African diaspora religions
Template:Short description Template:Pp Template:Traditional African religion African diaspora religions, also described as Afro-American religions, are a number of related beliefs that developed in the Americas in various areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Southern United States. They derive from traditional African religions with some influence from other religious traditions, notably Christianity and Islam.<ref name="MurphyMeltonWard">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="FulopRaboteau">Fulop, Timothy Earl; Raboteau, Albert J., eds. (1997). African American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture Template:Webarchive. London; New York: Routledge. Template:ISBN.</ref>
Characteristics
Afro-American religions share a number of beliefs and practices.<ref> Template:Cite web </ref> Central beliefs include ancestor veneration and include a creator deity along with a pantheon of divine spirits such as the Orisha, Loa, Vodun, Nkisi, and Alusi, among others.<ref name="Woodson">Template:Cite book</ref> In addition to the religious syncretism of these various African traditions, many also incorporate elements of folk Catholicism including folk saints and other forms of folk religion, Native American religion, Spiritism, Spiritualism, Shamanism (sometimes including the use of Entheogens), and European folklore.
Various "doctoring" spiritual traditions also exist such as Obeah and Hoodoo which focus on spiritual health.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> African religious traditions in the Americas can vary. They can have non-prominent African roots or can be almost wholly African in nature, such as religions like Trinidad Orisha.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
African diaspora religions in the present
The nature and composition of the African diaspora have undergone significant changes over time: from the forced migration of African captives of the Old and New Worlds to the voluntary emigration of free, skilled Africans in search of political asylum or economic opportunities; from a diaspora with little contact with the point of origin (Africa) to one that maintains active contact with the mother continent, all culminating in the birth of a unique African who straddles continents, worlds and cultures.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Defining diasporas
There are several conceptual difficulties in defining the African diaspora—indeed, in defining the term diaspora. Contemporary theorizations of the term diaspora tend to be preoccupied with problematizing the relationship between diaspora and nation and the dualities or multiplicities of diasporic identity or subjectivity; they are inclined to be condemnatory or celebratory of transnational mobility and hybridity. In many cases, the term diaspora is used in a fuzzy, ahistorical and uncritical manner in which all manner of movements and migrations between countries and even within countries are included and no adequate attention is paid to the historical conditions and experiences that produce diasporic communities and consciousness—how dispersed populations become self-conscious diaspora communities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
List of religions and spiritual traditions
The Bahamas
Belize
Brazil
Colombia
Cuba
- Arará religion
- Cuban Vodú
- Palo
- Regla de Ocha (aka. Santería)
- Ganga-Longoba
- Espiritismo
Curaçao
Dominican Republic
Grenada
Guatemala (Garifuna)
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Nicaragua
Puerto Rico
- Sansé Espiritismo
Saint Lucia
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
United States
- Hoodoo (a set of traditions)
- Louisiana Voodoo<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Spiritual church movement
- Espiritismo
Venezuela
See also
References
External links
Template:Afro-American Religions Template:African diasporaTemplate:BantuTemplate:Religion topics Template:Authority control