Finding the Written in Unexpected Places

Abstract

This study describes the use of literacy-including the written word-in the maintenance and practice of Lukumí, a Diasporic African spiritual tradition. While Lukumí is decidedly orally transmitted, the written word is still a critical part of its contemporary practice. Relying on data collected during participant observation of ceremonies and rituals, semistructured interviews and focus groups, the study reveals the ways in which orality, material culture, and the written word exist within a communicative continuum critical to Lukumí devotion and practice.In the back of a room full of people, a group of women with varying skin colors and accents engage in conspiratorial whispers occasionally punctuated by laughter that seems to come from places other than themselves. The