Afro-Cuban Traditional Music and Transculturation

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How are new musical traditions formed? This is the central question guiding this book on an Afro-Cuban ceremony sometimes called cajon pa’ los mu-er-tos, a spirit-possession ritual that has been developed in Cuba over the past few decades. Cajon ceremonies are deftly sculpted from a wealth of religious influences including Santeria, Palo, Espiritismo, and Catholicism. Grupo Cuero y Cajon, the case study for this book, provide insight into how songs and rhythms are created for these ceremonies while also bringing together older separate traditions into a new whole. This process of transculturation re-quires preservation and innovation but also shows musicians as integral to the creation of religious practices. As the first work in any language to study Cajon ceremonies, this book documents the songs used in the ceremonies and the eclectic drum rhythms that accompany them. This book is geared towards scholars in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, and religious stu-dies, but will also be of interest to the general reader wan-ting to learn more about Afro-American culture. Three CD’s and a DVD to ac-company this book can be found at the author’s website: www.nolanwarden.com.