"There are no saints here!": Symbolic language within Santeria (Understanding spirituality and materiality as sacred space in West-African Orisha cults)

Although Santeria is commonly understood to be a syncretistic combination o f Catholic and West African religious practices, in this article I argue th at West African religious beliefs and practices are integral to the religio n while the Catholic elements are decorative and nonessential. Based on the finding that Santeria altar displays contain few or no statues of Catholic saints or other anthropomorphic figures lies at the center of devotees' un derstanding of spirituality and materiality and the place of the human body in religious practice. Seen through the practices of Santeria, there is no t a natural opposition between the material and the spiritual because the m aterial, both natural and manufactured, forms appropriate sites of the holy . In addition, I suggest that the Spanish terms santo, santero, and Santeri a itself reflect and translate Yoruba terms and concepts rather than primar ily serving to camouflage the religion.