Regarding Lydia Cabrera

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From Hierography to Ethnography and Back: Lydia Cabrera's Texts and the Written Traditionin Afro-Cuban ReligionsAuthor(s): Erwan Dianteill and Martha SwearingenSource: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 116, No. 461 (Summer, 2003), pp. 273-292Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of American Folklore SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4137792 .Accessed: 13/04/2011 14:36

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ERWAN DIANTEILLMARTHA SWEARINGEN

FromHierography o Ethnographyand Back:LydiaCabrera'sTextsand the WrittenTraditionin Afro-CubanReligionsTwo commonassumptionsaboutLydiaCabrera'sethnographicwork are that it isexclusivelythe resultoffieldworkand thatAfro-Cubanreligionsare based on oraltradition. Evidenceis provided in thispaper to show that 1) Cabreraalso madeuse of earlyreligioustexts as a primarysource,and 2) that her work hasservedasan influenceon the texts used in modernAfro-Cubanreligiouspractices,such asthe anonymousbook Manual del Santero (1990). An analysis is providedof theway in which Cabrera ncluded vernacular writtensourcesin herwork,and howherwork n turn has becomea main source or Santeria"hierography"-the writ-ing about sacredthings.

THE RELATIONSHIPBETWEENLydiaCabrera's orksandAfro-Cubanulturehasbeenstudied from two different perspectives. Literarycritics have focused on the link be-tween her tales and Cuban folklore. Cabrerasuggested that her CuentosNegros deCuba-first published in French in 1936-included "simply"folktales she had col-lected in the Afro-Cubancommunity.' FernandoOrtiz,a famous Cubanhistorian andcultural anthropologist of the time, fostered this point of view.2 But Cabreralaterrevealed that some of the tales in her book were pure creations (Cabrera 1994:61),"Afro-Cuban style" short stories, while other tales were grounded in an authenticpopulartradition.Yeteven in the lattercase,Cabrera ransformed oralnarrations intotales written in apersonal style,which differedfrom Cubanpopular conversation andwere actually closer in form to the European tradition of Perrault, Grimm, orAndersen.

Cabrerais also praised by cultural anthropologists for her groundbreaking field-work on Afro-Cuban religions. In addition, she was the first to publish a general eth-nography of African-derived religions in Cuba, based on lengthy fieldwork in the1940s. Her book, El Monte (1954), remains a reference for all anthropologists inter-ested in this topic. In 1906,Fernando Ortiz published the first study on this field ofresearch (LosNegros Brujos), but it was deeply ethnocentric, with a criminologist

ERWANIANTEILLs Associate rofessor,ociology fReligion, coledesHautesEtudesenScience ociales, aris, ranceMARTHAWEARINGENs Associate rofessor,ociolinguisticsndAfricanDiasporaOralTraditions,Universityf theDistrict f Columbia,Washington,.C.JournalfAmericanolklore16(461):273-292Copyright@2003bytheBoard f Trusteesf theUniversityfIllinois


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perspective, and was based mainly on police reports and newspaper articles.3Thereare other researchers nfluenced by Cabrera'sworks, scholars who specificallycite ElMonte as a resource.Migene GonzalezWipplerwas the first to attempt to write aboutthe Santeriatradition in English;in her book on Santeria,GonzailezWippler (1973)expressesgratitude to Cabrera.Similarly,Isabel Castellaflosfreely acknowledges thedebt she owes Cabrera n her linguistic and cultural examination of Afro-Cubanlife,particularlywith regardto the use of her texts to examine Bozal, the speech of Afri-can slaves.4 n ElMonte, Cabrerafully described the majorAfro-Cuban religions: theReglade Ocha (commonly known as Santeria) and the Ifi cult, which are both de-rived from traditionalYorubareligion;and Palo Monte, which originated in CentralAfrica.5

Both the literaryand anthropological perspectives on Cabrera'swork assume thatshe wrote about mainly oral, practical religions with only an "embryonic"writtentradition. She is credited by literarycritics for having transformed Afro-Cuban oralnarratives into literature,that is, written works of art, while anthropologists rely onher accounts of oral information collectedduring interviews with santeros,babalaos,or paleros,and on her descriptions of religious ceremonies. She is seen as providingthe sole written analysis,while Afro-Cuban believers seem to be confined to oralityand ritual practice.This division of ethnographic work between a "writing anthropologist" and a"practicingbeliever" s not, and never hasbeen, accuratein the case of Cabrera'sworkon Afro-Cubanreligions. First,there was a genuine Afro-Cuban tradition of religiouswriting before the publication of El Monte. Cabreraknew those texts and used themin addition to interviews and descriptions of rituals. Second, her own work is usedtodaybyAfro-Cubanreligiousspecialistsin Havana.Some have even transformedtherelevantparts of her ethnography into "hierography," hat is, into prescriptive reli-gious texts.In other words,Cabrera'sworkwas influenced by a tradition alreadyfixedin written textsby the santerosand the babalaosthemselves. Moreover,her own workhas been reappropriatedby practitionersas a source of religious information. Clearly,Afro-Cuban religious specialists must also be considered as actively literate partici-pants, able to read and write from their own perspective. There is a dialectical rela-tionship between Afro-Cuban religious writing and Cabrera'swork; she used a reli-gious writing tradition that has now internalized her own ethnography.6

Focusingon Cabrera's thnographicworks that deal with Reglade Ocha (Santeria),7we provide some examples of the use of Afro-Cuban written texts in her work andcarefullyexamine an anonymous handbook found recently in Havana,which showsstrikingsimilarities with Cabrera'sEl Monte. This Santeriamanual, entitled ManualdelSantero, s derivedfrom El Monte. It illustrateshow ethnographywas transformedinto hierographyin this particularcase.

The Use of Santeria Booklets Before the ExileThe relationship between Cabrera'sethnography and primary Afro-Cuban writ-ten sources is paradoxical.Cabreraclaims in her prefaces to have written only whatshe heard and saw (and not what she read), yet one can find explicit references to


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religious written material in her four books about Santeria. In El Monte Cabrera as-serts hatherpurposewastogive specialists ccess o the"livingdocuments" he hadfound in Cuba and that "she wanted the old people [she] knew ... to be heard with-out intermediaries,xactlyas they spoketo [her]," hat"[she] imited herselfwithrigor to write with absolute objectivity and without prejudicewhat [she] had heardand what [she] had seen" (1954:7,8, 10). In the prefaceto Cabrera'sYemayd Ochuin,Rosario Hiriart quotes Cabrera,who wrote that African folklore in Cuba has been"transmitted orally from generation to generation for centuries of slave trade"(1980a [1974]:ii). Regarding her role as an ethnographer in KoekoIyawd, Cabreramaintained that "the value of this book for believers, scholars or ... curious people,is grounded in the fact that we arevery careful in not altering the thought, the con-cepts, the sensibility, the way of the people who talk to us" (1980b:3). Her role as awriter was even acknowledged by Salak6,one of her informants who used to call herobinilewi, in Lucumi,the "womanwith a sheet of paper"(48).8 Moreover,shejustifiessuch work by saying,

Desgraciadamente la tradici6n oral se pierde y vale la pena de trasladar al papel las ensefianzas de losviejos para los que que quieran saber, y para los incautos que caen en manos de charlatanes yexplotadores que les piden sumas exageradas para Asentarlos, la mayoria de las veces sin necesidad.(6)[Unfortunately, the oral tradition is disappearing and it is worth transcribing on paper the teachingsof the elders for the ones who will want to learn, and for rash people who are preyed upon by charla-tans and exploiters who ask them for fantastic amounts of money in order to initiate them, usuallyunnecessarily. 9

This suggeststhat santerosare confined to a purely oral world of religious practices,and that Cabreraconsidered herself to be a witness of an endangeredtradition. Nev-ertheless, she sometimes mentioned primary written sources that she used, usuallyintroducing them as minor resources for her work.The firstmention of written material in her works can be found in ElMonte. Someare related to peripheral texts used by santeros but are not directly related to theworship of the Orishas. Forexample, Sandoval,one of her informants, provided herwith prayersto the Magnet Stone, "which are sold in the streets and at the marketplace"(1954:144). Another informant, named J.A.C.,"owns the booklet (cartilla) ofAlan Kirdec," a reference for spiritualists (299). Cabreraalso cites European, espe-cially Spanish,books of witchcraft, like the Bookof San Ciprian,which were used bysanteros and paleros as an additional source of magical recipes (374). These worksclearlyindicate that Afro-Cubanpractitionerswere able to read texts from other tra-ditions and to incorporate them into their religious practice.Much more significant arethe references to the writing abilityof the practitioners,because they contradict the idea of Santeriabeing only an oral tradition. Cabrerafirstmentioned the existence of Afro-Cuban manuscripts on the Abakui secret societyrecreated in Cuba by slaves from Calabar, n present-day southeastern Nigeria. Sheexplicitlyused these texts,which she called "sacredbooks,"as a sourcefor her accountof the centralmyth of this secretassociation (280-81). Shealso referredto notebooks


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ofyerberosherbalists),where he namesand usesof plantsandherbsarecataloguedby heoneswhosell hem.Fornstance,heacknowledgedavingonsultedhenote-bookof ayerberof thePlaza elVapor,marketplacenHavana,nd hatofanoldfemalehealer 419,550).Finally,Cabreramentioned he libretas e Santerian a sec-tionconcerningivination ith ourpiecesof coconut hell.Santeros escribehistechniquen notebooks hereheywrite hemeaning f the fivedifferentignsofthisoracle,withcorrespondingrayerso theorishas.'0 abrerahanked santero,Jos6 sabelSalazar,orlettingher consulthis notebook(386)andnoted:

CuandoGabino e ofrece ocoy aguaa sus diosesy los quele acompafian anrespondido kkuana, 1continua on estosrezosquerepitedememoria quetieneescritos uidadosamenten una ibreta.Esta,encuyaprimera aiginalviejohatrazado on etra irmeyclara, eampulosasinuosidadesecorativas,[WhenGabinogivescoconutandwaterto his gods andwhen the ones who arepresenthave said"akkuana,"egoeson withthoseprayers e repeatsbyheart,andwhichhe hadwrittencarefullyn anotebook.He has written n thefirstpageof thisnotebook,with a clearand firmhand,a sinuous,decorativetyleof writing,]Si esta ibreta eperdieseComosuele sucederSuplicoalquelaencuentreQuela sepadevolver.Y si no sabe mi nombreAqui o voya poner:GabinoSandovalHerrera.[Should his notebookgetlostAscan oftenhappenI implorewhoevermightfind itSo thatthey mightknowwhoto return t toAnd f you do not knowmynameIwillput it here:GabinoSandovalHerrera.]me lapresta,daindome napruebamaisde su confianza,paraque aprenda stos rezosde memoria.Asumuerte, a libretavendria parara mis manos.(384-85)[He ends t tome,givingmeanotherproofof histrust, norder orme to learn hoseprayers yheart.Whenhe died,I inherited hisnotebook.]

Thesequotesarestriking ecauseheyclearly emonstratehatnotonlywere hesanterositerate,heyalsoenjoyedhe artofwriting theshortpieceabove s in rhymeanditalicized),andthat Cabrerawas also awareof theirwork n thisrespectback nthe 1950s.Thiskindof introductory oemdoes not belongto theLucumi raditionper se, but to Spanish folk culture. Nevertheless, it was written on the first page of aSanterianotebook, which means that it has been absorbed into Afro-Cuban culture,as is also true of many other items of European origin, such as crucifixes and imagesof saints and the Virgin Mary.One of the most paradoxicalstatements about the written texts in Santeriacan befound in Anag6, a work firstpublished by Cabrera n 1957. This book is a collectionof HispanizedYorubawords and sentences still in use in Cuba; n the prefaceCabrera


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mentioned the existence of "alargenumber of handwrittenortyped notebooks,whichcirculate from hand to hand, and which are the object of large-scale speculation bysome santerosand peoplewho sellreligiousobjects"(1970:16).But she then also wrotethat the majority of these texts were useless because they were usually badly writtenand not veryreliable.However,she mentioned an exception-the notebook of AndrdsMonz6n, "who was taught to read and write in an English mission in Nigeria, andtransmitted samples of his knowledge in a libretaperfectlywritten." Nevertheless, forher, the best way to use this kind of material was to have it read by knowledgeableinformants, who told her that "those notebooks were in disarraybecause they wereonly used to refresh the memory." Finally,she claims to have used "veryrarelysomelibretas,alwayscheckingthe words with the highest possible number of people" (17).In other words, she refused to consider written texts as "real"ethnographic sources.Forher,they could onlybe used as a means for obtainingthe "livingdocument,"whichbelonged exclusively to the oral world, in spite of the evidence of their growing im-portance in Santeria.

The Useof SanteriaBookletsAfterthe ExileBecause of the CubanRevolution,Cabrera eft Havana n 1960,takingher fieldnoteswith her.She firstsettled in Madrid and then Miami. The main part of her subsequent

ethnographic work was based on information collected before her departure fromCuba.In her two works, Yemayd Ochdn (1980a[1974]) and KoekoIyaw6 (1980b),she relied more heavily on libretas she had brought with her in exile, probably be-cause she no longer had access to the Santeriacommunity in Cuba. She mentioned,for example, Sixto Samai,who wrote a libreta "in 1880, or perhaps before." LikeMonz6n, Samaiwas educated in an English mission located in SierraLeone, and hisnotebook was copied in Matanzasbyhis literatedisciples (1980a:179).Evenif she citedher old informants who expressedtheirdistrustfor the libretas and favoredoraltrans-mission, she nevertheless-and for the first time in her works as far as we know-revealeda glimpse of the abundance of information one can find in the notebooks:

Las reglas para consultar el Dilogtin, los nombres, rezos y explicaciones de los odu, los pataki, estoscada dia maisolvidados, la lista interminable de los eb6 que para evitar un mal pron6stico o en acci6nde gracias indica cada signo, aparecen consignados en libretas dificiles de entender por su malaredacci6n y exposici6n desordenada. (1980a[ 1974]:181)[The rules of the Dilogdn (divination with the cowry shells), the names, prayers and explanations ofthe odu (divination signs), thepataki (myths),which aremore and more forgotten these days,the never-ending list of eb6 that each odu indicates to avoid a bad omen or to thank the gods, all these data arerecorded in notebooks difficult to read because of bad editing and disorganized exposition.]

It is obvious that the notebooks are not limited to the simple rules of divinationwith the coconut as one might have assumed from her accounts in ElMonte. Even ifthey are complemented by oral information, the items found in the libretas are themain components of Yemayd Ochin, and even more of Koekoyaw6. The latterbookis clearlyorganizedas a manual forinitiates,which is preciselythe function of a libreta.


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Withregardo thetechniquef theDilogdinnd heinterpretationf thesigns,Cabreraopied erbatimibretas f severalnformants:ini(1980b:48),nanony-mous Santera rom Guanabacoa 65);AndresMonz6n (76), an anonymous"oldolorisha"initiate) 83);andanother nonymousnformant homshecalled"theold G"(92; 1980a[1974]:2,54-93). Thischapteron divinationwith the cowries scompletedyoral nformationnthesameopic ollectedrom lliteratenformants,suchas Calazan92) andLufando93) (1980b:92-103). denticalwrittensourcesareusedextensivelyn thechapteroncerningb6(144-61)."ConcerningheYorubalexicon sedbysanteros, abreraitedSixtoSamaigain2),whowasgiven Yorubavocabularyotebook yhisSanteriaodfatherrioro 1898.This istofvocabulary,mergedwith othersources, s reproduced ttheend of Koekoyaw6 200-227).If writtenources reclearlymentionedorsections boutdivinationechnique,offerings,ndritual ocabulary,his s not the case n thechapterboutmyths.Onthecontrary,abrerassumeshat hesepataki myths) re"part f thisenormousmineof oral ucumi iterature,nd in this case t is the one whichgoeswith the divi-nationof dilogunor Ifi" (1980b: 02).12This statementcontradictsher descriptionofthecontent f the ibretasheused o often n thework itedabove, ndno libretais mentionedn thischapter egarding ataki.The reasons orthisareexploredbelow.

Myths and LiteraryCreationOur claim is that this kind of text, focusing on the myths, is the one for whichCabrerawanted to have credit,both as a writer and a poet. She emphasized their oral

origin and claimed the art of writing for herself.This allowedher to modify the origi-nal texts found in the libretas,which were not intended to be published and whoseauthorshad no literaryambitions. In the libretasthe myths areclosely linked to divi-nation signs. The oriatror the babalao used them to give a sacredsignification to thesecularproblem of the person who consults him.'3 From this perspective, the "style"has no importance comparedto the narrative tself. Cabrera he ethnographer,on theotherhand, was extremelysensitive to the stylisticcharacteristicsof the stories. In thisregard,she had an esthetic ambition. That is why she did not cite the pataki verba-tim; she wanted to rewrite them in her own way,even if she retained the basic plot.The example below illustratesher desire to give literaryqualities to texts which, forher,lackedthem:

Un pataki de Ifd en Obe Yono,nos cuenta que en la tierra arardcuando los muertos no se enterrabanhubo una grin mortandad y que a punto de perecer toda la poblaci6n, el Rey consult6 a Ordimbila.Este les hizo eb6con un pico, una pala y una guataca, un gallo y un saco de efdn y les orden6 que conesas herramientas abriesen una zanja espaciosa y enterrasen en ella a todos los cadiveres. Terminadoel ebd,el divino Adivino recomend6 que nadie se mojase pues iban a caer aguaceros torrenciales queharian desaparecer la epidemia. Lo que en efecto sucedi6 a consecuencia del eb6. Continuar6nenterrindose los muertos y el arard consultando para todo a Orula. (1980b:127)[AnIfd myth of Obe Yono ells us that there was a great plague in Araraland, when the dead were notburied. The king consulted Orulawhen all of the population was about to die. This one asked them tomake a ritual with a pickaxe, a shovel and a hoe, a cock and a sack of chalk. He ordered them to dig alarge trench with these tools and to bury all the corpses in it. When the ritual was finished, the Di-


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viner decreed that nobody get wet, because a torrential downpour was about to fall to make the epi-demic disappear.That is what happened because of the ritual. The Arara people continued buryingtheir dead and consulting Orula for everything.]In an anonymous handbook of Ifi divination entitled Dice Ifd,which one of the au-thors of this paper found in Havana in 1993, we can read this version of the mythrelated to the same divination sign:

En la tierrade Ararahabia una gran mortandad y se estaba diesmando la tribu. Orula se fue a ese lugary el rey le cont6 el caso a Orula.Este hizo erb6 con: pico, guataca, pala, un saco de efin, acuco. Despues de terminado el erb6, que conesas herramientas abrierauna gran zanjaenterrando a los muertos (porque alli no se enterraban a losmuertos). Despues orden6 que el effin se pintaran todas las casasde blanco. Terminada esta operaci6n,cayer6n grandes aguaceros y d habia ordenado que nadie se mojara.Y asi desapareci6 la epidemia deese lugar.Yen virtud el Araraie avisari todos sus trabajos alpie de Orumila. (Anonymous, 1950(?):54)[In Arara land there was a great plague which was wiping out the entire tribe. Orula went to the placeand the king then told Orula about the situation.He (Orula) asked them to perform a ritual with the following: a pickaxe, hoe, shovel, sack of chalk,cock. After completing the ritual, they should then dig a large trench burying the dead (because thedead are not buried there). Laterhe ordered that the chalk be used to paint all the houses white. Hav-ing finished this operation, there was then a great downpour of rain and he commanded that no oneget wet. Thus, the epidemic disappeared from the place. As a result of this, the Ararasought advice onall their affairsfrom Orumila.]

What is the relationship between these texts?The textual similarities between themshow that they are not simply independent written versions from an original oralversion. Forinstance, the words mortandad and zanja can be found in both versions.Therefore, we can either assume that one is directly derived from the other, as amodified copy,or that they are both secondary copies of an earlier version.First, et us postulatethat one is a directcopy of the other.In this case, it is a reason-ablehypothesis to assume that the anonymous text is the source of Cabrera'sversion.The word eb6is spelled erbd n the anonymous version, which correspondsto the ver-nacular spelling of the libretas which Cabrera referredto in Anag6 (1970[1957]:17).Moreover,the word acuco is the Lucumi word for the Spanish gallo (rooster) whichwe find in Cabrera's ext.It is not easyto comprehend why, n this case,ababalaowouldtranslate the word from Spanishinto Lucumi.It would seem to make better sense forCabrerato translatethe Santeriajargon for the generalreader.Babalaos and santerosuse coding to establish boundaries between initiates and noninitiates, especially inhandbooks that could be readby the latter.'14But in the casewe arestudying, this cod-ing would be useless since the author of the vernacularversion would haveencoded a"public" ext.One only wants to keep secretwhat is actuallysecret,not tryto hide whatis alreadyavailablefor everybodyto read,namely a myth translated into Spanishandappearingin a Cabrerabook.

Finally,we claim that the main evidence of this relationship of priority is that theanonymous version is more coherent than Cabrera's.Indeed, it seems that Cabreraomits one part of the myth-the painting of the houses in white with efan(chalk).15


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The presence of "a sackof efdn" in her version has no meaning, whereas it is part ofthe cleansingritual in the anonymous version. If we postulate that those two versionsare independently derived from a third text, the previous remarksare still valid. In-deed, even if the anonymous version is not the first written one, Cabrera's versionnecessarilyremains secondary,because it is ritually incoherent.Thus, there is a very high probability that Cabreraused a written version of thismyth because of the numerous lexicons that are common to both versions, and be-causethe Cabreraversion is rituallyincoherent compared to the anonymous version.Now, how did she transform the original text?Quite simply,she made it comprehen-sible for standard Spanish readers.While the anonymous version is written in ver-nacular Cuban Spanish, the ethnographic version is written in a literary style. Forexample,Cabrera ubstituted the wordspoblaci6n,perecer,and espaciosa, or the wordstribu,diesmando [sic], and gran [sic], correcting all the grammatical "flaws" of thevernacularversion.

In short, there is sufficient evidence here to demonstrate that Cabrerafrequentlyconsulted Santerialibretas,which she used together with her fieldwork carried outin Cuba.She found in these tratados(treatises) lists of sacredplants, prayers,Lucumivocabulary,descriptionsof ritualofferingsand divination techniques, and myths. ButCabreradid not emphasize the use of these written sources in prefacesand introduc-tions. On the contrary,she minimized them, underscoring their poor literary quali-ties.Nevertheless,she used them more and more, as one comes to realizefrom a carefulreadingof her four works on Santeria.The irony is that she can also be praisedfor being the first scholarto mention thesesources and to show that they have existed at least since the end of the nineteenthcentury,not only from the 1920s,asArgeliersLe6n stated (1971:145).16 Inother words,she knew about and took advantageof these texts, although it seems she preferredtoemphasize her own role as a skilled artist rather than openly discuss the written textsshe was using. Ironically,Cabrera could not know that her major work, El Monte(1954), would come to be a major source for today's Santeria manuals.

The Religious Use of Cabrera'sEl Monte in aContemporarySanteria ManualDuring a total of ten months of fieldwork in Havana from June 1993 to January1996, Dianteill collected thirty-nine manuals of Santeria and Ifi which circulate

among practitioners.17 These manuals form a corpus of more than 5,000 pages. Somehaveonly a dozen pages,whereas others have between 500 and 700 fullpages and canbe considered religious encyclopedias that describe all aspects of the cult. At the endof one of them, calledManual delSantero,we were surprisedto find not only a list ofherbs strikingly similar to Cabrera'sEl Monte, but also with important differences.Manual is a two-volume mimeographed work consisting of a total of 705 pages. Onthe firstpage, we read:Atenci6n: el presente manual constituye un esfuerzo para ayudar a la formaci6n y perfeccionamientode los oficiantes. El original fue traido directamente de Nigeria (Africa), traducido y revisado por


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destacadas ersonalidadesubanasde lareligi6n.En susmanosestaun manualparobamuysuperiora los quetradicionalmenteeconocenen Cuba.Eso,Vd.mismolo podracomprobar.[Warning: hismanual s intended o contribute o the educationandimprovement f thepractitio-ners(officiantes).heoriginalbookwasbroughtdirectlyromNigeria Africa),ranslated ndrevisedby prominentCuban iguresn Santeriaenlareligi6n).Youhave nyourhandsamanual or thedivi-nationspecialist oba)which s muchsuperior o the ones known n Cuba.Youwillbe ableto checkthis foryourself.]

This claimto be anAfricanbook is not factual,asone canreadilydeterminebynot-ing the numerousCatholicisms ound in both volumes.Theclaim cited abovewasprobablymeant o lendmore egitimacyo the informationprovidedand topromotethe book's marketability."sheepigraphdoes indicate,however, hatManualwaswrittenfor a practicalpurpose. t does not belongto scholarship ut,rather, o theareaof religiouspractice.Theanonymousstatusof the authorof Manualhasto beunderstoodromthesameperspective,eflecting "collectivememory"-a traditionwhereby ommonknowledgeof religiousrituals s passeddown fromgeneration ogenerationwithoutattempting o recognize ndividualauthorship.19One can find in thisbooka seriesof mythsrelated o theYoruba ods,explana-tions of some rituals(suchas the recipeto prepare he omiero[infusionof sacredherbs]),anda seriesof sacredLucumivocabulary. ut the mainpartof thetwovol-umes (484 pages,or 68%)is dedicated o the Dilogtin,a techniqueof divinationwherebyixteen owriesare ossedonarugandseventeen ifferentignscanbefound,dependingon theconfiguration f the shellson therug.Eachone of thesignshas aninterpretationwith severalmythsandsacrifices inkedto it.2"The lastseventypagesof thisreligious reatiseconsistof a list of plantsand herbsbelongingto eachgod or goddess n Santeria.We wereaware hat the lastpartofCabrera's lMontealsoconsistsof a list of thiskind,so both sourceswerecarefullyexamined.Wefound aseriesof textual imilarities etween hemwhichrevealed hattherewas some kind of link.Simplyput,one workusedthe otheras a source,anditwasnecessary,herefore,o determinewhich wastheoriginal.Onewayto embarkon thisendeavorwas to examinethe descriptionof curativeandreligiouscharacteristicsf theplantalbahaca n both documents.Our researchreveals trikingresemblances nda clue,enablingus to determinewhich text is theoriginal.Forexample, he instructions o do a spiritual leansingnclude he follow-ingin Manual:

Alterminar,eza resPadresNuestros tresAveMaria,avelasedejaencendida araSanLuisBeltran,hastaqueseconsume, nrigordeben er resyenhorasdistintasaspersonas uesantiguanosviernes,quees el dia ndicado,aunqueen todo momentoes beneficiosoSantiguarse, orquequita a salaci6n.(679)[Atthe end,saythree"OurFathers" nd three "HailMarys,"he candlemuststay ightedforSaintLuisBeltrin,until t isconsumed,he(numberof) peoplewhoconsecrate ridays,hedesignated ay,mustbe threeand(appear)atdifferentimes,even f it isbeneficial o purifyoneselfatanytime,be-cause t removes hecurse.]

In El Monte, the sentence is remarkablysimilar, although it has been split into twosentences.


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Alterminar,eza resPadresNuestros,resCredosy tresAveMarias.Lavela sedejaencendida,-paraSanLuisBeltrin,-hasta quese consuma.Enrigordebensertres,y en horasdistintas,aspersonasque santiguenalaojado, inque ningunade lastressepaquienessonlas otras.(1954:302)[Atthe end,saythree"OurFathers,"hree "Creeds" nd three"HailMarys."The candlemuststaylighted-for SaintLuisBeltrain-until t is consumed.Strictly peaking,he (numberof) peoplewhopurify he aojado a personwho is a victim of mal deojo,that is the "evileye")must be three,and(appear)at different imes.Theymust notknoweachother.]

Cabrerahen wrotetwo otherparagraphs.n the thirdparagraph,which focusesonthe ReglaKimbisadel SantoCristodel BuenViaje(a religionthat includesBantu,Yoruba,Spiritualistic,and Catholicinfluences),we read the following:"Los hermanos'se santiguan los viernes, que es el dia indicado, aunque en todo momento es bene-ficioso santiguarse 'porquequitala salaci6n'" (1954:303). (TheBrotherspurifythem-selves on Fridays,which is the appropriate day,even if it beneficial to purify oneselfat any time, because it removes the curses.)We can see from this example that the textual similarities are too numerous to beaccidental. In fact, it is clear that the anonymous author of Manual copied fromCabrera'sEl Monte. Carelessly,he skipped from the verbsantiguenon one page (302)to santiguan on the first line of the following page (303), thus omitting words foundin the original source when copying the text. He began copying one sentence andfinishedwith another,simplybecause Cabrera's wo sentences in this passagehad oneverbin common. The two inflections of the verbsantiguararegrammaticallyaccept-ablein this context,which explains why the anonymous writer was confused here.Wealso found a confirmation of copying in the section of Manual regarding the plantknown as anamu:

Es unayerbade las comunesy facilesde arrancar, erono se arrancarimaisquecuandoseaprecisoutilizarla.No seincluyen ntre asyerbasdelOmierodelAsiento).Elrestodelafio,esbenefica.Curalalocuray conbafiosdeanam6sedesprenderidelcuerpoalgfinespirituibscuro,deesosquesuelenenviar os mayomberos araacometer susvictimas,adheriendose ellas.(689)[It seasy o findandto pull upanherb,butyoumustpullit uponlywhen it is necessaryo useit. (Itis not included n the infusionof theinitiation.)Therestof theyear, t isbeneficial. tcuresmadness,andthe bathwithanamudelivershebodyfromdark pirits hatpractitioners f PaloMontesend toattack heirvictimsand remain n them.]

Note the version of the same found in El Monte:Esunayerbade lasmascomunesyfAciles eobtener, erono searrancaramAsquecuandoseaprecisoutilizarla.No se incluyenentre asyerbasdel omierodelAsiento.Esabortiva de ahiqueseIlameaveces"sacamuchacho";.delR. a llamaOchisin.Si las reses acomen,malparen.Laraizhechaconsebode carnero, liviaal dolorde muelasobturando as caries.Esmalkfica n los mesesde octubre,noviembre diciembre. epuedematarpormedio de estayerba.Elrestodelafo es bendfica.Cura alocura; conbafiosdeanamisedesprenderaelcuerpoalgfin spiritu scurodeesosquesuelenenviarlosmayomberos araatormentar susvictimas,adhiri~ndose ellas.(1954:322)[It s easyto find andpull up anherb,butyoumustpullit up onlywhen it is necessaryo useit. (Itisnotincluded n the infusionof theinitiation.) tisabortive ndthat swhy t iscalled"remove-child";J.delR. calls t "Ochisin." f cowseat t,theywilldeliverastillborn.The root of thisplantmixedwith


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Dianteill&Swearingen,Cabrera's exts nd the WrittenTradition 283

sheeptallowrelieves oothachesby fillingcaries. t is evilduring hemonths of October,Novemberand December.Onecankillwith thisplant.The restof theyear t is beneficial. t curesmadness; ndthebathwithanamudelivershebodyfromanydark pirit hatpractitioners f Palo Montesend toattack heirvictimsandremain n them.]It isclearhatameaningfulassagesmissingn theManual ersion bove.Other-wise, tis notclearwhy heauthor f Manualwrote"'Theestof theyear thisplant]isbeneficial"ithoutupposinghat t isevilduring certaineriod f theyear.ThisinformationsprovidednElMonte "Its evil nOctober, ovember ndDecem-ber"], utnot nManual,enderingheremainingext ncoherentn the atter. romsuchexampleswe cansurmise hatManuals a partial opyof El Monte.Wenextexamineomeofthewaysn which heauthor fManual sed nformationorrowedfromElMonte.

TheOrganizationofManualThe"author"fManualeorganizedhe istofplantsndherbs rovidedn ElMontein apractical,eligiousmanner.Ontheonehand,Cabreraimply resentedhe istaccordingothealphabeticalrder fthecommon ames fplants. heprobablysedasareferencehemajorCuban otanicalictionaryvailable,uan omas oig Mesa'sPlantasMedicinalesromaticasVenenosaseCuba1945).All hescientific ames nLatinhementionedpparentlyome rom his ourcewhichs notcited nElMonte).On heother and,heauthorfManual adnoscientificurpose. shestatedlearlyin theepigraph,eonlywished ohelp heSanteriaractitioner.Complementadosic] a apreciaci6n e lasReglaso ReligionesAfricanas elativas ladeterminanteinfluenciaespiritualy materialde la vegetaci6ncomo fuente indispensablede la vida humana,ofrecemos naamplia documentadaelaci6n emfiltiples lantas raices, on susfacultades urativasy maigicas alos Santosquepertenecen.[Tosupplementheappreciationf Santeria r similarAfrican eligions n relation o the determin-ing spiritual nd material nfluenceof plantsas anindispensibleountainof human ife,we offeranextensive nddocumenteddescription f manyplantsandroots,alongwith theircurative ndmagi-cal facultiesand the relevant aints.]

Usually,heorishas representedollowing ritualorder hatcorrespondso themythical eniority f thegods.Theonlyexceptions Eleggu'i spellingused inManual),hedivinemessenger hoopensevery eremony.lthough e is a child,heisalwayshefirst obe honored.Thesecondo behonoredsObatali,hefatherof the orishas.That is why the author of Manuql first listed the plants that belong tothe most popular gods among santeros:21Plants of EleggudPlants of Obbatald,the father of all the godsPlants of Chang6,god of thunderPlants of Yemayd,goddess of the oceanPlants of Ochdn,goddess of love and fresh water


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InSanteriaractice,heorder f thedeities ariesccordingo thekindofceremony,andsometimes ven oronekindofceremony ccordingo the nformants. he istabove eemed o followone of thevernacularrdersortheceremonyf the neck-laces,although here s no clear nformationn Manualabout t.22Duringthisritual,eachnecklace,which s madeof beadsof the colorsof thecorresponding od, ssoakedinomiero.Then henecklacesre uccessivelyuton theneckofthenovice,usuallyfollowing hepreviousorder.SinceManualdealswiththeplantsof eachgod,it makessenseor heauthororeorganizehe istofplantsound n ElMonteohelp heprac-titioner erformheceremonyf thenecklaces,swellasotherkinds f Santeriaitu-als.

KeySelectionsromElMonteAppearingnManualThe entiresection of Manualthat focuses on plantsand herbsis taken fromElMonte.No other ourcewasused n thiscase.Nevertheless,heauthorelectedwhatwas elt o be relevanto thepurpose f the mprovementf thepracticefSanteriaasstatedn theepigraph bove. n ElMonte,Cabreraaveeachplanta commonCubanname,a Latinbotanicalname,as wellas Santeria nd Palo Montereligiousnames.The authorof Manual,on the otherhand,onlyretained he vernacular ame of theplantand ts Lucumi ame,becausehe otherswouldbemeaninglesso asantero.Thesameprinciple f selectionwasappliedn copyingherecipes ndgeneralinformationof eachplant.Forinstance,the plantscalledbaga,bejucobatalla,orbijagua n El Monte(1954:334,337, 345) weresupposedto be used exclusivelybypaleros, o theywerenot retained n Manual.When Cabreramentioneda possibleuseofaplant orPaloMontepractitioners,heauthor f Manualkippedhiscom-ment o reach he nextelement elongingo the Santeriaradition. elow s an ex-ampleof the selectionregardinghe plantcalledcaiiabrava,whichis presentedasfollows n Manual:

Lacafiabrava e estA onsagrada NanaBurukti,madrede los San Lizaros.Latierraen torno a ellatienevirtudes, s MunansoNboma(casademaji)ylo queaumenta uprestigio sic].La ierraquelecircunda, on madredebibijagua comejen, irveparadesvarataro quese quiera. 677)

[Thewild cane s consecratedo NanaBurukt6,Motherof allthe San Lazaros. hegroundaround thasspecialproperties,t is MunansoNboma(houseof thesnake)and this increases tsprestige.Theeartharound hisplant,with antsandtermites,s usefulto "break"nything ouwant.]Noteby wayof comparison hefollowing n El Monte:

La ierra,en tornosuyo, iene muchasvirtudes.Es munansomboma,casade maji (lo queaumentasu prestigio).Un trozodel canuto sirvede "coraz6n,imi, de ngangas," s decirsirveparaguardardentro,obturados os orificios,azogue y arena de mar,"lavida del mary del azogue,"que secomunicarin langanga u movilidadncesante uese traduce ndiligencia ara umplirosmandatosdelmayombero.La ierraque acircunda, on MadreBibijagua Comejin,sirvepara"desbaratar"o quesequiera.(1954:366-67)


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Dianteill & Swearingen, Cabrera'sTextsand the WrittenTradition 285

[The ground around it has special properties, it is Munanso Nboma (house of the snake) and thisincreases its prestige. A piece of cane is used as "heart, timi, de ngangas" (Nti ntimd means "heart"inritual Palo Monte language) that is used to keep sand and mercury inside it, with the orifices closed,"the life of the sea and the sand," which will transfer to the nganga their incessant mobility that willbe useful to carry out the orders of the palero. The earth around this plant, with ants and termites, isuseful to destroy anything you want.] (Cabrera 1984:55)In the first passage above, the author of Manual simply deleted the short paragraphabout the nganga, the sacred receptacle where the spirits reside according to PaloMonte religion. But the description concerning the use of the earth that surroundsthe cafia brava plant is retained, because it is possible to recontextualize this infor-mation in Santeria,especially in ritualsagainstwitchcraft where one has to "destroy"the spell that has been put on oneself.The author of Manual selected information directly concerning Santeria,system-atically favoring ritual information in comparison with mythology. Consider twomore examples.In the case of the plant algod6n,Cabreracollected a series of elementsrelated to Obatala,the god who "owns"the cotton plant, because everything white isrelated to him (1954:306-19). The author of Manual did not retain any of the mythsrelated to this god. He only kept the medical information about cotton, such as itsuse againstbronchitis, asthma,and cystitis or its abortifacentcharacteristics(640). Asimilarthing happened with the plant calabaza (667)-none of the myths related tothe divination sign Obbaramelliareincluded, but the copying is continued at the endof the section on this plant in ElMontewhere Cabreracited medical uses (1954:254-362). In other words, the author of Manual is not interested in mythology or in anykind of religious speculation about the genealogy of the gods or the creation of theworld. Rather,he is looking for practical information that the Santerocan use.

The Writing Style of El Monte and ManualManual is also noteworthy for being abbreviated,containing only the parts of ElMonte deemed useful or relevant forthe modern Santero'spurposes.The writing style

is short, staccato,as if the editor of Manual were attempting to provide the modernsanteropractitioner with an efficient way to learn relevantparts of El Monte and in-clude them in the oral performance.As mentioned above,one finds in ElMonte a listing of Neo-Latinate,Linneantermsproviding the scientific name for each herb in addition to its vernacular names. Suchan approachreflects an educatedbackgroundthat was not imitated in Manual. In thelatter there was often an omission of grammatical features, that is, quotes aroundexpressions, or the replacement, omission of words and passagesthat were includedin ElMonte. Note, for example, the passage concerning the plant Albahaca de Clavo:

Zumo: vertido dentro del oido apaga los zumbidos o dolores, "saca el viento" que puede entrar yproducir un ruido inc6modo. Con el cocimiento del cogollo, Oddtia alivia los dolores de lamenstruaci6n, y el zumo de lashojas, que se extrae mediante la presi6n del indice y el pulgar, aplicadoa los ojos, cura un orzuelo rebelde. (1954:304-5)


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286 JournalfAmericanolklore16 2003)

[Juice:ordizzinessntheear, to)removehebuzzingrpain, and o)"removehewind"hatcanenter ndproducenuncomfortableoise.With hewaterwhere heplantwasboiled ttheheart rcenter, dddialleviates enstrualain, nd he uice f eaves, hich re xtractedymeans fpressingwith he ndexinger nd he humb,ppliedotheeyes uring stubbornty.]Compareheabovepassage itha similar nefound n Manual:

ElZumo ertidoentro eloido, pagaoszumbidosdolores,aca lviento uepuedestar producirunruidonc6modo,onel cocimiento elcogello,Oddua livialos olores elmenstruo,onzumode ashojas, ue eextraemedianteapresi6ne osdedos ndice pulgar,plicado osojos, uraunanzuelo ebelde.679)[The uicefor)dizzinessntheear, emoveshebuzzingrpain, akes wayhewind hatcanpro-duce nuncomfortableoise,with hewaterwhereheplantwasboiled t heheart rcenter, dddiaalleviates enstrualains,with he uice fleaves, hich re xtractedymeans fpressinghe ndexfinger nd he humb,ppliedotheeyes, uring stubbornty.]

The way in which Manual is written suggests a limited understanding of how thecategories f herbswere described.By omittingquotesaroundcertainexpressions,suchas "saca l viento"above, heintendedemphasisgivento thisparticular xpres-sionin El Monte s lost.Usingthesequotes,Cabrera eemedto refer o an oral utter-anceof aninformant.Theauthorof Manualdid not takesuchprecautions. imilarly,replacingCabrera'sword entrarwith estar in Manual results in a different interpre-tation of this passage.The author of Manualalso replacedcertain terms with a shorterword, for example, menstruaci6n s replacedby menstruo.And a vernacular form of aword, orzuelo,which appeared in ElMonte, is replaced by anzuelo in Manual.The format of Manual suggeststhat more than one authormay have been involved,perhapswith one participant readingthe passages of El Monte that he thought to beappropriate, o another who then wrote it down as it washeard.23n the course of suchan undertaking, t would be verypossible, perhapseven likely,to misinterpretat timeswhat has been said. This could also partiallyaccountfor some of the gaps,for example,omission of key passagesfound in El Monte not appearingin Manual. Moreover,whileCabrerawas awareof the English spelling used in British anthropology, it is unlikelythat the authors of the Manual were equally familiar with these sophistications oflanguage.Forexample, Olld,which appears n Manual, is none other than Oyd,foundin El Monte. The author(s) of Manual used the Spanish letter "ll,"rather than theoriginal "y"for transcribingthe same phoneme.As we have noted, the style of writing is clearlymore vernacular and abbreviatedin Manual than in El Monte. For instance, in the latter (1954:70-71), Cabrera com-pared Osain, the Yorubagod of plants and medicine, to Esculapio, his equivalent inthe Greekpantheon, which reflected an erudition and knowledge of Western Classi-cal training. It is apparent from this and other formalities found in El Monte thatCabrera's ntentions included presenting the work to an audience trained in classicalEuropean culture. Nonetheless, it would be misleading to present the author(s) ofManual as semiliterate. For Manual, while borrowing heavily from El Monte, waswritten in a manner intended formodern practitionersof an Afro-Cubanreligionwho


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Dianteill&Swearingen,Cabrera's exts ndtheWrittenTradition 287

would ikelyuse an informaltyleof languagentheirperformance.t wouldhavebeenabsurd,rom hisperspective,ocopyElMontexactlys t was. t is notunrea-sonable,herefore,o assumehatManualmay eflect n ntentionalatherhanac-cidentaluse of the vernacular.

ConclusionA classic efinitionffolklorism aybe found n thework f Hermann ausinger,whostates, Characteristicffolklorismre hedo-just-as-if,heconjuringpof newexpressionsorancientorms,hestampof tradition venamong egressiveorms,theartificialatina, nd hepresumptionf wholenessndoriginality"1986:121).

Bausingereclareshatolklorisms "the ppliedolklorefyesterday"114)andrea-sons hat"First-and econdhandraditionsreoften ntertwined.heresearcherftraditionsalsifies isresultsf hecategoricallyantsoexclude neofthesecatego-ries"115).24TherelationshipetweenCabrera's orkandSanterias a goodexample f thisintertwining.ndeed,we haveshown n this article hatthe divisionbetween hewrittenndoralperformancesnotappropriaten thecase fCabrera'sork nAfro-Cubaneligions. nAfro-Cubanradition freligious riting recededheappear-anceofElMonte1954).Cabrerarequentlyonsultedanteriaibretas,sed ogetherwithnotes romher ieldworkn Cuba.25uteven f shedidnotemphasizeeruseof thiskindof primaryource,Cabreras neverthelesshefirst cholar o mentiontheseibretas. nd heused hem ncreasinglyorher aterworks ecausehedidnothaveaccess oCuban anterias it waspracticedn the sland.Theexistence f thewritingsfthesanterosefuteshenotion fSanteriasconsistingfpurelyral ites.JosephMurphyoted hatCabrera'sorkhasbeenusedasareferenceysanterosintheUnitedStates ndstated, Ourhesis s that heworkofLydiaCabreras im-portant otonly oresearchers,uthasbecome rucialnthe ifeof thereligiont-self"1987:252).n hisregard,sabelCastellafiosentionedhecaseof anovicewholearned anteriarayerssingCabrera'sook,Koekoyaw6Castellafios987:216).But nCuba,anteroslso ransformederworks o theirownperspective.heyarenotonlyreaders,heyalsoarewriters, r better aid,rewriters.hisfacthasbeenconfirmedn thecourse fthecomparisons adebetween lMontend heSanteriamanualnthisarticle.Manual eturnso areligiousogicabandonedyCabreran ElMonte. nManual,theplants reclassified,otbyscientific r commonnames, utbythegods."It spossible to re-orderall the entries and arrangethem into two groups, one that wouldplacethem in their scientific families (Acanthaceae,Agavaceae,etc.), the other in theirorisha family" (1987:228), wrote Morton Marks about the list of plants found in ElMonte,adding that the orisha classificationbelongs to what Claude Levi-Strausscalls"la science du concret" (1962:30). This cognitive reorganization was precisely whatthe author(s) of Manual did. They also systematicallyfavoredthe Lucumi traditionabove all others and privileged ritual as opposed to mythological information. Andalthough this manual was written in vernacularSpanish, the reason for this should


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288 Journalof American Folklore 116 (2003)

notbe seenassimplylliteracy;ather,t ispartof theverypurpose f Manual-tohelp hepractitionererformituals.The ronic ffect f thisreborrowingsthatCabrera'sork ontinueso influencetheway n which omeAfro-Cubaneligions renowpreservedndpracticednHavana.Whether his kind of interchangebetweenethnography nd religion mayaffect henature fotherAfrican-derivedeligiousraditionsn the NewWorlde-mains obeexamined.or nstance, e have videncehat hemajorworks f Ber-nardMaupoil 1988 1943])andJ.OlumideLucas 1948)on Ifi andYoruba eligionwereused n manuals irculating mongBabalaos n Havana, swellas thoseof Wil-liam Bascom 1969)and WandeAbimbola 1976).26EugenioMatibagas nsisted n the iteraryracticehatgoeswith heIfi oracle(1997),butweshouldnot forget hatbabalaos,ikesanteros, reactive iterateagentswho use andreinterpretnthropologicalnformation.WecannotregardAfro-Ameri-canreligiousiterateradition sbeingclosedo externalnfluences,speciallyth-nographies.n additiono Afro-Cubaneligions,t isverypossiblehat hiskindofborrowingrom cholarshipccurred ith heworks f MelvilleHerskovitsrAlfredMdtrauxn HaitianVodou,ArthurRamosorRogerBastide n BrazilianCandombld,and ZoraNeale Hurstonon AfricanAmerican olkreligion.Finally,t must also be saidthatManual s notjusta diluted,recycled ersionof ElMonte.TheauthorsofManualdid notsimplyuserelevant artsof ElMonte, heyalsorewrotet.This squitedifferentroma merereadingndapplicationf the mate-

rial,asmightbepresumed.Therearecertainly ther nstances nwhichreligiousac-torsuse heextantcholarlyexts, eferringo themasthereferenceorcorrect itualaction, sin the caseof theprayersmentioned bove.But he existence f a morecomplicatedhenomenons discussednthispaper: newhierographicextresultsfrom herewritingf anethnographicookthatwas tselfpartly product f therewritingfhierographicexts.Thiscircularhenomenonwaits urthernvestiga-tion in otherAfricanAmerican eligionsaswell.Notes

We would like to thank Jose Miranda, a Cuban babalao who lives in Paris,and Rosalina Gonzalez Piedra,a "santeramayor"who lives in Havana, for their help in providing an accuratemeaning of the utterancesin vernacular Cuban Spanish and in Lucumi found in the Santeria texts analyzed in this paper.1. In the postscript of her second volume of tales, Porqu ... CuentosNegrosde Cuba, she writes thatin Cuba,Blacks"keepa largeamount of tales and legends," and that "those tales also enchanted the child-hood of white children" (1972b:230). In Ayapa, she assumes in the first sentence of the book that it is acollection of "stories which [she] has been told in Cuba about a small fresh water tortoise" (1971:9). Inthese texts, Cabreraemphasizes the oral Afro-Cuban tradition as the source of the tales, rather than herown literarycreation or previously written narrations among Santeriapractitioners.2. In the preface to CuentosNegrosde Cuba,Ortiz states clearlythat the main merit of Cabrera'swork

was to write in Spanish the oral narrations told to her in a "creolized language" (Cabrera 1972a:8).3. Fora critique of Ortiz'scriminology and the evolution of his research,see Helg 1990a:250, 1990b:52;Dianteill 1995:13-31. Ortiz's thinking evolved toward a clear acknowledgment of the high value of theAfro-Cuban culture (see, for instance, his five volumes on the instruments of Afro-Cuban music, 1952-55), but he never explicitly rejected any statement he made in his 1906 book. When R6mulo Lachataftiere


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Dianteill&Swearingen,Cabrera'sexts ndthe WrittenTradition 289

arguedn favorof the word"Santeria"n placeof theword"brujeria,"hichhe considered o bea "po-liceconcept" 1992 1939]:200),Ortizacceptedt:Actualmentethat s, n 1939], lmejor ratoqueva recibiendo lnegroysuscosas,apartedelaumentogeneralde la culturaquese advierte n Cuba,hacequela vozsanteria engasustituyendo lapalabrabrujeria; esto es muy plausible,porquetiende a evitarincomprensiones nexcusablesy desviosindecorosos.[Presently,he excellentreatment hattheBlackandhis ideasarereceiving, esides hegeneral leva-tionof education hatcanbe noticed hroughoutCuba, xplainswhytheword s increasingly sed asa substitute for witchcraft;and this is quite plausible,because it tends to avoid inexusableincomprehensivenessndimproperdiversions.]

Buthe did not realize hathehimself houldnothaveusedthetermback n 1906,when t wasverycom-mon.In 1939he alsocontinued o show a deep contempt oranykind of "syncretistic"eligion:Hoydia no cabedudadeque,aveces,enlos sectoresmais estacados e la tradiciones ncestrales,aysujetos,descreidos sumamente redulos,quienes,porcreeren todo o porno creerconcretamenteen nada,asi le cantanaBabalhi y6,como inciensaa SanLizaro,o le preparan quienselo pagueunembrujopara"amarrar" unabuenamozaquesemuestra squiva. 1991 1939]:100-101)[Nowadayshere s no doubtthat,attimes, n the mostnoticeable ectorsof ancestralraditions, resusceptiblendividuals, nbelieving r extremely redulous,who,by believing n everything, r notspecifically elieving nanything, ing n thismanner o Babaldi ye, o burn ncense oSanLizaro,orprepare,orwhoeverpays hem,a charm o influenceor woo anicegirlwhomightotherwiseprove obe aloof.]

Forageneral ccountof racerelations ndracismagainstBlacksn Cubaat thebeginningof the twenti-ethcentury, eeHelg1995,Palmid 002.4. Toprovide ontext o the notion of itbeinga "creolized"anguage, s citedbysome scholars suchasOrtizandCastellafios), ozal s nowwidelyregarded shaving irstbeen apidgin-that is,arestrictedlanguage esulting romthemixtureof relevantAfricananguages ndSpanish, pokenbyCuban lavesandtheirdescendants-but whichwas not anative anguage. ee,forexample,Castellafios 989;Holm1989:307-9; wearingen,ubmitted.5. Fora full accountofIfddivination nYorubaland,ee Bascom1969.Foradescription f PaloMontesee alsoCabrera 979,1984;DianteillandPigeon1999;Valdes-Cruz974:9;Valdes-Cruz977:99;Bran-don 1993:175-76.6.Theauthorsof this workdo not practiceAfro-Cuban eligions,althoughone of them (Dianteill)had beeninitiatedas a santeroand a babalao n 1996 n Havanaafter en months of fieldwork, uringwhichheactively articipatedn various ypesof ceremonies.Dianteillargues hatthetrajectoryhat edhimto initiation s away o uncover he structure f Afro-Cubaneligions.Thereligious tinerary f anindividuals of greater cientific ignificancehan the initiation tself.Thismethods fully explained nDesDieux et desSignes 2000,chapter1,"Commentun sociologuedevientBabalao"). hepresentar-ticle,as well as Dianteill'sworks, xcludes hetheologicalpointof view and concentratesxclusively nanthropologicalndlinguistic ssues.7. Ourcorpusonly includesEl Monte(1954),Anag6 1970[1957]),Yemayd Ochrtn1980a[1974]),andKoekoIyaw6 1980b).Acomparison etweenCabrera'shreecollections f talesand he stories oundin Santeria nd Ifi vernaculariterature rebeyond hepurviewof this work.8. ThewordLucumis "used o refer o apersonofYoruba escentorto describe ny eature fYorubaculturen Cuba" Murphy1987:179). imilaro Bascom 1972),Murphy tates hat the Yoruban Cubacame o be calledLucumiafter heirwayof greeting achother,olukumi,myfriend" 1987:27).9. All translationsromSpanish o EnglisharebyMarthaSwearingen.10. Inthemannerof Cabrera, e use the word"gods""susdioses"n thepresent itation) o refer otheorishas;ven if thesanteros elieve n a"higher od"theycallOlofi,Olordin, r Olodumare,who is


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conceived f as the creatorof allthings.PierreVerger, ne of the greatestauthoritieson Yoruba radi-tionalreligion, lsousedtheFrench quivalent f the word"gods"orefer o theorishasseeVerger 954).11. The wordeb6means"offering,acrifice, urification"n Lucumi Cabrera 970[1957]:98).12.Ifi,orOrula,sthedeityofdestinyn Santeria. abalaos respecialists f theinterpretationf signsof Ifi. Foradescription f thiskind of divination n Africa, ee Bascom 1969).13.An oriate s a santero pecialist f the Diloguin ivination.Heinterpretshepositionof the cow-rieson themat for theconsultant, specially tthetime of theitd,which s themajorconsultation n thethirddayof the Santeria nitiation.Usually,heoriat6, requently man, s alsotheone who directs hefull initiationof the santero:he is oftencalled"Obai"hen.According o the majorityof santerosandbabalaoswe know in Cuba, here s no special nitiation o become an oriate,but lengthyexperiencendirectingceremoniesand interpretinghe Diloguin s requested.Nevertheless,wo oriates,whom theAmericanolkloristYsamurFloresnterviewed n Cuba(2001:66), laimed o havepassedaspecial ni-tiation o becomeanoriate.Ababalao s usuallyasantero butnot always;eeFlores2001:65)who hasgone throughaninitiation n the cult of Ifi.Although heanalogy snot completely ppropriate,e canbe calleda "priest" f Ifi. Foracompleteaccountof thedifferencesandthefrequent onflict)betweenoriatesandbabalaos,ee Flores 2001).14.Concerning he contradictionbetween secrecyand writing in Ifi handbooks,see Dianteill(2000:261-65).15.Traditionally,ftinwas madeof crushed ggshells.Nowadays,t is oftenmadeof industrial halk.16. A manual ollectedbyone of the authorsof thisarticle n Havana ears hedate1836. t is atypedcopy,butthe text is very ikely o date from at least thebeginningof the nineteenthcentury Dianteill2000:222-23).17. Fora completeaccountof thefieldwork ndanalysis f thiscorpus, ee Dianteill 2000:13-32).18. Itspricewas250 Cubanpesos(about$10U.S.)whenwe bought t in 1996.Itwas theequivalentof one month'spayfor aprofessionaln Cubaatthis time.19.Weuse theexpression uthor ereas ageneric erm: heremighthavebeen severalpeople,maleorfemale,nvolvedn theeditingof theManual.20. Thepartof theManual hat s dedicatedotheDiloguins differentrom hemajority f theDilognhandbooks resenton the market. nthese nparticular, efindaseriesof sixteen igns,andsometimes(suchas in ManualdelOriatrbyNicolasAngarica)hecombinationof signsthat formsa seriesof 256doublesigns.But in this casetheinterpretations simplybasedon the sum of themeaningsof thetwoindependent igns.IntheManual, achdoublesignhas apeculiarmeaning hatis not thesimpleaddi-tionof the twosignsof which t iscomposed. t is for thisreason hatthe Manual ooks more ikeanIfidivinationmanual han a commonDiloguin andbook.21. After he fivemajordeities, heauthorofManualwrites helist of plantscorrespondingo deitieswhohave ewer"children"mong heSanteros, nd a seriesof plants hatbelongto "allsaints,"hat s,

allthedeities,asfollows:Plantsof BabaluAye,godof skindiseasesPlantsof Ollhisic],goddessof stormandsparksPlantsof OrischaOko [sic],godof agriculturePlantsof Orula,god of destinyPlantsof Ochosi,godof huntingPlantsof NanaBuruku, oddessof snakes,wildsugarcane,andsprings.PlantsofYegua, oddessof thecementery oneof them)Plantsof All Saints

Themainpeculiarity f thepresentorder s thatChang6,who is usually upposed o be ayoungergodthanYemayi,s placedbeforeheron thelist.Thisprobably omes from the colorsof his necklace redandwhite),which ncludes he colorof Obatali(white).AmythexplainswhyChang6's ecklacencludesthecolorwhite: his is a signthatChang6 s Obatalhi'son (Cabrera 954:224).22. There s no uniqueorder orthe ceremonyof the necklaces n the communityof santeros.Theorder-consistingof Elegua spellingused n ElMonte),Obatali,Chang6,Yemayi,Ochiin-is confirmed


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Dianteill&Swearingen,Cabrera's exts nd theWrittenTradition 291

by a babalao informant of Cabrera n KoekolIyaw6 1980b:182). In Yemaya Ochiln (1980a[1974]:120),Cabrera does not cite Elegua in the list of necklaces, but the four other gods are cited in the same order:Obatali, Chang6, Yemaya,Ochtin.However, J.M. Murphy (1988:81-82) describes the ceremony of thenecklaces in a different order: Elegua, Obatala, Yemaya,Chang6, Ochtin. Rosalina Gonzalez Piedra, aCuban santera, gives the necklaces in yet another order-Obatala, Yemaya,Ochun, Chang6, Oyd--if thenovice does not yet know of which orisha he is the child. If he alreadyknows it, then the last necklace tobe put on is that of the orisha of which he is the child. According to Gonzalez Piedra, it is not absolutely

necessary to give someone the necklace of Elegua in this ceremony.23. It should also be kept in mind that in the early 1990s the lack of paper, ink, and other printingsupplies in Cuba made it very difficult to publish many texts. Printings were extremely limited in num-ber, even when an edition went to press. Thus, it seems proper that a "popular"text like Manual wouldbe copied by hand or typed, and that the authors would pick and choose and organize-rewrite-as theyneeded. (We thank one of JAFs anonymous referees for pointing this out.)24. It should not be assumed from the cited quote that the occurrence of folklorism necessarily sug-gests the negative. As pointed out by Bausinger, folklorism performs a vital function-it may serve as away to preserve the very structure of an organization and provide for its recognition by others outside ofthe organization (1986:117).25. The use of written materialdoes not, of course,prevent ElMonte from being a major breakthroughfor Afro-American ethnography, acknowledged by the most prominent scholars of the 1950s. For therelationship between LydiaCabrera,PierreVerger,and RogerBastideespecially,see the prefaceto the newFrenchtranslation of El Monte (Dianteill 2002). This particularedition includes a color plate of the headof an initiate, which has not appeared in a publication since 1954.26. See Dianteill 2000:229-32.

ReferencesCitedAbimbola, Wande. 1976. Ifa:An Expositionof Ifa LiteraryCorpus.Ibadan:Oxford University PressNige-ria.Angarica,Nicolas. 1957. Manual del Oriatr. Havana.Anonymous. ca. 1950. Dice Ifd. Havana.Anonymous. ca. 1990. Manual del Santero. Havana.Bascom, William. 1969. Ifa Divination. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.. 1972. Shangoin the New World.Austin:Universityof Texas,Africanand Afro-American ResearchInstitute.Bausinger,Hermann. 1986. Toward a Critique of Folklorism Criticism. In German Volkskunde:A Decade

of TheoreticalControntation,Debate, and Reorientation(1967-1977), ed. JamesR. Dow and HannjostLixfeld,pp. 113-23. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Brandon, George. 1993. Santeriafrom Africa to the New World.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Cabrera,Lydia. 1954. El Monte. Havana: Ediciones C.R.. 1970[1957]. Anag6: VocabularioLucumi.Havana: Ediciones Universal.. 1971. Ayapa-Cuentos deJicotea.Havana: Ediciones Universal.. 1972a[1936]. CuentosNegrosde Cuba. Miami: Ediciones C.R.. 1972b[ 1948]. Por Qu ... CuentosNegrosde Cuba. Miami: Ediciones C.R.. 1979. Reglasde Congo,Palo Monte Mayombe. Miami: Ediciones Universal.. 1980a[ 1974]. Yemayd Och'n. New York:Ediciones C.R.. 1980b. KoekoIyaw6:AprendeNovicia. Miami: Ediciones C.R.. 1984. VocabularioCongo(ElBanti Que Se Habla en Cuba). Miami: Colecci6n del Chicherek6 enel Exilio.. 1994. Pdginas Sueltas. Havana:Ediciones Universal.Castellafios,Isabel. 1987.Abre KutuWiri Ndinga: LydiaCabreray las LenguasAfrocubanas. In En Tornoa LydiaCabrera,ed. Isabel Castellafios and Josefina Inclin, pp. 212-26. Miami: Ediciones Universal.. 1989. GrammaticalStructure,HistoricalDevelopment, and Religious Usage of Afro-Cuban Bozal

Speech. FolkloreForum 23(1/2):57-84.


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Dianteill, Erwan. 1995. Le Savant et le Santero-Naissance de l'EtudeScientifiquedes Religions Afro-Cu-baines (1906-1954). Histoire des Antilles Hispaniques. Paris: L'Harmattan.. 2000. Des Dieux et desSignes-Initiation, Ecritureet Divination dans lesReligionsAfro-Cubaines.Paris:Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.-. 2002. Preface. In El Monte, trans. Beatrice de Chavagnac. Paris: Editions Jean-Michel Place.Dianteill, Erwan, and Gerard Pigeon. 1999. Seven Lightnings Over California-Don Daniel, A Palero inLosAngeles(video documentary). Santa Barbara:University of California.Flores,Ysamur. 2001. LaLengua es el Laitigodel Cuerpo. Identidad y Apropiaci6n a Traves de la Narrati-va en la Cultura Religiosa Lucumi. Del Caribe 34:65-71.

GonzailezWippler, Migene. 1973. Santeria. New York:Julian Press.Helg, Aline. 1990a. Fernando Ortiz ou la Pseudo-Science Contre la Sorcellerie Africaine a Cuba. In LaPenseeMctisse-CroyancesAfricaineset Rationalite Occidentale en Question, pp. 241-50. Paris:PUF-. 1990b. Race in Argentina and Cuba, 1880-1930: Theory, Policies and Popular Reaction. In TheIdea of Racein LatinAmerica, 1870-1940, ed. RichardGraham, pp. 37-69. Austin: University of Texas

Press... 1995. OurRightfulShare:TheAfro-CubanStruggle or Equality,1886-1912. Chapel Hill: Univer-

sity of North Carolina Press.Holm, John. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles.Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Lachatafiere,R6mulo. 1992[1939]. Las Creencias Religiosasde los Afro-Cubanos y la FalsaAplicaci6n delThrmino Brujeria.In El SistemaReligiosode losAfrocubanos,pp. 196-215. Havana: Editorial de Cien-cias Sociales.Le6n, Argeliers. 1971. Un Caso de Tradici6n Oral Escrita. Islas 39-40(May-Dec.):139-51.Levi-Strauss,Claude. 1962. La PenseeSauvage. Paris: Plon.Lucas,J.Olumide. 1948. The Religionof the Yorubas.Lagos:CMS Bookshop.Marks,Morton. 1987. Exploring El Monte:Ethnobotany and the Afro-Cuban Science of the Concrete. In

En Tornoa Lydia Cabrera,ed. Isabel Castellaflos and Josefina Inclin, pp. 227-44. Miami: EdicionesUniversal.Matibag, Eugenio. 1997. Ifi and Interpretation-An Afro-Caribbean LiteraryPractice. In Sacred Posses-sions-Vodou, Santeria, Obeah and the Caribbean, ed. Margarite FernaindezOlmos and LizabethParavisini-Gebert,pp. 151-70. New Brunswick, N.J.:Rutgers University Press.Maupoil, Bernard, 1988[ 1943]. La Geomanciea l'Ancienne C6te des Esclaves.Paris: Institut d'Ethnologie.Murphy, Joseph. 1987. Lydia Cabrera and La Regla de Ocha in the United States. In En Torno a LydiaCabrera,ed. Isabel Castellafios and JosefinaInclan, 246-54. Miami: Ediciones Universal.. 1988. Santeria:An African Religion in America. Boston: Beacon Press.Ortiz, Fernando. 1906. Hampa Afro-Cubana:Los Negros Brujos (Apuntes Para un Estudio de EtnologiaCriminal). Madrid: Libreriade Fernando Fe.

. 1952-55. Los Instrumentosde la Mr'sicaAfrocubana. 5 vols. Havana: Publicaciones de la Direc-ci6n de Cultura del Ministerio de Educaci6n.1991[1939]. Brujos o Santeros. In Estudios Etnosociol6gicos,pp. 97-101. Havana: Editorial deCiencias Sociales.

Palmid, Stephan. 2002. Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition.Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Piedra, Gonzalez. Personal communication. January2, 2001.Roig y Mesa, JuanTomas. 1945. Plantas Medicinales Aromaticaso Venenosasde Cuba. Havana: EdicionesCultural.Swearingen,Martha. Submitted. Creole Heritage Languages. In WorldEnglishes.Swearingen,Martha,and Erwan Dianteill. 2000. LydiaCabrera and the Written Tradition in Afro-Cuban

Religions.Paper presented at the International Congress of LatinAmerican Studies, Miami, March 17.Valdis-Cruz, Rosa. 1974. LoAncestralAfricano en la Narrativa de Lydia Cabrera.Miami: Ediciones Uni-versal.. 1977. Los Cuentos de LydiaCabrera:JTransposiciones o Creaciones? In Homenaje a Lydia Ca-

brera,ed. Reinaldo Sanchez and JoseAntonio Madrigal,pp. 93-99. Miami: Ediciones Universal.Verger,Pierre. 1954. Dieux d'Afrique.Paris:Paul Hartman.

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