Overview

Honorable Mention, 2019 Barbara T. Christian Literary Award, given by the Caribbean Studies Association Winner, 2017 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, presented by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion section of the American Anthropological Association Finalist, 2017 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions presented by the Journal of Africana Religions An examination of the religious importance of food among Caribbean and Latin American communities Before honey can be offered to the Afro-Cuban deity Ochún, it must be tasted, to prove to her that it is good. In African-inspired religions throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States, such gestures instill the attitudes that turn participants into practitioners. Acquiring deep knowledge of the diets of the gods and ancestors constructs adherents’ identities; to learn to fix the gods’ favorite dishes is to be “seasoned” into their service. In this innovative work, Elizabeth Pérez reveals how seemingly trivial ""micropractices"" such as the preparation of sacred foods, are complex rituals in their own right. Drawing on years of ethnographic research in Chicago among practitioners of Lucumí, the transnational tradition popularly known as Santería, Pérez focuses on the behind-the-scenes work of the primarily women and gay men responsible for feeding the gods. She reveals how cooking and talking around the kitchen table have played vital socializing roles in Black Atlantic religions. Entering the world of divine desires and the varied flavors that speak to them, this volume takes a fresh approach to the anthropology of religion. Its richly textured portrait of a predominantly African-American Lucumí community reconceptualizes race, gender, sexuality, and affect in the formation of religious identity, proposing that every religion coalesces and sustains itself through its own secret recipe of micropractices.

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9781479839551

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Reviews

A deeply researched, contextually rich and ambitious intervention into the literature on Black Atlantic religions. While most scholars of Santeria and other Black Atlantic traditions have focused on initiation as the paradigmatic site where religious values are inculcated and religious subjects are reborn, Perez directs her attention to a more prosaic and unjustly overlooked setting: the kitchen. By cooking for the orishas, Perez asserts, participants are themselves being cooked; that is, they are being socialized into the complex world of Santeria aesthetics and ethics. In focusing on the informal spaces and behind-the-scenes work so fundamental to the molding of religious subjects and the perpetuation of Black Atlantic religious forms, Perez opens up a whole world. Compelling as an ethnography and theoretically astute, Religion in the Kitchenoffers a thought-provoking analysis of how religious norms are internalized and reproduced. A stunning achievement. -Kelly E. Hayes, author of Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality and Black Magic in Brazil

With clear description and sharp analysis Perez highlights ways in which cooking-and its related activities such as conversation-is the stuff of religious engagement and a symbol of connection between humanity and divinity. Anyone concerned with better understanding how ordinary spaces and practices take on religious significance will value this book. -Anthony Pinn,Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religion, Rice University A deeply researched, contextually rich and ambitious intervention into the literature on Black Atlantic religions. While most scholars of Santeria and other Black Atlantic traditions have focused on initiation as the paradigmatic site where religious values are inculcated and religious subjects are 'reborn,' Perez directs her attention to a more prosaic-and unjustly overlooked-setting: the kitchen. By cooking for the orishas, Perez asserts, participants are themselves being cooked; that is, they are being socialized into the complex world of Santeria aesthetics and ethics. In focusing on the informal spaces and behind-the-scenes work so fundamental to the molding of religious subjects and the perpetuation of Black Atlantic religious forms, Perez opens up a whole world. Compelling as an ethnography and theoretically astute, Religion in the Kitchen offers a thought-provoking analysis of how religious norms are internalized and reproduced. A stunning achievement. -Kelly E. Hayes,author of Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality and Black Magic in Brazil

Author Information

Elizabeth Perez is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is author of Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, & the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions (New York University Press, 2016; winner of the 2017 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, presented by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion section of the American Anthropological Association).

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