Santería Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. By David H. Brown. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 413, illustrations, photos, plates, notes, appendices, bibliography, index, ISBN 0226076105)

Though primarily derived from the traditional religious practices of a complex of sociolinguistic groups now known as the Yoruba, orisha worship in Cuba has certainly evolved in ways particular to the island since the trans-Atlantic separation. Early orisha practitioners in Cuba were, no doubt, faced with a variety of social challenges impacting the ways in which their traditions were to be reconstituted: the significance of Euro-Christian interrogations; their coexistence with other African religious practitioners; the sociocultural upheaval resulting from the trans-Atlantic slave trade; and the various changes within Cuba since its independence from Spain. Brown’s ambitious study approaches these processes of change through an “inter or multidisciplinary” (x) approach that hones in on three principal cultural phenomena: ritual performance, visual creativity in the pageantry of religious life, and innovations in religious practice and theology as manifest particularly in the institutional structures and/or strictures of the religious system (8). Ultimately, the methodology focuses on an intersection of religious action, material culture, and theological discourse within Cuban orisha worship. The study is divided into two subsections: “Institutional and ritual innovation” (chapters 1-3) and “Iconographic innovation” (chapters 4-5). The division, however, is not only organisational for the study reads as two separate studies in one and, though not wholly unrelated, they remain comparatively uneven in their treatment. Though the clarity of Brown’s language and the copious references cited remain a constant throughout the study, the first section of the study is somewhat flawed on a few critical levels. In this first section, which deals with the practical and theological innovations of the Cuban orisha tradition, Brown sets out chronicling the paramount shifts in Cuban orisha worship practice and thinking vis-à-vis their connection to historically influential devotees. On its own, the “spade work” is truly impressive; the author provides a rich narrative of those influential devotees in Cuba’s history who have been largely responsible for the establishment of the institutional shifts particular to orisha devotion. The reader can garner a sense of how present-day devotional lineages and practice are closely aligned;authenticity of praxis is often sustained by reference to ritual precedent among prominent historical figures. I am of the opinion, however, that the second and third chapters of the study, which address institutional reform and connections to the discursive opposition between the orisha practitioners and the Ifa cult, are fraught with some questionable assumptions about the earlier religious sensibilities that would have shaped many of the changes in Cuban orisha worship. Specifically, I believe that Brown attaches an inordinate value to the maxims of his informants regarding the transmission and details of the religious system(s); there is insufficient regard for the disjointed relationships that appear between the “facts” presented to him and the validity of the metaphysical adages called upon to buttress the discourse. What devotees purport is, of course, of great interest, regardless of whether or not religious discourse agrees with the religious action; however, it is the responsibility of scholars to observe and critically analyse, and not simply report. My own years of research among Cuba’s orisha community have convinced me that there is infinitely more to this than competing narratives. Illustrating a single example, Brown’s lack of familiarity with the rites of the Ifa divination cult in Cuba has led to a rather specious analysis of their ceremonial cutlass and the social history surrounding the Cuban institution of a cognate ceremony undertaken by other orisha devotees (vide “pinaldo”, 408). It is here that the explanatory acumen of Brown’s informants and the symbolic language of ritual action are wholly at odds. As the religious canons in Cuba surrounding the significance of the …