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Originally published in 2003, The Light Inside is a ground-breaking study of an Afro-Cuban secret society, its sacred arts, and their role in modern Cuban cultural history.
List of contents
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Part I: "The Light Inside": Abakuá Society Arts and Modern Cuban Cultural History Introduction: Meanings, Methods, and the Cultural Biography of Things Abakuá 2. The Abakuá Society and the African Society Diaspora 3. Abakuá Altar Arts: Ekue, Representation, and the Banner of Regla’s Efori Eñongo 4. Cloth and Signs: West African Ukara and the Iconography of Regla’s Efori Eñongo 5. Altars, Offices, and Multiple Meanings 6. "Symbolic Drums:" Innovations and Inventions 7. The Íremes and Their Sacos Part II: El Nañígo "Graduates" 8. Pictures, Performances, and the Police: Changing Contexts for Costumbrista Arts 9. Struggle over Possession of the Secret: The Museuming of the Nañígos’ "Most Sacred Effects" 10. From Atavism to Modern Primitivism 11. From Primitivism to Folklore 12. We were Teaching How to Ask the Black Man About Very Private Personal Things: Afrocubana, the Triumph of the Revolution, and Socialist Folklore 13: "The Ethnographic Museum" and the Cuban Revolution 14. Conclusion: The Abakuá Society and the National Narrative Notes References Index
About the author
David H. Brown
Summary
Originally published in 2003, The Light Inside is a ground-breaking study of an Afro-Cuban secret society, its sacred arts, and their role in modern Cuban cultural history.
