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Afro-Caribbean Religions: An Introduction to their Historical, Cultural, and Sacred Traditions. Nathaniel Samuel Murrell. Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 2009. viii + 431 pp. (Paper US$ 39.95)
I was well into my research on the Orisha religion in Trinidad before I realized that a close examination of the history of the island, particularly the impact of colonialism on the imported Africans and their religious culture, would be necessary if I were to truly understand this transplanted African religion. In fact, one could argue that the "context of contact" was the most important factor determining the nature and form of this complex, syncretic religion. Nathaniel Samuel Murrell has taken this approach in his authoritative and highly readable Afro-Caribbean Religions and has applied it to virtually all of the major African-derived religions in the Caribbean culture area. For example, he admirably and thoroughly guides readers through the tumultuous and violent colonial period in Haiti that was so influential in the formation of the "hot" or Petwo tradition; the morphing of African ethnic nations into the Catholic-based cabildos in Cuba that played such an important role in the perpetuation of African religious beliefs and practices associated with the Santería tradition on that island; the tenacious, Afrocentric "black resistance" to colonialism in Jamaica that produced a variety of African-derived religious groups and practices, e.g., Myal, Obeah, and Kumina; and the postemancipation immigration of Africans into Trinidad after a relatively...