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Archives de sciences sociales des religions Numéro 117 (janvier - mars 2002) Le

Archives de sciences sociales des religions Numéro 117 (janvier - mars 2002) Les religions afro-américaines : genèse et développement dans la modernité ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... George Brandon Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Avertissement Le contenu de ce site relève de la législation française sur la propriété intellectuelle et est la propriété exclusive de l'éditeur. Les œuvres figurant sur ce site peuvent être consultées et reproduites sur un support papier ou numérique sous réserve qu'elles soient strictement réservées à un usage soit personnel, soit scientifique ou pédagogique excluant toute exploitation commerciale. La reproduction devra obligatoirement mentionner l'éditeur, le nom de la revue, l'auteur et la référence du document. T oute autre reproduction est interdite sauf accord préalable de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Revues.org est un portail de revues en sciences humaines et sociales développé par le CLEO, Centre pour l'édition électronique ouverte (CNRS, EHESS, UP, UAPV). ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Référence électronique George Brandon, « Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria », Archives de sciences sociales des religions [En ligne], 117 | janvier - mars 2002, mis en ligne le 18 novembre 2005. URL : http:// assr.revues.org/index2491.html DOI : en cours d'attribution Éditeur : Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales http://assr.revues.org http://www.revues.org Document accessible en ligne à l'adresse suivante : http://assr.revues.org/index2491.html Ce document est le fac-similé de l'édition papier. © Archives de sciences sociales des religions Arch. de Sc. soc. des Rel., 2002, 117 (janvier-mars) 151-174 George BRANDON HIERARCHY WITHOUT A HEAD: OBSERVATIONS ON CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF SOME AFROAMERICAN RELIGIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1959-1999 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SANTERIA Introduction In recent years a number of studies have been published examining the ritual practices and ideology of Santeria. Rather than addressing issues of ritual context or ideological emphases, this paper is concerned mainly with the social organiza- tion of Santeria, as well as some related Afro-American religions, as observed largely on the eastern coast of the United States. Although I focus my attention on Santeria itself, I recognize three major and somewhat divergent strains of it in the United States: Santeria, Orisha-Voodoo and Santerismo. Each strain has its own continuum of internal variability and each enters into different types of interactions with other religions, Afro-American or not. Because the field research on which this discussion rests has spanned twenty years and ranged from New York through Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., through South Carolina and Georgia, into Florida (and with outliers in California) such variability is hardly unexpected. I further specify several levels of context and therefore of analysis: local, regional, national, and international. Through time, and given especially the com- plex immigration and internal migration histories of these areas, we are of necessity dealing not only with shifting membership of these groups (as viewed internally), but also with changing neighbors, with whom ideas and practices may or may not be exchanged. Such features of changing context are particularly important for the analysis of social organization, itself a principal way in which groups adapt to envi- ronments inevitably including other groups and differential access to economic and political power. At various levels of inclusion, these environments serve as the con- texts in which groups form, recruit members, train and initiate devotees and priests and – sometimes – create, reform, dissolve, lose or merge identities. To summarize briefly at this point, I have found that Santeria is most profitably understood as a 151 reticulate network that overlaps at times with some other religious groups. Paradox- ically, Santeria is strongly hierarchical at the local level, yet largely acephalous at levels more inclusive than the local. The data presented here indicate how and why such a structure is significant in the constitution and maintenance of this religious system; how the structure has changed and grown over time; and the direction in which it seems to be evolving, with differing rates of change and involvement in movement-like activities. The basic unit in Cuban Santeria was the house [casa] or ile. The term casa was actually used to indicate two different scales of organization, which I feel it is necessary to distinguish as ‘la casa pequena’ and ‘la casa grande’ (i.e., the ‘little house’ and the ‘big house’). The little house is based on dyadic links between indi- vidual devotees and a specific priest/ess. This link is acquired through an initiation ceremony performed by the priest and culminates in the presentation of a set of bead necklaces to the devotee. Even though the color patterns of these necklaces – called collares or elekes – represent the major orisha and are fairly standard throughout the entire Santeria community, there may be slight variations peculiar to a particular casa; some casas give an additional necklace if the saint with whom their casa has been traditionally associated (the “house saint”) is not one of the major orisha. This is the lowest level of initiation and membership in the casa. An idiom of ritual kinship links the santero/a and the devotee in a relationship of madrina/padrino to ahijado/a, terminology derived from the Catholic Church and its institution of compadrazgo. This idiom of ritual kinship extends outward laterally to include ahijado/as of the same godparent and extends vertically through the godparent back through time in a series of links to previous generations of priests reckoned in a line of initiations via specific priest/esses. This ritual geneal- ogy is frequently recited since these past santeros, be they dead or alive, must be invoked during libations, initiations and all the major ceremonies the santero/a per- forms. The little house, then, is focused on a single santero who has initiated one or more devotees at the level of collares and is entitled to advise and assist them and guide their development up to and beyond initiation into the priesthood. Godparents exert control over where god children go and whom they see within the Santeria community and the older devotees I have talked to often men- tion being fined by a godparent for infractions of traditional religious etiquette or rules peculiar to their house. In general, devotees go to their godparents to get the religious services they need. The godparents, in turn, may refer the godchild to other members of the priesthood for particular situations or rituals. If possible the godparent tries to refer the devotee to someone in their own casa or, failing that, a closely related one, making sure, in the latter case, that devotees clearly identify themselves as belonging to casa of the godparent. Wherever the devotee goes for services – whether within the casa or outside of it – they will have to bring money. The orisha do nothing without an offering or a fee. This relationship is expected to be lifelong. And if, for whatever reason, the relationship is definitively broken, the devotee may persist in wearing the necklaces presented to them until they affiliate with another house at which point they will usually be asked to go through the rit- ual again and receive another set of necklaces which will replace the previous ones. The ‘big house’ extends beyond the direct dyadic links between a devotee and godparent to include the house that the priest/essses initiated by the godparent, have established. The ‘big house’, then, is a house composed of the house of the 152 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS focal priest and all the ‘little houses’ that have descended from it. The existence of a big house depends on the ability of the focal priest/ess to exercise control and authority over the priest/esses they have initiated, and, through them, over those priest’s god children. The big house is structurally isomorphic to the fundamento (SP. ‘foundation’). There is a preference for aspirants to the priesthood to initiate from within the fundamento, for consultation with diviners from within the fundamento if at all possible. After the death of a godparent, devotees get a specific healing rite done for them, which must be done by a santera/o outside the house/ fundamento. This makes sense because, ritually and spiritually, everyone within the fundamento is considered to be in the same vulnerable position whereas outsiders not affected by the death are not. Some of the ‘big houses’ of Cuba were named and went back several genera- tions; these houses approximate the older institution of the Afro-Catholic cabildos and probably descend from them. A few are remembered in New York (such as Casa Funche, or the House of the Manilla Shawl associated with wealth) so that some people in ‘little houses’ in New York can trace their lineage back to ‘big houses’ in Cuba. As mentioned before, within the Santeria community, these two levels of organization are not distinguished terminologically. The term casa is applied to both and this sometimes leads to disagreement uploads/Politique/ 96-brandon-hierarchy-without-a-head 1 .pdf