Efficacy of Sound: Power, Potency, and Promise in the Translocal Ritual Music of Cuban Ifá-Òrìsà

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Ruthie Meadows

Efficacy of Sound

Power, Potency, and Promise in the Translocal Ritual Music of Cuban Ifá-Òrìsà

Ruthie Meadows

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Hardback

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English

University of Chicago Press
07 November 2023

Music; Theory of music & musicology; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Hispanic & Latino studies; Social & cultural anthropology

Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology

The first book-length ethnographic study on music and Ifá divination in Cuba and Nigeria.

Hailing from Cuba, Nigeria, and various sites across Latin America and the Caribbean, Ifá missionary-practitioners are transforming the landscape of Ifá divination and deity (òrìşà/oricha) worship through transatlantic travel and reconnection. In Cuba, where Ifá and Santería emerged as an interrelated, Yorùbá-inspired ritual complex, worshippers are driven to “African Traditionalism” by its promise of efficacy: they find Yorùbá approaches more powerful, potent, and efficacious.

In the first book-length study on music and Ifá, Ruthie Meadows draws on extensive, multi-sited fieldwork in Cuba and Yorùbáland, Nigeria to examine the contentious “Nigerian-style” ritual movement in Cuban Ifá divination. Meadows uses feminist and queer of color theory along with critical studies of Africanity to excavate the relation between utility and affect within translocal ritual music circulations. Meadows traces how translocal Ifá priestesses (Ìyánífá), female batá drummers (bataleras), and priests (babaláwo) harness Yorùbá-centric approaches to ritual music and sound to heighten efficacy, achieve desired ritual outcomes, and reshape the conditions of their lives. Within a contentious religious landscape marked by the idiosyncrasies of Revolutionary state policy, Nigerian-style Ifá-Òrìşà is leveraged to reshape femininity and masculinity, state religious policy, and transatlantic ritual authority on the island.

By: Ruthie Meadows
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 513g
ISBN: 9780226830223
ISBN 10: 0226830225
Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 07 November 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ruthie Meadows is assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Reviews for Efficacy of Sound: Power, Potency, and Promise in the Translocal Ritual Music of Cuban Ifá-Òrìsà

“With this innovative book, Meadows significantly expands our understanding of Afro-Cuban religious music and its ever-changing manifestations. Her exploration of ritual music associated with divination across the island, her focus on transatlantic religious dialogues between Nigeria and Cuba, her emphasis on the contested nature of religious orthodoxy, and her close attention to the struggles of women all represent major contributions to existing scholarship.” * Robin Moore, The University of Texas at Austin * “Meadows’s years of research and solid scholarship shed new light on the fast-moving nigeriano religious movement in Cuba. Her accessible and engaging writing allows diverse kinds of readers to understand a complex phenomenon. This important book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Cuban and Yorùbá music and religion, as well as a vast international readership of òrìṣà devotees and musicians.” * Amanda Villepastour, Cardiff University *