This page groups religions by the region where they first arose, connecting a faith to its geographic point of origin. Wikipedia notes that the Baháʼí Faith was "founded in 19th-century Iran," while Judaism originated "in the people of ancient Israel and Judah." Browsing by place of origin lets a visitor see which religions share a homeland even if they later spread far beyond it.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingReligions formed in the Americas when West and Central African traditions carried across the Atlantic by enslaved people met Catholicism and, in places, Indigenous and Spiritist practice. African deities were identified with Catholic saints, in part as theology and in part as concealment under regimes that outlawed the older religion. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredFormed from distinct African sources in distinct colonial societies: Yoruba for Lucumi and Candomble, Fon and Ewe for Vodou, Bakongo for Palo Monte. The traditions are related but not interchangeable, and each has its own initiation, liturgy and ritual language. 3 Status
Status TodayLiving: initiatory religions with active priesthoods, houses and congregations in the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States and Europe, described here in the present tense. 5 Standing as a Comparative CategoryContested: syncretic is a term applied from outside, and it has been criticised for implying that these are mixtures rather than religions in their own right, with their own African theological grammar and their own history of deliberate choice. 5 Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UsePopular culture has attached a sensationalised image to these religions - voodoo above all - which their practitioners and the scholarship both reject. 4 Learn More
Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions
This group holds the syncretic religions of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas: living traditions forged under slavery by combining West and Central African religions with Catholicism and, in some cases, indigenous and Spiritist elements.
The browser will find traditions such as Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santeria (Lucumi), Palo Monte and their relatives. The atlas presents these as coherent religions in their own right, describing their spirits, ritual and history, and correcting the sensationalised images popular culture has attached to them.
Place of Origin
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Haitian Vodou, whose lwa are grouped into nanchon such as the cool Rada and the hot Petwo, named in the group article.
Source The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in HaitiLeslie G. Desmangles
Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Palo Monte, the Bakongo-descended tradition centred on the nganga, named in the group article.
Source Society of the Dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo Praise in CubaTodd Ramon Ochoa
Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions: Santeria, whose orishas each carry both an African and a Catholic face, named in the group article.
Source Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban ReligionDavid H. Brown
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti
Leslie G. Desmangles, University of North Carolina Press, 1992View the Source 3. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy
4. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
5. Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Society of the Dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo Praise in Cuba
Todd Ramon Ochoa, University of California Press, 2010
Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion
David H. Brown, University of Chicago Press, 2003
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