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Rating: 
Summary: An example of superior scholarship
Review: Divine Utterances explores the enduring musical power of Afro-Cuban religious music and the process by which it has been transformed and "folklorized." This process has decontextualized religious musical forms-drum rhythms, song melodies, lyrics, dance steps and gestures-from their original ritual contexts and recontextualized them as "folklore" in public spectacles and arts schools for consumption by tourists, students, and others. Hagedorn presents little-known material based on her own recent research. While there are a few books on Afro-Cuban sacred musical traditions, no author has tried to explore the folklorization process in Cuba. Hagedorn does a marvelous job detailing the transformation of Afro-Cuban performance from the sacred to the folkloric, and she grounds her analysis in important and original ways. First, Hagedorn beautifully inscribes herself into the ethnography without becoming self-involved. With great subtlety and occasional irony, she details how she learned what she knows about these traditions. By including herself in the text, she provides the reader with a very clear sense of all the social relationships that she started and nurtured to make her research possible. Similarly, she inscribes her drum teacher, a renowned drummer in both sacred and folkloric context, into the text. Even in her representations of her interview materials, she makes clear the role of intersubjectivity in the unique moment of "field work." This strategy of representing the reality of fieldwork connects this work to important trends in feminist and phenomenological anthropology that stress the process of producing ethnography. By connecting her narrative so clearly to her own experience and the lives of people she knows in Cuba, the book beautifully depicts her evolving relationship with-and understanding of-Afro-Cuban music, various musicians and scholars, the Cuban Revolution, and the Afro-Cuban beliefs. The book also addresses some important theoretical issues. While clearly based in a great deal of ethnographic data, the book focuses at times on unusual or "inappropriate" performances. With great detail, Hagedorn explores two similarly odd events: a moon-walking dancer at a religious drumming ritual and a spirit possession at a folkloric spectacle. Recent work in ethnomusicology, performance studies, and cultural anthropology has focused on the social risks that performers take and implications of failed performances. Similarly, much has been learned by exploring "failed" performances such as the ones Hagedorn explores. The juxtaposition of two failed performances allows her to detail social reactions at real events and then explicate the norms of behavior in these different genres. The norms of performance take on special importance in this analysis precisely because the book documents the cultural and social processes that have given birth to a new genre of performance. Since the ethnography of communication (in language, ritual, music, etc.) stresses the processes of communication, much recent research has focused on how genre can be better understood as a set of expectations shared by performers and audience members. Through various performances, both successful and failed, Divine Utterances documents with great acumen the negotiations that go on as a new genre emerges. Divine Utterances presents little-known material in important and original ways and it addresses theoretical concerns resonant in ethnomusicology, performance studies, and anthropology. Hagedorn has created a unique example of superior scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: Important, provocative, insightful performance ethnography
Review: Divine Utterances is an important and provocative study of culture, religion, and race in Cuba that is also a great read. Anyone interested in Afro-Cuban Santería and in batá drumming should definitely buy this book and its accompanying CD. The insights and inside information about these subjects cannot be found elsewhere. Hagedorn's work should also be read for its lucid analysis of the politics of sacred and secular performance in contemporary Cuba. An excellent model of modern-day ethnography, the author does not hide behind a voice of disembodied, impersonal authority over some distanced "other," but instead deftly interweaves tales of her personal experience as an apprentice batá drummer and Santería practitioner with clear expositions of religious and folkloric practices from the nineteenth century to the present. The result is a deeply layered, one-of-a-kind analysis of cultural and gender politics with broad-ranging implications for performance ethnography.
Rating:
Summary: An example of superior scholarship
Review: I read as much as I can about the religion of Lucumi/santeria because I believe it has much to offer. Its music is deeply healing, and the understanding of what the orishas can do for their children in this world is comforting. I am also an "omo añá" (a drummer who is initiated to play for rituals). I have been to Havana five times.
I bought this book expecting to learn something about the music and Cuban people. However, I am afraid the title of this book may mislead people into buying it for its information.
This book by Katherine J Hagedorn is not a book about the religion. It is a way for her to drop names of musicians she knows and friends of hers--and present her own views of the way these people perceive their religion. I was upset by the book because I am afraid that people may be misled into thinking the book is valuable when in fact it is just about Hagedorn.
If you want to know more about this author and her strange ways of incorporating someone else's religion into her academic career, buy this book. If you want to learn about the religion and the Cubans who practice the religion of their ancestors, buy a book by Raul Canizares or Joseph M. Murphy. If you want to know about the music, it is more instructive to buy Robin Moore's book "Nationalizing Blackness"--you will learn more about the history and people without wasting your time with someone trying to impress you with her name-dropping.
The publisher should release the CD without the book, because the CD is the only valuable part. The musicians are playing the music with a lot of "bomba" (heart) and it's too bad this author doesn't discuss the music in any context except to talk about herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Who is this book about?
Review: I read as much as I can about the religion of Lucumi/santeria because I believe it has much to offer. Its music is deeply healing, and the understanding of what the orishas can do for their children in this world is comforting. I am also an "omo añá" (a drummer who is initiated to play for rituals). I have been to Havana five times.
I bought this book expecting to learn something about the music and Cuban people. However, I am afraid the title of this book may mislead people into buying it for its information.
This book by Katherine J Hagedorn is not a book about the religion. It is a way for her to drop names of musicians she knows and friends of hers--and present her own views of the way these people perceive their religion. I was upset by the book because I am afraid that people may be misled into thinking the book is valuable when in fact it is just about Hagedorn.
If you want to know more about this author and her strange ways of incorporating someone else's religion into her academic career, buy this book. If you want to learn about the religion and the Cubans who practice the religion of their ancestors, buy a book by Raul Canizares or Joseph M. Murphy. If you want to know about the music, it is more instructive to buy Robin Moore's book "Nationalizing Blackness"--you will learn more about the history and people without wasting your time with someone trying to impress you with her name-dropping.
The publisher should release the CD without the book, because the CD is the only valuable part. The musicians are playing the music with a lot of "bomba" (heart) and it's too bad this author doesn't discuss the music in any context except to talk about herself.
Rating: 
Summary: the new ethnography?
Review: I sincerely hope this is not the new wave in ethnography. This book is a poor piece of self-indulgence, and disrepectful of the Afro-Cuban traditions that the author is apparently using to make a career.
Rating:
Summary: Not superb
Review: I'm sorry to say that I bought this book after reading that it was supposed to be "superb." Instead, I was disappointed in the lack of depth in discussing the political situation between the religious contexts and their staged touristic performances. The issue of race is very gently treated--as if blackness, authentic Afro-Cuban practice and performance is not a serious issue in religious presentations. I felt that there was a mediocre of discussion of the all-important US dollar as a motivating source for the often incomplete and inaccurate renditions of Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies to which tourists have access.
Tourism is a widely studied topic right now, for example, Kirschenblatt-Gimblett has done amazing work on the topic of museums and tourism, and this book doesn't convince me that the author has read or understands the deeply intersecting areas of economy/tourism/voyeurism/performance studies/cultural theory and race.
Instead, I can recommend Robin Moore's book on the history of blackness and the political struggles involved in race relations and feel that Moore's book, although it sidesteps religion and the production of religion in Cuba, also gives a badly-needed history of the racism and production of black culture in Cuba from the US occupation until the present day embargo. This book by Hagedorn, while being personally reflective, doesn't problematize race or the economics of these musicians in a way that highlights the history of race relations/blackness or the present political situation.
The book Afro-Cuban Voices also I would recommend as "superb," as it is a compilation of actual interviews with Cubans who struggle to define their race inside the present socialist society and in light of the revolution and US cultural imperialism.
I'm sorry to see that the scholarship of music in Cuba is so superficially related to the actual everyday struggles of the people. There is so much good work now being done on tourism (especially in South Asian contexts) that to disregard these authors and their contributions is a disservice to the study of Caribbean contexts and tourism.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely disappointing
Review: It is hard to express how disappointed I was with Divine Utterances. To reiterate a previous review: lets hope that this is not the future of ethnography. The personal slant to the writing, along with seemingly pointless flowering and embellishing was quite embarassing to read. Hagedorn comes off as being very self-centered. I read this is in a seminar, and unfortunately, all anyone wanted to speak on was the confusing writing style. The content of the book was lost in the presentation. I would not recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about Santeria or Afro-Cuban culture. I would perhaps recommend it if you are studying folkorization, or performance and wanted a supplementary reference.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely disappointing
Review: It is hard to express how disappointed I was with Divine Utterances. To reiterate a previous review: lets hope that this is not the future of ethnography. The personal slant to the writing, along with seemingly pointless flowering and embellishing was quite embarassing to read. Hagedorn comes off as being very self-centered. I read this is in a seminar, and unfortunately, all anyone wanted to speak on was the confusing writing style. The content of the book was lost in the presentation. I would not recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about Santeria or Afro-Cuban culture. I would perhaps recommend it if you are studying folkorization, or performance and wanted a supplementary reference.
Rating:
Summary: Ritual, Rhythm, and Tradition in Cuban Santeria
Review: Review of
"Divine Utterances: The Transformation of
Memory in Afro-Cuban Performance This is an exceptionally well-researched and well-argued monograph. The author examines the complex relationship between the ritual ceremonies, rhythms, and possession performances of the Afro-Cuban Santería religion and the theatrical performance of Santería ceremonies, music, and possession by way of the state sponsored Conjunto Folklorico Nacional and other theatrical troupes.
. The book is a highly original work in which the authors visit a "busy intersection" where the webs that both unite and separate "authentic" sacred performance and theatrical representations of Santería are dissected against the background of two other dualities: the centuries long dialectic between race relations and Afro-Cuban religious practice in the island, and the seemingly antithetical policy of an officially religion-unfriendly socialist government that relies on the Santería religion as a means to attract capitalist tourist dollars to the island. Hagedorn's book constitutes an in-depth study of the Santeria religion. At the same times it presents an analysis of how two types of performances, one grounded on everyday religious practice, the other a theatrical representation of those religious practices, are connected, disconnected, and mutually inform each other. As the author describes, this situation gives rise to a wide variety of paradoxical occurrences. For example, while one would assume the theatrical, non-sacred, representations of Santería themes would be the locus and focus of tourist interest, it turns out that tourists appear to be just, or even more interested, in watching and participating in genuine, non-theatrical, Santeria rituals. On the other hand, while the theatrical representations are not supposed to be "real," sometimes local Santeria believers in attendance at stylized performances geared to tourists become possessed by the deities of Santeria, much as they might have in a genuine ritual. Distinguishing everyday popular Santeria drumming and dancing from stylized theatrical presentations of it, is not a simple matter. More often than not the musicians, dancers and other participants in the Folklorico shows are themselves leading active believers and musicians of the Santeria religion. Religious practicioners take an active role in the construction of the theatrical presentations which are supposed to be as "real" as possible. In this sense the Cuban Folklorico differs from other similar ensembles (e.g. Mexico's famed Conjunto Folklorico) in which there is little, if any connection between troupe members and traditional practitioners of various cultures represented dances and rituals. One of the most impressive aspects of this book is the way in which the author presents her findings. The manuscript is written in a way that allows the reader to accompany the author in the voyage of discovery. Rather than presenting us with the "data" obtained in painstaking field work, we follow her as the data is obtained, observe her initial situation as an outsider looking in, and are witnesses to her slow becoming of an insider. The book is accompanied by a CD which is very much part of the story. The music in the accompanying CD is compelling and carefully selected to illustrate points made in the text. There are also numerous photographs that cover the main themes, persons, venues and instruments discussed in the manuscript. Each chapter is framed by short personal narratives which the author uses to communicate relevant information about Santeria religious practices and the author's own relation to them. On the whole the manuscript is an impressive production of the highest research as well as literary value, with excellent aural and visual aids. I believe this work will stand out as the most thorough exploration of Santeria music performance, both religious and theatrical, in academic literature. Studies in English do not have either the scope, i.e. brief essays by Duany, Mason and a few others; or the the depth, e.g. the otherwise excellent work by Cornelius, of Hagedorn's book. Her work essentially continues in terms of scope, detail and analytical value the foundational work done in Cuba before l950 by Fernando Ortiz and Rómulo Lachatañeré.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic ethnography with a difference
Review: This work is one of the most remarkable works about the relationship between music , religious practice, public performance, tourist spectacle, and experimental ethnography in recent years. Hagedorn probes her own relationship to sacred and secular performance while also being supremely informed about ritual significance and historical agency. She is one of the few scholars able to articulate the subtlety of rhythmic variations and their power in the sacred and secular spheres. Beyond her remarkable depth of knowledge regarding Santerià and the manner in which rhythm informs religious practice and its folkloricization, there is a sense of meaning beyond the specialty knowledge that she brings to bear related to her experience in this markedly "male" world. Inadventently, Hagedorn transforms this typically left-wing North American counter-cultural male reserve and respectfully gives the process of ritual and folkloricization an unparallel poetic writerly voice commensurate with the power of the experience itself. A work of art.
The CD that accompanies the book is an integral part of the book with original recordings with Alberto Villaréal and his group.
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