Paper short abstract:

Palo monte is an Afro-Cuban religion whose practice is organized by the nganga, a cauldron hosting the spirit of a dead. By describing and analyzing the formulating process of this object-god this paper will reveal some of the reasoning that governs palo monte’s religious practice.

Paper long abstract:

Palo monte is an Afro-Cuban religion of Bantu origin. One of the prominent features of its ritual practice is that the spirits of the dead interfere with human action. Believing in their ability to influence human matters, the priest of palo monte, the palero, seeks to establish a relationship with these spirits and eventually make an alliance with them. To that effect, the worshipper has to go to the cemetery, trace an abandoned tomb and seal a pact with the spirit of the dead resting there. He unearths the body and takes parts of its skeleton. He then brings them to his domestic sanctuary and introduces them in a cauldron, la nganga. This installation reassigns a body to the spirit and enables it to retrieve some attributes distinctive of life: warmth, growth, need, pleasure, desire. This paper, by giving prominence to the nganga's materiality will attempt to shed a new light on this object, relegated until now by the scientific literature to the status of a mere artefact. By describing and analyzing the set of operations leading to the composition of a nganga, this paper will reveal some of the reasoning that governs palo monte's religious practice and will show that this composition is about giving life and shape to a god.