Power and Paradox
in the Trickster
Figure
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/60528273.pdf
Jacob Campbell
Winter 1999
Introduction
We have only one certainty in this world - that nothing is for certain. The
machine of Western science has relentlessly striven to discern patterns and laws which
might order reality, yet much of it simply does not conform to rational classification. Of
course, the yields of systematic analysis have presented for humans an unprecedented
mental grasp on the universe and our place within it. The forces ofchaos, however,
continue to manifest in our lived experience, seemingly to check assumptions of
omnipotent logic in societies which have come to worship the scientist as a messiah.
Massive earthquakes unpredictably wreak devastation upon whole countries, a host of
epidemic viruses remain incurable, and the actions of the clinically insane persist as
unexplainable phenomena. For many indigenous societies, these mysteries of human
experience, both physical and cultural, are dealt with primarily in the realm of myth. One
mythic figure in particular frequently emerges to embody the ambiguity and irony of his
people's encounter with the world. He is Trickster, a formal paradox - one who sows the
seeds of discord, then inspires new possibilities for ritual and social reinvention. In
contrast to the Western scientist, the trickster in essence celebrates that which falls
through the cracks of rational classification. He reminds indigenous people that logic
cannot adequately grapple with a vast array of human experiences, and it is precisely
those elements which hold the most potential when successfully harnessed. This thesis
attempts to clarify both the means by which cultural groups invoke their trickster and also
the influence he has upon their daily worldview.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Reflections on the Children of Shango: An Essay on a History of Orisa Worship in Trinidad
David V. Trotman
Pages 211-234 | Published online: 28 Aug 2007
https://doi.org/10.1080/01440390701428022
Journal
Slavery & Abolition
A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies
Volume 28, 2007 - Issue 2
David V. Trotman
Pages 211-234 | Published online: 28 Aug 2007
https://doi.org/10.1080/01440390701428022
Journal
Slavery & Abolition
A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies
Volume 28, 2007 - Issue 2
The Sonic Structure of Shango Feasts
The Orisha religion began in Trinidad sometime in the middle to late-19th century, originating with several thousand indentured laborers (free, not enslaved) from the areas in present-day Nigeria. (The religion was long known as Shango in Trinidad, but many worshipers now prefer the name Orisha.) Based on the veneration of a pantheon of Yoruba spirits known as orishas – with attendant spirit possession, animal sacrifice, and drumming and singing—Orisha bears strong resemblances to the Yoruba-derived religions in Cuba (Santería) and Brazil (Candomblé). As in those places, Trinidad Orisha musicians use three drums. But while Cubans play bata drums, and Brazilians play Dahomean-derived peg-style atabaques, Trinidadians use a trio of bembe drums with bent sticks. Very similar bembe drums can be observed in Nigeria today.
Like elsewhere in the diaspora, Christianity plays a central role in Trinidad Orisha—though some Orisha shrines since the late 20th century have spearheaded a more “pure” Orisha practice that renounces Christianity. Historically, the Yorubas in Trinidad syncretized their orishas with the saints of the local (French) Catholic religion.[1] As Orisha practitioners in Trinidad maintained their Christianity over generations, many became Spiritual Baptists (an Afro-Protestant faith native to the West Indies), such that “Shango-Baptists” remains a common (if derogatory, in the eyes of many) moniker on the island. (The Spiritual Baptist connection remains strong, and the setting of the Orisha ethnography below is a Spiritual Baptist church.)
Being one of three main Yoruba-derived faiths in the Americas, Trinidad Orisha has received the attention of several anthropological studies.[2] These include a Herskovitsian study on the high degree of Africanisms found in Orisha (Simpson 1965); a study of syncretism in the religion (Houk 1995); a biographical sketch of the well-known Shango leader, Papa Neezer (Henry 2008), and a study of the sociopolitical legitimization of the religion (2003); studies of spirit possession in the Orisha religion in relation to trance practices of Spiritual Baptists and Hindus (Lum 2000 and McNeal 2011, respectively); and studies of Yoruba language retentions in Trinidad (Warner-Lewis 1994; 1996). However, while at least one of these anthropologists performed Orisha drums as part of his methodology (Houk 1995), no scholar has written specifically about Orisha music.[3] When one considers that drumming and singing are nearly ever-present during Orisha rituals, it becomes clear that the study of Trinidad Orisha music is long overdue in African diaspora scholarship.
In this audio essay I look specifically at the “feast”—the main, annual event held by an Orisha congregation—to explore the idea that music during Orisha rituals is much more than ancillary. Rather, Orisha feasts can be understood as sonically structured. In that sense, Orisha music and ritual are inseparable. While individual Orisha songs are typically brief, taking a wider view reveals long-form structures and a more complex relationship between Orisha music and time. Along these lines, Michael Tenzer argues that a useful concept in world music analysis is periodicity, which “orients us in music and a much larger hierarchy of time that connects to experience both at and beyond the scale of human lives” (Tenzer 2006:25). The Orisha feast periodicities herein described might be categorized as 1) hymn time; 2) Litany time; 3) drumming and ring march time; 4) manifestation time; 5) offering time; and 6) time for giving thanks. In Tenzer’s terms, Orisha music “orients” its participants in the feast, signaling the progression through different periods of the ritual, and, beyond the scale of participants’ lives, to the historicity of their tradition.[4]
The recordings included in this essay were made by me in June 2014, using a Zoom H4N handheld recorder, at an Orisha feast at the Mount Moriah Spiritual Baptist Church in Brooklyn. This church was something of a home base for me during my fieldwork, especially during the summer in 2011 when I was a regular umele drummer in the Orisha scene in Brooklyn. The umele (derived from a Yoruba word in Nigeria denoting an accompanying drum) is the smallest of the three standard bembe-derived Orisha drums, all of which are played seated with either one or two curved sticks. Drumming in Orisha can easily involve 4 to 6 hours of continuous work, usually in the middle of the night. While this was tiring, the central rituals of Orisha—namely spirit possession and animal sacrifice—are carried out mere feet from the drums (the drums being a focal point of the religion). Being a drummer at these ceremonies gave me a front row seat for the proceedings and enabled a unique perspective of Orisha ritual and structural development. Although I was not a drummer when I made the present recordings, this perspective aided me while I was attending as an onlooker, singing participant, and ethnomusicologist with recorder in hand.
While these recordings were made in Brooklyn rather than in Trinidad, for the purposes of this article they can be considered representative generally of the genre “Trinidad Orisha music” (see Bazinet 2013). Though the context of this feast is somewhat different from a Trinidadian version (indoors rather than outdoors, as would be the case in Trinidad), the music is the same. I make this statement with confidence not only based on my own frequent travels to Trinidad and to Orisha feasts there, but also due to the fact that several of the singers and drummers recorded herein split their time between Trinidad and Brooklyn, as do many other transnational West Indians. In Brooklyn, Trinidadians use music—from Orisha to soca—to recreate home in the diaspora (Bazinet 2012).[5]
Spirits, Blood and Drums: The Orisha Religion in Trinidad
James T. Houk
Copyright Date: 1995
Published by: Temple University Press
Pages: 256
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsw8x
Table of Contents
PART ONE Orisha Experiences (pp. 3-16)
Seventy to eighty people crammed themselves into a small church in Barataria in northwest Trinidad on a warm and muggy June night, and another fifty or so stood outside peering in the doors and windows. Almost everyone was African, although a few East Indians could be seen scattered here and there in the crowd. Also in attendance was a white foreigner doing his damndest to conduct himself in a manner befitting an anthropologist. The crowd engulfed and carried me as it swayed back and forth to the spiritual rhythms of an ancient religion. The clapping, singing, joy, and enthusiasm were...
TWO Religion, Postmodernism, and Methodology (pp. 17-24)
Perhaps the most problematicand troubling theoretical issue in sociocultural anthropology today is the postmodernist controversy and its ramifications for theory, fieldwork technique, and ethnographic writing. One problem is the lack of a clear statement regarding just what postmodernism is. A few works — such as George Marcus and Michael Fischer’sAnthropology as Cultural Critique(1986) and James Clifford and George Marcus’sWriting Culture(1986) — are generally recognized for their postmodernist critique of traditional ethnography, but, as Ernest Gellner (1992, 23) writes, we have “no 39 postmodernist articles of faith, no postmodernist Manifesto.”
THREE The Setting (pp. 25-44)
Trinidad lies at the southernmosttip of the Lesser Antilles and is only eleven kilometers (about seven miles) from the northern coast of Venezuela at its closest point (Annual Statistical Digest1988, 1). In fact, Venezuela is often visible from the west coast of the island if viewing conditions are good. Geologically, Trinidad lies on the South American continental shelf and is actually an extension of the South American mainland.
There are three mountainous or hilly ranges on the island, the northern, central, and southern ranges. The northern range, running roughly east to west across the entire island, is the...
PART II
FOUR African Roots of the Orisha ReligionOUR African Roots of the Orisha Religion (pp. 47-60)
The Orisha religion in Trinidad, like the other African-derived religions of the New World, originated during the colonial period when European colonizers brought in millions of Africans to work on sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations. From the mid-fifteenth century, when the Portuguese began to colonize certain eastern Atlantic islands (the Azores, Cape Verde, the Madeiras), until 1888, when Brazil abolished slavery, the slave trade greatly affected virtually the entire Western Hemisphere, both socially and culturally.
The colonial economies were based on a variety of crops, including cacao, cotton, tobacco, and sugar. It was sugar, however, that would have the biggest...
FIVE Catholicism and the Orisha Religion (pp. 61-70)
On Easter Sunday, March 26, 1989, I attended a prayer session in an Orisha shrine north of Chaguanas in the west-central part of Trinidad. The focus of activity was a small church at the rear of the compound. In the center of the church was a large table set elaborately with candles, cakes, liquor, milk, honey, crystal, candies, and other items. In some ways the table appeared to be ready for a Spiritual Baptist “thanksgiving” (an annual prayer ceremony), yet it also resembled the Kabbalah table that serves as the focal point for Kabbalah “banquets.”
SIX The Spiritual Baptists (pp. 71-85)
The Spiritual Baptist religion is found throughout the Western Hemisphere with churches in many areas, including St. Vincent, Grenada, St. Croix, Venezuela, Guyana, and large urban areas of North America such as Toronto, Miami, New Orleans, and New York City. Many of these churches appear to have been established as the result of movement to and from as well as inside the Caribbean.
The relationship between the Spiritual Baptist and Orisha religions is much more pervasive and marked than that involving Orisha and Catholicism, Hinduism, or the Kabbalah. For one thing, the Baptist and Orisha religions often share members. Spiritual...
SEVEN Hinduism and the Kabbalah (pp. 86-104)
By 1950 or so, various Catholic elements had long been part of the Orisha religion, and the interrelationship between Spiritual Baptists andorishaworshipers was no doubt quite advanced. Sometime during the 1950s, for reasons explored below, Hinduism began to make its presence felt in the already highly eclectic Orisha religious system. About twenty years later, manyorishaworshipers began to practice the Kabbalah as well. These are the two latest additions to the Afro-American religious complex.
Hinduism has been present in Trinidad ever since Indians began arriving about 150 years ago, and it has become one of the island’s...
EIGHT Spirits and Spirit Possession (pp. 107-124)
The most significant eventin the Orisha religion is the manifestation of anorisha. The onset of anorishapossession is a startling event: the worshiper who is being manifested upon screams loudly and falls about as if being pushed and pulled by some invisible force. After this initial “settling” period, however, the “horse” dances to the beat of the drums with a beauty that has to be seen to be appreciated.
Although most possessions are somewhat predictable, there is always the possibility that something will happen to disturb the manifesting orisha. This sometimes leads to a confrontation between the...
NINE Social Organization of the Orisha Religion (pp. 125-139)
The Orisha religionis highly variable when viewed in cross section and dynamic when viewed longitudinally or across time. Whether because of opportunism, desire, or sheer necessity, it is a complex synthesis of a variety of religious traditions. Thus, those who practice the religion must be at least somewhat adept at manipulating an assortment of symbols and ideologies; this is especially true for the elders, shrine heads,mongba, andiyawho construct and maintain the shrines and actively direct the annual feasts and other important rituals.
The shrines of many of the most popular and successful heads in the religion...
TEN The Orisha and Their Abodes (pp. 140-155)
Orisha shrines vary greatlyin layout, size, and complexity, but all share certain characteristics. First, they are “earthy.” Virtually the entire shrine has a dirt floor, especially the more sacred areas; when individuals enter the sacred areas, they are expected to remove their shoes. There are various implements, utensils, candles, and so on stuck here and there in the ground; medicinal and religious plants growing in the compound; and pens holding chickens, goats, and other animals. Second, Orisha shrines are active. Candles burn constantly, and spiritual work is done almost daily in some compounds. Finally, shrines are historical. The remnants...
ELEVEN The Ebo, Feast for the Gods (pp. 156-166)
Worshipers learn muchof what they know about theorishaat the manyebothat are held during the feast season. Anywhere from a handful to dozens oforishawill manifest themselves in the course of a week-long feast. The primary functions of thepalais, chapelle, andperogunbecome clear during theebo, as does much about the liturgy, ritual behavior, and Orisha beliefs.
Theebois without question the most important ceremony in the Orisha religion. It is basically a celebration of food, dance, and song during which theorishamanifest themselves and interact with worshipers in a variety...
PART IV
TWELVE The Orisha Religion as an Open System (pp. 169-179)
Ihave focused considerable attentionthus far on the highly eclectic nature of the Orisha religion. The question naturally arises, what are the transformative processes at work in the religion — that is, those mechanisms of change that have transformed the religious system from a body of knowledge initially drawn from a single cultural tradition to one drawn from a variety of cultural traditions? Several sociocultural processes can act to shift society and culture from one state to another, ranging from nativism on the one hand to assimilation on the other. The ethnocentrism of nativism initially serves to temper any...
THIRTEEN Syncretism and Eclecticism versus Africanization (pp. 180-190)
The syncretism of Catholic saints and African gods —orisha, vodoun, or others — is one of the more salient and prevalent characteristics of African-derived religions in the New World. It was Melville J. Herskovits, in his research of the highly eclectic and multicultural Afro-American religions, who first popularized the term “syncretism” in the social sciences. Scholars have given syncretism little theoretical treatment, the more notable exceptions being Munro Edmonson (1960), Jay Edwards (1980b), and Herskovits (1948, 1955). The process itself has been investigated in the field by Bastide (1972, 1978), Edwards (1980a, 1980b), Herskovits (1937, 1943), Peter Kloss (1985),...
FOURTEEN The Transmission of Religious Knowledge in the Orisha Religion (pp. 191-198)
The structure of the Grisha religion, as we have seen, facilitates and even encourages variation. Its loose organizational structure, its oral liturgy, its multiethnic membership, and its open system make the religion a complex and dynamic system of beliefs and practices that is highly susceptible to change. Not surprisingly, then, the enculturation of Orisha religious knowledge is characterized by mechanisms that permit a fairly high degree of change from one generation to the next.
Cultural inheritance and evolution, though somewhat analogous to genetic inheritance and Darwinian evolution, are guided by different processes and motivations. Cultural inheritance and the transmission of...
FIFTEEN The Transformation of the Orisha Religious System (pp. 199-208)
The development of the Orisha religion, or at least that complex of religious activities of which it is the focus, has involved the incorporation of selected elements from four additional sources over the course of roughly 150 years. Therefore, any model of such a process needs to consider not only the components being borrowed but also the way in which these components were incorporated into the existing religious system, plus an examination of those factors — ethnicity, historical context, the nature of the borrowed traits, and so on — that influence the borrowing and incorporation process. Let us begin by...
Save
Appendix A A Demographic Estimate of Spiritual Baptists (pp. 211-212)
Appendix B A Demographic Estimate of Orisha Worshipers (pp. 213-214)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)