Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance

Performing the Entangled Histories of Cuba and West Africa

Jill Flanders Crosby, JT Torres

• Publisher: University of Florida Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781683403531, 9781683402060
• eBook ISBN: 9781683403791
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

Using storytelling and performance to explore shared religious expression across continents

Through a revolutionary ethnographic approach that foregrounds storytelling and performance as alternative means of knowledge, Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance explores shared ritual traditions between the Anlo-Ewe people of West Africa and their descendants, the Arará of Cuba, who were brought to the island in the transatlantic slave trade.

The volume draws on two decades of research in four communities: Dzodze, Ghana; Adjodogou, Togo; and Perico and Agramonte, Cuba. In the ceremonies, oral narratives, and daily lives of individuals at each fieldsite, the authors not only identify shared attributes in religious expression across continents, but also reveal lasting emotional, spiritual, and personal impacts in the communities whose ancestors were ripped from their homeland and enslaved. The authors layer historiographic data, interviews, and fieldnotes with artistic modes such as true fiction, memoir, and choreographed narrative, challenging the conventional nature of scholarship with insights gained from sensorial experience.

Including reflections on the making of an art installation based on this research project, the volume challenges readers to imagine the potential of approaching fieldwork as artists. The authors argue that creative methods can convey truths deeper than facts, pointing to new possibilities for collaboration between scientists and artists with relevance to any discipline.

Publication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Note on Spellings
• Note on Authorship
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Unfolding Layers
• Part 1. Situated Narratives, Embodied Memories: Living Oral Histories
• Part 2. Secrets Under the Skin: Sensing the Moment at the Intersection of Art and Research
• Conclusion: Participating in Metaculture
• Afterword
• Appendix A. Cast of Characters and Family Trees
• Appendix B. Maps and Legends for Perico and Agramonte
• Appendix C. Select Arará Chants/Cantos as Currently Sung by Lazarita Angarica Santuiste in Perico, Cuba
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index