FIERCE FEMININE DIVINITIES OF EURASIA AND LATIN AMERICA: BABA YAGA, KALI, POMBAGIRA AND SANTA MUERTE - MAŁGORZATA OLESZKIEWICZ-PERALBA

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The tradition continues. Two traditions really, first, this one was again printed off surreptitiously at work, both because the library was closed and because this text is reasonably obscure. Secondly, I seem to be on a religious-studies kick, that this book continues. Tho it would be hard to think of a religious book more narrowly focused on my interests. I’ve made a Baba Yaga article of clothing, I have been to the main shrines to Kali and Santa Muerte (in Kolkata and Tepito, respectively) and frequently wear necklaces depicting them. Pombagira is somewhat new to me, though the book seems to think that she is basically a female Exu (a spelling I prefer to Eshu). I appreciate that most of the book seemed to be based on the authors in-person research into these deities. Novel deities, esp a figure like Santa Muerte does not have much up to date scholarship about her (esp. In English) and she’s so new that the way in which she is understood and venerated changes constantly. On the other end, the other suggests that Baba Yaga herself was once a powerful female divinity, perhaps associated with children and/or the forest, but has morphed and transformed over time into merely a monster. I do wonder if something similar will happen to S.M. The Kali section was the shortest and most disappointing. I believe this is because while the other figures are independent from a mainstream religion, either being quite new and officially denounced (Santa Muerte), or being from a marginal syncretic faith practiced by subalterns (Pombagira), or simply being so old the faith they were once a part of no longer exists (Baba Yaga), Kali is still fully within mainstream Hinduism and not marginal at all. I would wager that she is among the 5 most recognizable Hindu figures and there’s literally thousands of years of scholarship on her. It would be too much for the author to tackle that corpus in this single book, I’d only want to read such a thing from a real expert (Wendy Doniger maybe), so Oleszkiewicz-Peralba wisely gets in, highlights what she’s interested in, and gets out. The Latin American stuff, Santa Muerte and Pombagira,is the best part for sure. I’ve written a few things about S. M. and I think about her often and Oleszkiewicz-Peralba gets the closest I think to explaining her appeal and the “why now” aspect of her popularity. Mexico has undergone such a profound change since NAFTA in the 90s and then really kicked into overdrive with the 21st century drug war. And these changes have been insanely violent and rendered life very unstable. You can’t trust the law (corrupt), or the church (ditto), or politicians or even trust the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, things will work out for you. But you can trust Santa Muerte. She doesn’t require you be a good Catholic or do they right thing, all she asks is your devotion. She’s ad hoc and ready to make a deal. This is why attempts to create “official” Santa Muerte churches have largely floundered while a shrine a poor woman put outside of her house in a bad neighborhood is the physical center of the cult. I’ve got a lot to say about this and how it dovetails with the way both Mexico and the world at large have changed in the last 20-30 years but I’ll leave that for another time. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba’s chapter about Pombagira was likewise very interesting, Pombagira is the deity I knew the least about going in. We do learn a lot about her connection with Exu but not as much as I would have liked about Brazilian syncretism and they ways African spirituality is refracted in that part of the New World. But, that is it’s own book. As for this one, I came away impressed with the breath of Oleszkiewicz-Peralba’s curiosity and knowledge. Certainly changed the way I think about some of these goddesses. 101 Death Goddesses