Word: rituals
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Middle East. 472 Mass Ave., Cambridge. 354-5434. Shadow Project, Holy Cox, Pax Romana and Noisgate on Thursday, Oct. 22. Stompbox, Grind, Whitey, Chevy S10 and Mother of God on Friday, Oct. 23. Heavily Medicated Fairytales, Comedy Troupe in the tradition of Saturday Night Live, Curious Ritual and Spiral Drone on Saturday...
...joined for her initiation ritual by several white-robed men and women. On the floor are vessels made of china and wood containing smooth stones in which the spirits of the gods reside. A priest named Jorge leads in a goat from the garage. The animal moves reluctantly, like a stubborn dog. As the chanting congregation beseeches the deity Chango to accept the animal, a santero, or priest, holds the animal's head firmly, stretching the neck with one hand. With a sharp knife he easily slices through the carotid artery. The animal struggles feebly. Seconds later, the goat...
...believers in Santeria, ritual sacrifices are essential to winning the favor of the gods and initiating new members into the priesthood. To animal- rights activists, they are gratuitous carnage. In Los Angeles and in Hialeah, Florida, where Santeria is spreading quickly through the Latin, Caribbean and African-American communities, the activists have pressed for laws prohibiting sacrifices. It now falls to the Supreme Court to decide whether those laws violate the Constitution's protection of "free exercise" of religion...
...practices at issue are as ancient as Cain and Abel. Animal sacrifice was central to Judaism until the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed 19 centuries ago, continues as an annual ritual performed by all Muslims, and has been a part of African animistic religions as far back as records exist. Santeria's spiritual roots reach back 4,000 years to the Yoruba tribe in southern Nigeria. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the slave communities of Cuba blended worship of Roman Catholic saints with their ancient African rites...
...years the government had to prove that it had a "compelling interest" in order to limit religious liberty. That was the basis for outlawing Mormon polygyny and Pentecostal snake-handling. But in a significant 1990 decision holding that Native Americans have no constitutional right to ritual use of peyote, the Supreme Court gave government more leeway to restrict religious practices. A proposed bill to restore the "compelling interest" test has not reached the floor of Congress, but another attempt will be made next year...