George Brandon | City University of New York (original) (raw)

Papers by George Brandon

Research paper thumbnail of Mary Ann Clark, . Where Men Are Wives and Mothers Rule: Santeria Ritual Practices and Their Gender Implications. History of African‐American Religions. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. 208 pp. $59.95 (cloth)

The Journal of Religion, Jul 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Santería

Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Oct 5, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah.(Landmark Law Cases & American Society.)

The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 2005

The Santeria religion of Cuba - the Way of the Saints - mixes West African Yoruba culture with Ca... more The Santeria religion of Cuba - the Way of the Saints - mixes West African Yoruba culture with Catholicism. Similar to Haitian voodoo, Santeria has long practiced animal sacrifice in certain rites. But when Cuban immigrants brought those rituals to Florida, local authorities were suddenly confronted with a controversial situation of the regulation of public health and morality against religious freedom. After Ernesto Pichardo established a Santeria church in Hialeah in the 1980s, the city of Hialeah responded by passing ordinances banning ritual animal sacrifice. Although on the surface those ordinances seemed general in intent, they were clearly aimed at Pichardo's church. When Pichardo subsequently sued the city, a federal court ruled in the latter's favor, in effect privileging the regulation of public health and morality over the church's free exercise of its religion. The U.S. Supreme Court heard Pichardo's appeal in 1993 and unanimously decided that the city had overstepped its bounds in targeting this particular religious group; however, the court was sharply divided regarding the basis of its decision.

Research paper thumbnail of Santeria from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories

International Journal of African Historical Studies, 1995

This book is an impressive example of the kind of local and transnational studies which, for a de... more This book is an impressive example of the kind of local and transnational studies which, for a decade, have transformed our understanding of power, history, and cultural change in the Afro-Atlantic world. George Brandon's work, written at the intersection of Herskovitsian and constructivist traditions, is significant because it provides a detailed historical analysis of how nineteenth-century Cuban society developed Santeria by blending European Christianity with traditional Yoruba spiritism and Kardecism. (Allan Kardec's spiritism was part of a large-scale European and North American spiritualist movement, whose uniqueness lay in its integration of scientific and progressive theories with Christian teachings.) Brandon conceptualizes the transmission of African practices-first to Cuba, then to New York City-in order to develop a five-phase approach, which generates a sophisticated analysis of cultural change in the African-based practices of the Americas.

Research paper thumbnail of Jamaican Maroons

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba Was Born: Memory, Death, and Rebirth in Yoruba Spirituality

This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memo... more This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memory in Yoruba religion and Santeria. The author presents an adaptation of an important origin myth and comments upon the narrative's significance.

Research paper thumbnail of The Uses of Plants in Healing in an Afro-Cuban Religion, Santeria

Journal of Black Studies

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

Research paper thumbnail of George Gray Brandon Collection

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to

Archives de sciences sociales des religions 117 (janvier- mars 2002) Les religions afro-américain... more Archives de sciences sociales des religions 117 (janvier- mars 2002) Les religions afro-américaines: genèse et développement dans la modernité

Research paper thumbnail of Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. (Landmark Law Cases & American Society.)

American Historial Review Clases I, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba Was Born: Memory, Death, and Rebirth in Yoruba Spirituality

Contours a Journal of the African Diaspora, 2004

This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memo... more This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memory in Yoruba religion and Santeria. The author presents an adaptation of an important origin myth and comments upon the narrative's significance.

Research paper thumbnail of Lucumi Divination, the Mythic World and the Management of Misfortune

Anthropologica, Jul 1, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of African Aesthetics in Nigeria and the Diaspora || The Uses of Plants in Healing in an Afro-Cuban Religion, Santeria

Research paper thumbnail of Santería

Encyclopedia of Black Studies, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of DAVID M. O'BRIEN. Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. (Landmark Law Cases & American Society.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2004. PP. xii, 196. Cloth <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mn>29.95</mn><mo separator="true">,</mo><mi>p</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>p</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>r</mi></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">29.95, paper </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.8389em;vertical-align:-0.1944em;"></span><span class="mord">29.95</span><span class="mpunct">,</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.1667em;"></span><span class="mord mathnormal">p</span><span class="mord mathnormal">a</span><span class="mord mathnormal">p</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">er</span></span></span></span>12.95

The American Historical Review, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba was Born article.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria

Archives De Sciences Sociales Des Religions, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria

Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Abstract C47: Hispanic/Latino lung cancer patients overcoming barriers for accessing cancer care: A qualitative study

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Reflections on Joining the Americas: Project Kalinda and the Three Rhetorics

Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry, 1996

... George Brandon ... On the other hand, some singers, like Big Bill Broonzy, Little Son Jackson... more ... George Brandon ... On the other hand, some singers, like Big Bill Broonzy, Little Son Jackson, JohnLee Hooker, or Sunnyland Slim have features which ... the rhetoric of de-scent that privileges Africa as the ancestral homeland and explicates from that center (see Drake 1975.) This ...

Research paper thumbnail of Mary Ann Clark, . Where Men Are Wives and Mothers Rule: Santeria Ritual Practices and Their Gender Implications. History of African‐American Religions. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. 208 pp. $59.95 (cloth)

The Journal of Religion, Jul 1, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Santería

Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Oct 5, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah.(Landmark Law Cases & American Society.)

The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 2005

The Santeria religion of Cuba - the Way of the Saints - mixes West African Yoruba culture with Ca... more The Santeria religion of Cuba - the Way of the Saints - mixes West African Yoruba culture with Catholicism. Similar to Haitian voodoo, Santeria has long practiced animal sacrifice in certain rites. But when Cuban immigrants brought those rituals to Florida, local authorities were suddenly confronted with a controversial situation of the regulation of public health and morality against religious freedom. After Ernesto Pichardo established a Santeria church in Hialeah in the 1980s, the city of Hialeah responded by passing ordinances banning ritual animal sacrifice. Although on the surface those ordinances seemed general in intent, they were clearly aimed at Pichardo's church. When Pichardo subsequently sued the city, a federal court ruled in the latter's favor, in effect privileging the regulation of public health and morality over the church's free exercise of its religion. The U.S. Supreme Court heard Pichardo's appeal in 1993 and unanimously decided that the city had overstepped its bounds in targeting this particular religious group; however, the court was sharply divided regarding the basis of its decision.

Research paper thumbnail of Santeria from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories

International Journal of African Historical Studies, 1995

This book is an impressive example of the kind of local and transnational studies which, for a de... more This book is an impressive example of the kind of local and transnational studies which, for a decade, have transformed our understanding of power, history, and cultural change in the Afro-Atlantic world. George Brandon's work, written at the intersection of Herskovitsian and constructivist traditions, is significant because it provides a detailed historical analysis of how nineteenth-century Cuban society developed Santeria by blending European Christianity with traditional Yoruba spiritism and Kardecism. (Allan Kardec's spiritism was part of a large-scale European and North American spiritualist movement, whose uniqueness lay in its integration of scientific and progressive theories with Christian teachings.) Brandon conceptualizes the transmission of African practices-first to Cuba, then to New York City-in order to develop a five-phase approach, which generates a sophisticated analysis of cultural change in the African-based practices of the Americas.

Research paper thumbnail of Jamaican Maroons

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba Was Born: Memory, Death, and Rebirth in Yoruba Spirituality

This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memo... more This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memory in Yoruba religion and Santeria. The author presents an adaptation of an important origin myth and comments upon the narrative's significance.

Research paper thumbnail of The Uses of Plants in Healing in an Afro-Cuban Religion, Santeria

Journal of Black Studies

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact

Research paper thumbnail of George Gray Brandon Collection

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to

Archives de sciences sociales des religions 117 (janvier- mars 2002) Les religions afro-américain... more Archives de sciences sociales des religions 117 (janvier- mars 2002) Les religions afro-américaines: genèse et développement dans la modernité

Research paper thumbnail of Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. (Landmark Law Cases & American Society.)

American Historial Review Clases I, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba Was Born: Memory, Death, and Rebirth in Yoruba Spirituality

Contours a Journal of the African Diaspora, 2004

This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memo... more This essay is concerned with the performance of myth and ritual as mechanisms for collective memory in Yoruba religion and Santeria. The author presents an adaptation of an important origin myth and comments upon the narrative's significance.

Research paper thumbnail of Lucumi Divination, the Mythic World and the Management of Misfortune

Anthropologica, Jul 1, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of African Aesthetics in Nigeria and the Diaspora || The Uses of Plants in Healing in an Afro-Cuban Religion, Santeria

Research paper thumbnail of Santería

Encyclopedia of Black Studies, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of DAVID M. O'BRIEN. Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. (Landmark Law Cases & American Society.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2004. PP. xii, 196. Cloth <span class="katex"><span class="katex-mathml"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mn>29.95</mn><mo separator="true">,</mo><mi>p</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>p</mi><mi>e</mi><mi>r</mi></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">29.95, paper </annotation></semantics></math></span><span class="katex-html" aria-hidden="true"><span class="base"><span class="strut" style="height:0.8389em;vertical-align:-0.1944em;"></span><span class="mord">29.95</span><span class="mpunct">,</span><span class="mspace" style="margin-right:0.1667em;"></span><span class="mord mathnormal">p</span><span class="mord mathnormal">a</span><span class="mord mathnormal">p</span><span class="mord mathnormal" style="margin-right:0.02778em;">er</span></span></span></span>12.95

The American Historical Review, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of How Elegba was Born article.pdf

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria

Archives De Sciences Sociales Des Religions, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Hierarchy Without a Head: Observations on Changes in the Social Organization of Some Afroamerican Religions in the United States, 1959-1999 With Special Reference to Santeria

Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Abstract C47: Hispanic/Latino lung cancer patients overcoming barriers for accessing cancer care: A qualitative study

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Reflections on Joining the Americas: Project Kalinda and the Three Rhetorics

Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry, 1996

... George Brandon ... On the other hand, some singers, like Big Bill Broonzy, Little Son Jackson... more ... George Brandon ... On the other hand, some singers, like Big Bill Broonzy, Little Son Jackson, JohnLee Hooker, or Sunnyland Slim have features which ... the rhetoric of de-scent that privileges Africa as the ancestral homeland and explicates from that center (see Drake 1975.) This ...