Electric Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion

Gender, Theory, and Religion

by Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús

Santería is an African-inspired, Cuban diaspora religion long stigmatized as witchcraft and often dismissed as superstition, yet its spirit- and possession-based practices are rapidly winning adherents across the world. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús introduces the term "copresence" to capture the current transnational experience of Santería, in which racialized and gendered spirits, deities, priests, and religious travelers remake local, national, and political boundaries and reconfigure notions of technology and transnationalism.

Drawing on eight years of ethnographic research in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, and in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area, Beliso-De Jesús traces the phenomenon of copresence in the lives of Santería practitioners, mapping its emergence in transnational places and historical moments and its ritual negotiation of race, imperialism, gender, sexuality, and religious travel. Santería's spirits, deities, and practitioners allow digital technologies to be used in new ways, inciting unique encounters through video and other media. Doing away with traditional perceptions of Santería as a static, localized practice or as part of a mythologized "past," this book emphasizes the religion's dynamic circulations and calls for nontranscendental understandings of religious transnationalisms.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Spirituality

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2015

Reviews

[Felicia Pursner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viv said we could track books from class so… this was not that bad! I know so much about Santeria now

[Morgan M. Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't taken with this book when I first sat down to read it five years ago. The description of practitioners getting 'touched' while watching videos of ceremonies put me off. As an Olocha myself, it was easy to scoff at. But after a recommendation by an elder, I finally returned to the book and am so glad that I did. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús has written a fantastic study of the complex relationship between Lukumí, transnationalism, and technology. For a religion that, as she skillfully argues, has always been and is now increasingly transnational in character, it is in retrospect surprising how little attention has been paid to this aspect of the religion by other anthropologists and sociologists. Though occasionally bogged down by academic discussions (the repeated argument around transcedentalism was important to her broader work but felt onerous to get through), the book positively sings as she discusses and analyzes her fieldwork. I hesitate to even use the word fieldwork here, because as a practitioner-scholar she is for the most part speaking about her own personal networks of ritual kinship - in essence, relating family stories - and fieldwork feels too distant a category to adequately capture this nuance. Her loving portrait of her Padrino Alfredo Calvo will certainly endure as an important historical record of one of the most prolific ahijados of Fermina Gomez for generations to come.

[Roger Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid ethnography drawing on comparative affective assemblages between variants of Santeria and West African Religions in the U.S. and Cuba. Beliso-De Jesús adeptly navigates difficult discursive terrain to provide nuanced analyses. She makes particular use of Elizabeth Povinelli's concept of geontology as well. Perhaps her most compelling work is on scent and national identities.

[Dblaze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book and I must say from reading other books in this genre and some biographies.. this book felt personal and I loved it!!! It didn’t feel like it was ghost written or co authored it felt personal and the tempo Was just right. it flowed perfectly there were never any jumps to were I was confused or felt like we skipped something. the writing never felt like it jumped from place to place and was well written . I think it’s a great introduction and I hope more books will be a made as continuations to this book if possible . I had an enjoyable experience reading an learning as well as culture appropriation. I even Was tearing up in The end . Thank you for writing this book I can’t wait to buy it and share it .

[Lawrence]

ht karlene (28 Feb 2019)

[Jude Fokwang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read but the heavy theory ruined the experience for my undergraduate students!