Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Faced with a highly industrial society, traditional Cubans, who
began to leave the island for political reasons since 1959, have
experienced repeated social strains under rapid social changes:
strains at the levels of economics, the family, social relationships
and a system of meaning. Cubans have resisted the pressures of
assimilation from a larger, dominant, group by integrating into
American society while re-enacting their traditional worldview. This
integration has established their diversity, their capacity to select
traits that confrom to, and do not clash with, pre-existent traits,
and their need for supportive, 'liminal,' mechanisms of a 'relational'
quality which C&~ aid them move through life crises. LA Santeria,
the worship of African gods as catholic saints, is one of the adaptive
mechanisms used by Cubans in their process of transculturation. This
syncretism of La Santeria provides a mythological worldview that
integrates meaning in the midst of social stress through ritual activity.
began to leave the island for political reasons since 1959, have
experienced repeated social strains under rapid social changes:
strains at the levels of economics, the family, social relationships
and a system of meaning. Cubans have resisted the pressures of
assimilation from a larger, dominant, group by integrating into
American society while re-enacting their traditional worldview. This
integration has established their diversity, their capacity to select
traits that confrom to, and do not clash with, pre-existent traits,
and their need for supportive, 'liminal,' mechanisms of a 'relational'
quality which C&~ aid them move through life crises. LA Santeria,
the worship of African gods as catholic saints, is one of the adaptive
mechanisms used by Cubans in their process of transculturation. This
syncretism of La Santeria provides a mythological worldview that
integrates meaning in the midst of social stress through ritual activity.
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