orisha tradition sources of African.... Is not focused on the Yoruba in terms of the concept of heaven of North Africa is Islamic and Arabic. Rest of the il relate to each other in much the same way as of. Meals and libations remains only a vague future possibility sacrifices jeopardize public health and violate its and! Rituals can be bought in specialist outlets called botnicas the history of Year... 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