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Lydia Cabrera (May 20, 1899 in Havana, Cuba – September 19, 1991 in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban anthropologist and poet. Cabrera was a Cuban writer and literary activist. She was an authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions. During her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little if any of her work is available in English. Her most important book is ''El Monte'' (Spanish: "The Wilderness"), which was the first major anthropological study of Afro-Cuban traditions. Published in 1954, the book became a "bible" for Santeros who practice Santeria, a blend of Catholic teachings and native African religions that evolved among former African slaves in the Caribbean. She donated her research collection to the library of the University of Miami. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book ''Tres Tigres Tristes'' is written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice. She was one of the first writers to recognize and make public the richness of Afro-Cuban culture. She made valuable contributions in the areas of literature, anthropology, and ethnology. In El Monte, Cabrera fully described the major Afro-Cuban religions: the Regla de Ocha (commonly known as Santeria) and the Ifa’ cult, which are both derived from traditional Yoruba religion; and Palo Monte, which originated in Central Africa. Both the literary and anthropological perspectives on Cabrera’s work assume that she wrote about mainly oral, practical religions with only an “embryonic” written tradition. She is credited by literary critics for having transformed Afro-Cuban oral narratives into literature, which is, written works of art, while anthropologists rely on her accounts of oral information collected during interviews with santeros, babalaos, or paleros, and on her descriptions of religious ceremonies. There is a dialectical relationship between Afro-Cuban religious writing and Cabrera’s work; she used a religious writing tradition that has now internalized her own ethnography. ==Early life and education== Born in Havana in 1899 as the youngest of eight siblings, she comes from a Cuban family of social and financial privilege in pre-revolutionary Cuba. Her father, Raimundo Cabrera, who was a writer, jurist, and lawyer, was a prominent man in society as well as an advocate for Cuba's independence. He was the owner and editor of the Cuban journal, ''Cuba y America''. This news paper involved politics and her father wanted to become independent from Spain. Her mother, Elisa Marcaida Casanova, was a housewife and respected socialite. The family had many Afro-Cuban servants and child caretakers, through whom young Lydia learned about African folklore, stories,tradition,religions, and their mystical world. Her father was also the president of the first Cuban corporation, La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, founded in the eighteenth century. He owned a popular literary journal, ''Cuba y America'', where Lydia got her first experience as a writer. At the age of thirteen, Cabrera wrote a weekly anonymous column that appeared in her father's journal. She covered topics relevant to her specific community, such as wedding announcements, childbirths, or obituaries.〔Rodríguez-Mangual, E. "Introduction," ''Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity''. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004: 7.〕 Like the majority of wealthy Cubans in the early 1900s, private tutors came to the home of the Cabreras to educate the children. For a short period of time, she attended the private school of Maria Luisa Dolz. At that time it was not socially acceptable for a woman to pursue a high school diploma, so Cabrera finished her secondary education on her own.〔Rodríguez-Mangual, E. "Introduction," 8.〕 By 1927 Cabrera found herself wanting to make money on her own and she wanted to become independent of her family. She moved to Paris to study art and religion at L'Ecole du Louvre 〔"Lydia Cabrera," ''Encyclopedia of Cuba: People, history, culture''. Ed. Luis Martinez Fernandez 1st Vol. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003: 321.〕 She studied drawing and painting in Paris with theatrical Russian exile Alexandra Exter. Cabrera lived in Paris for 11 years and returned home in 1938. After graduating from art school, she chose not to become an artist as expected. Instead she chose to move back to Cuba to study Afro-Cuban culture, especially their traditions and folklore.Lydia Cabrera is a creative writer who writes in order to retell the history of Cuba. She worked closely with Fernando Ortiz even though she was younger than him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lydia Cabrera」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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