Multiple Religious Belonging among U.S. Orisha Venerators: A Multi-Methodological Examination

• In Event: 341 - Section on Sociology of Religion Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Religion: Methodological Approaches

Abstract

In an effort to expand understanding of religious identification as it is lived in a contemporary pluralist social environment that is increasingly multiple, dynamic, and not always Christian, this paper investigates diverse English-speaking Orisha devotees in the U.S., many of whom were cultural newcomers (adult “converts”) to Lukumi/Santería/Regla de Ocha – of Yoruba origin and Cuban creation. Employing a multi-methodological approach, it draws on three complementary social-scientific methodologies – in-depth interviews, survey, and auto-ethnographic reflection – each with distinct strengths and limitations. Specifically, the paper explores: 1) the extent and nature of multiple religious identification and practice in the samples; 2) how (and whether) participants reconciled their new religious traditions with those in which they were raised, and; 3) how participants’ accounts speak to social scientific understandings of religious identification and practice in contemporary pluralism. Examining three overlapping data sources illustrates some of the complexities of enacting multiple religiosity in contemporary pluralism. Many study participants viewed themselves as holding multiple religious or spiritual practices, and even more continued aspects of former religious identification and practice – in order to respect their ancestors, connect with their families, honor the religious/spiritual path that had led them to the present, or because they still found it relevant in their life, or they felt the religions in which they had been raised had irrevocably shaped their conceptions of the religious. The researcher’s autoethnographic exploration of holding simultaneous Jewish and Lukumi identifications yielded many themes similar to interview accounts, and an important difference.

Author

• C. Lynn Carr, Seton Hall University