“A DOG HAS FOUR LEGS BUT WALKS IN ONE DIRECTION:” MULTIPLE RELIGIOUS BELONGING AND ORGANIC AFRICA-INSPIRED RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN ORIENTE CUBA By Shanti Ali Zaid A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies—Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology—Dual Major 2019 ABSTRACT “A DOG HAS FOUR LEGS BUT WALKS IN ONE DIRECTION:” MULTIPLE RELIGIOUS BELONGING AND ORGANIC AFRICA-INSPIRED RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN ORIENTE CUBA By Shanti Ali Zaid If religion is about social cohesion and the coordination of meaning, values, and motivations of a community or society, hoW do communities meaningfully navigate the religious domain in an environment of multiple religious possibilities? Within the range of socio-cultural responses to such conditions, this dissertation empirically explores “multiple religious belonging,” a concept referring to individuals or groups Whose religious identity, commitments, or activities may extend beyond a single coherent religious tradition. The project evaluates expressions of this phenomenon in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba With focused attention on practitioners of Regla Ocha/Ifá, Palo Monte, Espiritismo Cruzado, and Muertería, four organic religious traditions historically evolved from the efforts of African descendants on the island. With concern for identifying patterns, limits, and variety of expression of multiple religious belonging, I employed qualitative research methods to explore hoW distinctions and relationships between religious traditions are articulated, navigated, and practiced. These methods included directed formal and informal personal intervieWs and participant observations of ritual spaces, events, and community gatherings in the four traditions. I demonstrate that religious practitioners in Santiago manage diverse religious options through multiple religious belonging and that practitioners have strategies for expressing their multiple religious belonging. The diverse expressions involve characteristics of centered and un- centered models of multiple religious belonging, as Well as attributes of shared reality and complementarity between religious traditions. The research contributes to a more critical understanding of the complexities of eastern Cuban religious expressions and religious traditions of the African Diaspora. Moreover, the project aims to enhance the conceptual literature around multiple religious belonging With data from the Caribbean island of Cuba. I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of Katherine Barksdale, Robert Gopher, Andriol Stiven Portuondo, Ruth Simms Hamilton, Cedric Robinson, Vincent Harding, and to those Who continue the struggle for inclusive visions of the future. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a great many people Who supported the process of bringing this dissertation into fruition. I am deeply appreciative of my Graduate Guidance Committee members Jualynne E. Dodson, James A. Pritchett, Mindy Morgan, Glenn Anthony Chambers, Jr., and Mara Leichtman for their advising and persistence in helping me finish this project. I am especially indebted to Prof. Dodson, whose encouragement, guidance, and patience over nearly twenty years of committed mentorship made the dissertation possible. The many past and present members of the MSU African Atlantic Research Team also deserve special recognition for supporting and contributing to this project from its infancy. In particular, I Want to acknoWledge Sonya Maria Johnson, Alexandra P. Gelbard, Harry Nii Koney Odamtten, William Escalante, MatheW Pettway, Alyce Emory, and Sheyll White, as Well as the council of Charles H. Long. I deeply value our time our time spent together and the excellence We brought out of each other. Dissertation research Would not have been achievable Without the institutional support of Casa del Caribe and its welcoming and knoWledgeable staff in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. In particular, I am grateful to the director Orlando Vergés Martínez, Madelis Sorio Beatón, Milady, Victor, José Millet, Gladys Reyes, and Abelardo Larduet Luaces. I am also thankful to Juan “Juancho” Martín Portuondo, the Filial de la Associación Yoruba de Santiago de Cuba, Marta Emilia Cordies Jackson and the Centro Cultural Africano Fernando Ortiz, and the many Cuban religious communities Whose members shared their time, perspectives, and trust in support of this research. I greatly appreciate the dedicated fieldWork assistance of Ernesto Camué Marín, v and friendships of Isnay, Omar, Isnaysis, Joel, Neudis, El Tiburón, Adria and family, and many others in the city. The faculty and staff of the African American and African Studies program and the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University Were enormously supportive over many years and provided key funding that enabled this project to progress. I must thank the College of Arts and Letters, College of Social Science, the MSU Graduate School, and the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate Who also provided generous funding for dissertation research. Finally, I Would like to thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their consistent support. To my parents Ali Zaid and Karen Robertson, Forest Cordova, Mae, Vickie, Reise, Kalongi, Syb, Effie, Destavioun, Joevante, Carolyn, Donika, Alicia, Erika, Jimmy, Sylvia, Kit, Nathan, Anthony, Dustin, Josh, Terry, Danielle, as Well as the enduring friendship of Blair Rose Zaid and to my daughter Kiluna, I thank you all for the support and love you offered in your oWn Way. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 AN ILLUSTRATION......................................................................................................... 1 THE DISSERTATION PROJECT........................................................................................ 3 DISSERTATION LAYOUT ................................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 9 PRE-RESEARCH: COLLECTIVE AND REQUIRED ............................................................ 10 Entrée ............................................................................................................. 11 DATA COLLECTION...................................................................................................... 13 INTERVIEWS................................................................................................................ 18 OBSERVATIONS .......................................................................................................... 23 POSITIONALITY ........................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND APPROACHING MULTIPLE RELIGIOUS BELONGING.. 27 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 27 RELIGION AND THE SINGULAR OBJECT OF ANALYSIS................................................. 28 SYNCRETISM AND RELIGIOUS RELATIONSHIPS .......................................................... 29 CUBAN RELIGIOUS LITERATURE ................................................................................. 33 Cuban Literature and Multiple Religious Belonging ....................................... 37 EXPANDING THE MEANING OF RELIGION .................................................................. 40 MULTIPLE RELIGIOUS BELONGING............................................................................. 42 RELIGION IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA........................................................................ 46 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................. 53 CHAPTER 3: CONTEXT OF THE CARIBBEAN AND CUBA: SOCIO-CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL NECESSITIES............................................................................................................................ 55 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 55 FOUNDATIONS ........................................................................................................... 55 CUBAN DEVELOPMENTS............................................................................................. 58 THE DISTINCTION OF ORIENTE ................................................................................... 61 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 4: RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS IN ORIENTE CUBA.................................................. 65 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 65 ETHNIC FORMATION PROCESS................................................................................... 66 African Religio-Cultural Formation Spaces ..................................................... 67 Labor and Housing Spaces.............................................................................. 68 Palenque Spaces............................................................................................. 70 Cabildo