Mapping Yoruba Networks: Power and Agency in the Making of Transnational Communities

Rating:
Summary: Successfully portrays the complexity of her subject matter
Review: This important and innovative study charts ways in which race, religion, and gender take on new forms and new meanings in contemporary Yoruba religious networks. The author also explores the roles of institutions -- historical, legal, and religious -- in shaping Yoruba ritual practices in the New World. Clarke's initial fieldwork experience was at a Yoruba temple in Bronx, New York City, but most of her major findings derive from fifteen months of participant-observation at Oyotunji Village in Beaufort, South Carolina. Chapter two -- based on personal observations while traveling to Nigeria with some Oyotunji Villagers -- is especially noteworthy because it highlights problems that arise when African Americans attempt to identify themselves as culturally "African." Chapter five -- based on observation of over one hundred spiritual divinations -- is also noteworthy. Clarke concludes her study by suggesting that the internationalization of Yoruba practice makes it necessary for researchers to give greater attention to larger forces that shape local domains. Her detailed descriptions of New World Yoruba ritual are engagingly written, accurate, and highly accessible. She successfully portrays the complexity and multiplicity of her subject matter. Recommended. Stephen D. Glazier, University of Nebraska