Trans* Atlantic Religion

Abstract

Abstract This article is about spirit possession in Cuban Santería and how the relationship between an orisha and their devotee reveals an unstable gender identity that avails itself to trans* studies. Taking an ethnographic scene from the work of Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, wherein a female devotee named Belkis is possessed by her male orisha Changó, this article argues that Santería offers a genderqueer way of understanding the relationship between gods and humans. It makes use of Jack Halberstam's differentiation between “trans*” and “trans,” in which the former allows for myriad gender identities and contradictions that the stability of “trans” might otherwise seek to concretize. The modification of “transatlantic” to “trans* Atlantic” allows for a consideration of the fluidity of genders and sexuality that is often missed in black Atlantic studies and highlights the important role of religion in gender and black Atlantic studies.

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