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Date: 13 Aug 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Subject: Re: The Matamoros Affair (was Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of Santeria?...)
Message-ID: <20000813025055.15744.00000807@ng-cj1.aol.com>
References: <3995FFD1.492F@luckymojo.com>
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Subject: Re: The Matamoros Affair (was Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of
>Santeria?...)
>From: catherine yronwode cat@luckymojo.com
>Date: 8/12/00 8:48 PM EST
>Message-id: <3995FFD1.492F@luckymojo.com>
>
(( cuts ))
>Yes, i understand your point that *Cuban* Santeria and Palo Mayombe do
>not engage human sacrifice. But, respectfully, i think that Constanzo
>was applying to what he believed was a "purer" or more "historically
>correct" form of Afican traditional religion. To put it in a neutral
>context, if that is permissible, he was a radical restorationist,
>
No. Human sacrifice in traditional African religion is/was permissible in
certain contexts. In impermissible contexts, it is sorcery, not religion. What
Constanzo practiced was sorcery. See a companion post which elaborates on the
context in which human sacrifice was permissible. The key condition, not met by
Constanzo, was that the victims had to volunteer. Failing that, you have
murder, not sacrifice.
>I agree. I did not bother to quote much from Provost's book about Adolfo
>Constanzo's mother, Aurora Constanzo, but it seems that interviews with
>her neighbors and associates revealed that she was considered to be a
>"black witch" or practitioner of malevolent magic and was feared. She
>was, like her son, a petty criminal, as well. It is not known whether
>she ever practiced human sacrifice (she would not admit to such a thing,
>if she did, which is unlikely), but she did sacrifice goats, chickens
>and the like.
So the son, like the mother, was a sorcerer.
(( cuts ))
>Yes, you certainly have -- and i agree that your statement that Cuban
>Santeria and Cuban Palo Mayombe do not include human sacrifice was worth
>clarifying. No one is contesting that Constanzo was abberrent; i think
>we all agree on that!
Constanzo was not merely aberrant, he was a sorcerer!
>cat yronwode
>
Peace,
Grisso
"... an offering of ... unassailable inner peace... is superior to the [ase] of
blood..." -- Ra Un Nefer Amen
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