Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología

Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol | eISSN 2011-4273 | ISSN 1900-5407

“Pregnancy is in the Mind, Not in the Womb”: The Diloggún Oracle and the Awakening of Fertility in Cuban Regla de Ocha

No. 55 (2024-04-15)
  • Angélica María Rivera López
    Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7056-9743
  • Hans Carrillo Guach
    Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5002-3601
https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda55.2024.02

Abstract

Religions are often acknowledged for their ability to provoke social, psychological, and physiological transformation, prompting recurrent studies in social and human sciences. Within this analytical domain, understanding ailments and methods of healing through various practices —rituals, cosmologies, and divinations— has been extensively explored. However, research on female reproductive ailments and corresponding intervention methods remains nascent in certain religious denominations, such as African-derived religions like the Regla de Ocha (Santería) in Cuba. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the healing of female reproductive ailments through the diloggún oracle utilized in the Regla de Ocha. Conducted between December 2022 and January 2023 in Santa Marta, Cárdenas, Cuba, our research adopts an ethnographic and narrative approach, placing reflexivity on our experiences at the forefront of our discussions. The research, from which our arguments derive, was conducted between December 2022 and January 2023 in Santa Marta, Cárdenas, Cuba. Methodologically, it adopts an ethnographic and narrative approach, placing reflexivity on our experiences at the forefront of our discussions. Consequently, it not only delineates the processes inherent in the practice of this oracle and its socio-spiritual impacts concerning potential realms of well-being but also advocates for conceptual and theoretical-methodological enhancements regarding healing. The article contributes to the evolving the incipient understanding of the connections between female fertility and healing within the Regla de Ocha and the intricate relationships among well-being, discomfort, and spirituality intrinsic to this religious system.

Keywords: Afro-diasporic religions, ethnography, female fertility, female reproduction, illness-healing, Cuban Santería

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