Anthropology

Santeria in Cuba

Santeria began in Cuba as a mixture of the Western African Yoruba Religion and Iberian Catholicism. It is one of the numerous syncretic religions created by Africans brought to the Caribbean islands as slaves. It was developed out of need for the African slaves in order to carry on practicing their native religion in the New World. As in all nations where the African slaves were taken, Cuban slave masters dampened and sometimes banned the practice of their native religions. The slaves in Cuba were required to follow the practices of the Catholic Church, which went against the beliefs of their native religions. Noticing the similarities between their native religion and Catholicism, and in order to please their slave-masters and accomplish their own religious needs, they fashioned a secret religion. Santeria utilizes Catholic saints and personages as facades for their own god and Orishas or spiritual...
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