1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910962639503321

Autore

Ochoa Todd Ramón <1969->

Titolo

Society of the dead : Quita Manaquita and Palo praise in Cuba / / Todd Ramón Ochoa

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2010

ISBN

9786612771798

9781282771796

1282771795

9780520947924

0520947924

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (327 p.)

Disciplina

299.6/7

Soggetti

Palo

Afro-Caribbean religions - Cuba

Death - Religious aspects

Cuba Religious life and customs

Cuba Religion 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. The dead -- pt. 2. Palo society -- pt. 3. Prendas-Ngangas-Enquisos -- pt. 4. Palo craft.

Sommario/riassunto

In a riveting first-person account, Todd Ramón Ochoa explores Palo, a Kongo-inspired "society of affliction" that is poorly understood at the margins of Cuban popular religion. Narrated as an encounter with two teachers of Palo, the book unfolds on the outskirts of Havana as it recounts Ochoa's attempts to assimilate Palo praise of the dead. As he comes to terms with a world in which everyday events and materials are composed of the dead, Ochoa discovers in Palo unexpected resources for understanding the relationship between matter and spirit, for rethinking anthropology's rendering of sorcery, and for representing the play of power in Cuban society. The first fully detailed treatment of the world of Palo, Society of the Dead draws upon recent critiques of Western metaphysics as it reveals what this little known practice can



tell us about sensation, transformation, and redemption in the Black Atlantic.