Sound & Spirit
Weblinks -
Santería
Our first links are from NEWS sources:The e.peak, online edition of Simon Fraser University's independent student newspaper - The Peak, offers Bess Lovejoy's article, World Religions: A Santería Primer.
The Cincinnati Post brings us a Series of articles by Stephen Huba on Cuba, including one on the Saints and gods of Santería and the Roman Catholic Response to it in Cuba.
Some sites for students researching Santería:
The Portland State University Department of History offers their Latin American Website Project a student authored learning resource. In the Religion section is an introduction to Santería by Bret Kelliher. The footnotes and bibliography offer links to interesting sites to explore for further information.
The Religious Movements Homepage @ The University of Virginia is dedicated to "the study of religious movements on the web and in the world." Mary Ann Clark provides these pages on Santería.
Lily Díaz presents an Academic Paper - A Structuralist Analysis of Puerto Rican Santería in which she "offers an analysis of this religious tradition and includes brief descriptions of its key deities and spirits."
Luis B. Núñez presents a website Drumming the Gods that presents and explores Santería Bata drumming.
Beyond these "objective" sites, it is important to visit websites that are maintained by avowed Santeríans to get their perspectives:
The Orisha Net is the website of the Botanica Lukumi. It has a wealth of information in a fascinating site. Stories of the Orishas, artwork, information about divination, initiation, sacrifice and other aspects of Santería...It's well worth visiting.
Yo soy hechicero / I am a sorcerer is a bi-lingual website sharing the experiences of and personal involvement in Santería. Stories, opinions, links, and the filming of a documentary are included.
Orishas in Music This excellent little site has two long lists of music related to the Orishas...Check it out!
The story would not be complete without opinions and perspectives of those who set themselves in some sort of ideological opposition to Santería. Bear this adversarial stance in mind as you peruse their sites:
The Rutgers Animal Rights Law Center devotes a portion of their website to Santería and Animal Sacrifice. The Introduction outlines their perspective and concerns; the brief is what they filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a number of groups concerned about animal rights; also included is an interpretation of the Court's ruling in favor of the Santerían church that suggests that sacrifices could still be outlawed.
Santería Holds Cuba in Thrall is Christianity Today's take on Santería. Note how CT calls the strategies used by enslaved Africans to preserve their heritage and traditions in the face of forced conversion to Christianity "tricks" (as if they owed their "masters" honesty and openness.)
In Canada there are adherents, believers and followers of many religious traditions; Religious tolerance is a deeply held Canadian value as is shown by this representative site:
The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance website contains information about many faith groups "from Asatru to Christianity to Wicca to Zoroastrianism." They try not to approach a topic from a single point of view, but seek to describe all sides of an issue. Interestingly they have versions of their website in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.
"Our task is to provide to our readers accurate information and an appreciation of the wonderful diversity of religious beliefs in North America and around the world. Our goal is to help reduce religious hatred and promote tolerance of religious diversity."
Their page on Santería, La Regla Lucumi, Lukumi etc.
is informative, respectful and tries to be even-handed. This site might have been a very good place to start...But we kept it till last to preserve the logic of our page of weblinks.
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