Òrìşà devotion as world religion: The globalization of Yorùbá religious culture

Description

As the twenty-first century begins, tens of millions of people participate in devotions to the spirits called Òrìsà. This book explores the emergence of Òrìsà devotion as a world religion, one of the most remarkable and compelling developments in the history of the human religious quest. Originating among the Yorùba people of West Africa, the varied traditions that comprise Òrìsà devotion are today found in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Orisa Devotion as World Religion Contents Acknowledgments Introduction (JACOB K. OLUPONA AND TERRY REY) Part One: Yoruba Religious Culture in Africa I. The Tolerant Gods (WOLE SOYINKA) Who Was the First to Speak? Insights from Ifá Orature and Sculptural Repertoire (ROWLAND ABIODUN) In What Tongue? (QOLASOPE O. OYELARAN) Orisa: A Prolegomenon to a Philosophy of Yoruba Religion (OLUFEMI TAIWO) Associated Place-Names and Sacred Icons of Seven Yoruba Deities (CORNELIUS O. ADEPEGBA) Twice-Told Tales: Yortba Religious and Cultural Hegemony in Benin, Nigeria (FLORA EDOUWAYE S. KAPLAN) 7. Meta-Cultural Processes and Ritual Realities in the Precolonial History of the Lagos Region (SANDRA T. BARNES) 8. The Pathways of Osun as Cultural Synergy (DIEDRE L. BADEJO) 9. Religious Encounter in Southwestern Nigeria: The Domestication of Islam among the Yoruba (H. O. DANMOLE) 10. Yoruba Moral Epistemology as the Basis for a Cross-Cultural Ethics (BARRY HALLEN) Part Two: Yoruba Religious Culture beyond Africa 11. Yoruba Religion and Globalization: Some Reflections (OLABIYI BABALOLA YAI) 12. Clearing New Paths into an Old Forest: Aladura Christianity in Europe (AFE ADOGAME) 13. Globalization and the Evolution of Haitian Vodou (LAENNEC HURBON, TRANSLATED BY TERRY REY) 14. Historicizing Ifá Culture in Òyótúnjí African Village (IKULOMI DJISOVI EASON) 15. Ritual Change and the Changing Canon: Divinatory Legitimization of Yortba Ancestral Roots in Oyotanji African Village (KAMARI MAXINE CLARKE) 16. The Dynamic Influence of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and African Americans in the Growth of Ocha in New York City (MARTA MORENO VEGA) 17. From Cuban Santeria to African Yortba: Evolutions in African American Orisa History, 1959-1970 (TRACEY E. HUCKS) 18. Santeria in the Twenty-first Century (MERCEDES CROS SANDOVAL) 19, La Santeria: An Integrating, Mythological Worldview in a Disintegrating Society (JUAN J. SOSA) 20. Myth, Memory, and History: Brazil’s Sacred Music of Shango (JOSE FLAVIO PESSOA DE BARROS, TRANSLATED BY MARIA P. JUNQUEIRA) 21. Yoruba Sacred Songs in the New World (JOSE JORGE DE CARVALHO) 22. Axexé Funeral Rites in Brazil’s Orisa Religion: Constitution, Significance, and Tendencies (REGINALDO PRANDI, TRANSLATED BY MARIA P. JUNQUEIRA) 23. From Oral to Digital: Rethinking the Transmission of Tradition in Yoruba Religion (GEORGE EDWARD BRANDON) 24. Orisa Traditions and the Internet Diaspora (JOSEPH M. MURPHY) 25. Gender, Politics, and Hybridism in the Transnationalization of Yoruba Culture (RITA LAURA SEGATO, TRANSLATED BY ERNESTO IGNACIO DE CARVALHO) 26. Is There Gender in Yorúba Culture? (J. LORAND MATORY) Postscript (JOHN PEMBERTON III) Glossary Contributors Index