Indigenous religion, religion of scientists: Building cubanidad and Santeria

Abstract

This article describes the evolving function of religious practices in Havana, its micro-politics and the construction of the categories that define them, stressing the interactions between believers, researchers, national institutions, European, American and African intellectual movements, and foreign believers. Current diffusion of the so called Cuban santeria in the rest of the world is analyzed from the viewpoint of its continuity and historical, political, social and identity logic: the spatial expansion of the exchanges does not essentially transform the content of the debate at the local level. It is about legitimizing cer tain ritual practices and, therefore , beyond the religious dimension, what is at stake is the question of Cubanness.