Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santeria to Obeah and Espiritismo

Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santeria to Obeah and Espiritismo. By Margarite Fernandez Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert. Religion, Race, and Ethnicity Series. New York: New York University Press, 2003. x + 262 pp. $19.00 paper.

Creole Religions of the Caribbean is a cross-disciplinary introduction to the sweeping variety of African-based religious traditions and practices that can be found across the Caribbean islands and the United States, as well as the Caribbean diaspora that entails South, Central, and North America. Fernandez Olmos and Paravisni-Gebert seek to identify the characteristics of these vibrant religions and their accompanying practices and to provide an historical background of their formation. They limit their investigation to those religions that are "most pervasive" in the island regions, such as Vodou in Haiti, Santeria/Regla de Ocha in Cuba, Rastafari in Jamaica, and ritual-based healing and harming traditions such as Obeah and Quimbois that are located in the French-speaking West Indies.

Creole religions are syncretic, with sources that derive from diverse religious origins, including European Christianity, indigenous African religions,...