Abstract
The global processes of urban homogenization and loss of identities have been the topic of several studies that are increasingly interested on its multiple dimensions (economic, environmental, social, cultural, aesthetic and others). The concept “deterritorialization of metropolis,” developed by Italian architect Alberto Magnaghi (2011), is remarkable because of its multidisciplinary focus. He defines the phenomenon as a “metropolis form” against the autochthonous territorial values and traditional cultures. Urban theorists have begun to accept the processes of deterritorialization are a consequence of the westernization which is why the ongoing discussion about “territorial coloniality” is the second starting point for this essay. This approach explains that the deterritorialized praxis obeys the hegemony of the epistemic model displayed by Western thought in the modern/colonial world system. This holistic perspective permits a better understanding of the hierarchies existing in the production of human spaces as cultural phenomena. Thus, it is necessary to produce a “decolonial turn” in the urban praxis; it means to valorize the nonwestern epistemologies. We explore the relationship of the current deterritorialization in architecture, urbanism and spatial planning with the “disenchantment of the world” and analyze the possibility for alternatives based on the spiritualities of resistance. We focus on the role of “Santeria” or “Regla de Osha-Ifá” for the cultural identity in the municipality of Regla in Havana, Cuba. We describe a relationship between some “use-perception-transformation processes” related to certain rituals and some components of the human environment. It contains a brief introduction to the Cuban transculturation process and Afro-Cuban religions. We conclude that the spatial necessities of the santeros and santeras may become starting points for architectural, urban and territorial projects.
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Notes
- 1.
“…an urban structure with a strongly dissipative and entropic nature; with no physical boundaries or limits to growth; strongly destabilizing and hierarchical; homogenizer of the territory it occupies; ecocatastrophic; devaluing of the individual qualities of places, deprived of aesthetic quality, and reductionist in to models of life” (Magnaghi 1989).
- 2.
The use of “religion” will avoid misunderstandings, but the term should demand a discussion because it is a modern atheist classification applied to non-scientific knowledge. Speaking about “cosmologies” or “philosophies” seems to be more useful and productive.
- 3.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, this essay will use the term architecture as a generic word to refer to spaces created by humans independently of it scales (interior spaces, architectural spaces, urban spaces, territorial spaces, etc.).
- 4.
Other syncretic creeds are: (1) Regla Congo or Mayombe, as well known as “Palo Monte”; (2) Regla Arará; and (3) Abakuá Secret Society. The “abakuá” or “ñáñigos” (men practicing this last religion) found their work on the worship to their ancestors and what they did, while consist of an association for mutual help similar to masonry (see Fernández 2001).
- 5.
Cacicazgo is a territory governed by a cacique, the leader of each indigenous community in pre-Columbian Caribbean.
- 6.
It is an association of Africans from the same ethnicity and their descendants that was permitted by colonialists. It was considered it as a space for festive meetings, although it was a religious-mutualist association (see Bolivar 1990).
- 7.
“Blacks of nations” is a term referring to slaves from ancient African nations or territories.
- 8.
Interview to a Babalawo at Regla done by Avello (2006).
- 9.
It is important to underline that the four corner of any space (room, house, blocks, square … etc.) are important because cardinal points are tenets of all religious activities.
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Acknowledgment
The authors extend their sincerest thanks to the anthropologist Ernesto Valdés Jane, Director of “Proyecto Orunmila” (www.proyecto-orunmila.org), who advised the previous fieldwork done by Yulier Avello in the municipality of Regla, which is one of the origins of the present paper. Similarly thanks to architect Libertad Rodriguez Otero, from the “Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana” for her photographs.
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Farrés, Y., Matarán, A., Avello, Y. (2015). Deterritorialization in Havana: Is There an Alternative Based on Santeria?. In: Brunn, S. (eds) The Changing World Religion Map. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_95
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