W African Religions in America

Catalog description

Examines the interrelations between West African religions and Catholicism as they met via the slave trade and forced relocation of Africans to the New World as well as contemporary practices. Cross-cultural, social-scientific exploration of issues of authority and power, cultural variation and similarities, authenticity and syncretism in Mexican, Cuban, Haitian, Trinidadian, Brazilian, and U.S. American traditions, that may include discussions of Catholic Saints, slave Baptisms, the Inquisition, folk Catholicism, sacred drumming, trance possession, ritual retention and innovation, Santería/Lukumi, Candomblé, Umbanda, Vodou, Regla de Palo, Abakuá, Yoruba Revivalism, Orisha Religion, and Spiritism. The course will be run as a seminar in which students will be responsible for taking part in leading class discussion.