Nontranscendental Transnationalism

Abstract

In the United States the Afro-Caribbean religion Santería summons images of witchcraft, animal sacrifice, and ritual possession, all enveloped in an exotic sheen. Santería, like other racialized religions and spiritual practices, is often neglected by the theological and theoretical engagements embedded in “world religions,” whose transnational appeal is attributed to their capacity for transcendental—and therefore universal—truths. Aisha M. Beliso–De Jesús’s Electric Santería counters these assumptions by insisting that Santería’s transnational worlds enrich scholarly understandings of religious practice and mediation.