About this Book

In 1992 Smithsonian anthropologist Michael Atwood Mason traveled to Cuba for initiation as a priest into the Santer'a religion. Since then he has created an active oricha house and has initiated five others as priests. He is a rare combination: a scholar-practitioner who is equally fluent in his profession and his religion. Interweaving his roles as researcher and priest, he explores Santer'a as a contemporary phenomenon and offers an understanding of its complexity through his own experiences and those of its many practitioners.