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Caribbean
Currents
www.ebook3000.com
 Caribbean
Currents

Caribbean
Music
from
Rumba to
Reggae

Third Edition

Peter Manuel
with Michael Largey

temple university pr ess

Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress

Copyright © 2016 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System

of Higher Education
All rights reserved
Published 2016

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Manuel, Peter, 1952– | Largey, Michael D., 1959–
Title: Caribbean currents : Caribbean music from rumba to reggae / Peter
Manuel with Michael Largey.
Description: Third edition. | Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2016 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016004942| ISBN 9781439913994 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781439914007 (paper : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781439914014 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Music—West Indies—History and criticism. | Music—Caribbean Area—
History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML3565 .M36 2016 | DDC 780.9729—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016004942

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992

Printed in the United States of America

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.ebook3000.com
 ■ To my students

who have always been my best teachers

www.ebook3000.com
 Contents

Note on the Accompanying Online Videos xi

Preface to the Third Edition xiii
The Caribbean at a Glance (Country, Capital, Estimated
2015 Country Population) xvii

1 ■ Introduction: The Caribbean Crucible 1

The Amerindian Heritage 3

The African Heritage 6
Patterns of Musical Retention 11
The European Heritage 13
Creolization 16
Further Reading 19

2 ■ Cuba 20

An Evening in Havana, 2014 20

The Cuban Crucible 22
African-Derived Musics 23
Rumba 29
Music in Santiago de Cuba 32
European-Derived Musics 35
The Son and Modern Cuban Dance Music 43
viii ■ Contents

“Socialism with Pachanga”? 54

The “Special Period” and Its Special Music 59
Miami Comes Alive 65
Further Reading 65

3 ■ Puerto Rico 67

Puerto Rico and Cuba: “The Two Wings of the Same Bird” 68
European-Derived Musics 70
The Fiesta Patronal de Santiago Apóstol at Loíza Aldea 76
Plena and Bomba in the Dancehall 80
Music and the Puerto Rican Diaspora 83
Music and Island Identity under “Colonialism Lite” 88
Further Reading 90

4 ■ Salsa, Reggaeton, and Beyond 91

The Son Sires a Son 91

Ruben Blades: The Cutting Edge 100
Style and Structure 104
Salsa Lite? 106
The New Millennium: Holding Pattern or Death Spiral? 108
Salsa Dance, from On-1 to On-2 110
Reggaeton 113
Nueva Canción 115
Further Reading 116

5 ■ The Dominican Republic 117

The African Heritage in a Creole Culture 118

Merengue Típico and the Creole Mainstream 123
The Merengue as National Symbol 125
The Modern Merengue 127
The Merengue Explosion 131
Merengue Style and Dance 134

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 Contents  ■ ix

Bachata: From the Rural Tavern to the Global Nightclub 136

Juan Luis Guerra 139
Further Reading 141

6 ■ Haiti and the French Caribbean 142

Music in the Streets of Port-au-Prince 142

Haitian Cultural Crossroads 144
Creolization in Haiti: Language 146
Creolization in Haiti: Religion 148
Carnival and Rara 152
Mizik Twoubadou 157
Haitian Dance Music 158
Politics and the Haitian Diaspora 163
Contemporary Haitian Popular Music 166
Mizik Rasin, Rap, and Ragga 168
Music in the Lesser Antilles: Martinique, Guadeloupe,
Dominica, and St. Lucia 172
Further Reading 179

7 ■ Jamaica 180

African Traditions in a Difficult Climate 181

Other Vernacular Traditions 185
Ska: From Imitation to Creation 187
Roots and Culture: Downtown Triumphant 192
Rasta and Revolution 194
Bob Marley, the Tuff Gong 196
The End of an Era and the Dawn of a New One:
From Reggae to Ragga 198
The Dancehall Era 201
Tellin’ It like It Is, from “Consciousness” to “Slackness” 204
Gal Tunes and Slackness: Women’s Liberation or Degradation? 205
Voices of the Ghetto, from “Reality” to Shotta Songs 209
Clashes—Fi Fun and Fi Real 215
x ■ Contents

Love Music—or Hate Music? 216

Dancing, Sound-System Dances, and Sound Clashes 218
Dancehall inna Foreign 223
Further Reading 224

8 ■ Trinidad, Calypso, and Carnival 225

The Development of Calypso and Carnival 230

Calypso in Colonialism 231
Modern Calypso 237
Woman Rising 239
Soca 242
The Carnival Context 245
Steelband Music 251
Calypso and Carnival outside Trinidad 257
Further Reading 260

9 ■ East Indian Music and Big Sounds from

the “Small Islands” 261

East Indians in the West Indies 261

Small Island Traditions 273
Further Reading: Indo-Caribbean Music 282

10 ■ Five Themes in the Study of Caribbean Music 283

Unity and Diversity in a Continent of Islands 283

Race and Ethnicity 285
Music, Sex, and Sexism 290
Caribbean Music International 296
Music and Politics 301

Notes 305
Glossary 315
Index 325

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 Note on the Accompanying
Online Videos

W
hile this book does not have a dedicated supplementary web-
site, video clips of several of the relevant music genres are available
on Peter Manuel’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. Although they
may not all be of the highest cinematic quality, they represent many of the
genres discussed in this book and, in some cases, portray livelier and more
spirited performances than might be seen in professionally produced video
documentaries. These videos, made by Manuel over the years since the mid-
1980s, are posted as follows:

“Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, late 1980s”

https://youtu.be/xWfpstcTqNk
and https://vimeo.com/141268542

“Bomba in Loíza, 1993”

https://youtu.be/YsxBTx9NaLU
and https://vimeo.com/141268800

“Fiesta of Santiago Apostol, Loíza, Puerto Rico, 1993”

https://youtu.be/oXlpO5uT0hI
and https://vimeo.com/141267769
xii ■ Note on the Accompanying Online Videos

“Carabiné (Dominican folk dance)”

https://youtu.be/seIaI9oBovY
and https://vimeo.com/141267678

“Sarandunga in La Vereda, Dominican Republic, 2006”

https://youtu.be/4s-rVrWYjzc
and https://vimeo.com/141269775

“Fiesta of La Señora de la Virgen de Regla, in Baní, Dom. Rep., 2006”

https://youtu.be/oPt33BsWy6s
and https://vimeo.com/141267973

“Rara group in Santo Domingo”

https://youtu.be/QnaHRTzy6nI
and https://vimeo.com/141267416

“Parang group, Trinidad”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gduGrw6bzak
and https://vimeo.com/141271651

“Orisha ceremony (Shango), Trinidad, 2010”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6AUzVdNqIo
and https://vimeo.com/141271772

Endnotes reference these videos, providing the URL and the title (e.g.,
“Bomba in Loíza, 1993”). Generally, the reader can easily locate the video
from within YouTube or Vimeo by searching the indicated name. Descrip-
tive information is presented along with the video clips, cohering with and
supplementing material in this book. Many additional clips of some (but not
all) of these genres can also be found on YouTube.
In Chapter 9, reference is made to my fifty-five-minute video docu-
mentary Tassa Thunder: Folk Music from India to the Caribbean, which is
also posted on YouTube and Vimeo, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=jLu0dXWslcg and https://vimeo.com/89400663, respectively.

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 Preface to
the Third Edition

T
he first edition of this book originally arose out of a simple neces-
sity that I encountered in trying to assemble readings for my overflow-
ing Caribbean music classes. The amount of English-language academic
literature on Caribbean music is growing, but most of it is, in one way or
another, unsuitable for the general reader or for college students. Journalistic
articles and websites on the region’s pop music also abound, but they are scat-
tered among innumerable sources and represent nearly as many perspectives
and topics. Clearly, a need has existed for a readable guide to Caribbean music
oriented toward a broad audience.
A more fundamental need, of course, is for greater knowledge of Caribbean
music and culture in general, both in the United States and in the Caribbean
itself. Caribbean immigrant communities now constitute significant and dy-
namic segments of North American society, making up, for example, well over
a third of the population of New York City and more than half of the population
of Miami. Urban neighborhoods throb to the pulse of Caribbean music, and
Caribbean stores and products have become familiar and colorful elements of
urban America’s cosmopolitan landscape. Their impact now extends to hinter-
land areas such as central Pennsylvania, where a typical diner or pizzeria may
offer “mangu domincono [sic]”—the Dominican plantain dish mangú domini-
cano. As the U.S. government and economy continue to dominate the Carib-
bean, the two regions have become more closely intertwined than ever.
This book is oriented toward a few distinct yet overlapping sets of read-
ers. One group includes the music lover who has taken a fancy to some kind
xiv ■ Preface to the Third Edition

of Caribbean music and wants to know more about the background of that
style and about the region’s music as a whole. Another set includes the stu-
dent of Caribbean society or of pan-American society in general, who seeks
an introduction to this most dynamic aspect of our hemisphere’s culture.
Last, but not least, is the set of readers of Caribbean descent, increasing
numbers of whom now populate college classes. Many such students love
the music of their culture and take pride in their ethnic identity but know
woefully little about their musical heritage beyond the current hit parade. Ig-
norance of other local Caribbean cultures is even more prevalent, inhibiting
the formation of pan-regional alliances and contributing to the persistence
of rivalries and stereotypes. North American universities are only beginning
to rectify this situation. Even in a Caribbean cauldron such as New York
City, very few colleges have made an effort to recognize the music cultures of
their immigrant populations, whether because of a Euro-American ethno-
centric disdain or a lack of qualified teachers and suitable course materials.
Caribbean Currents has attempted to address this need, by providing a
readable and informative overview of Caribbean music for the student and
general reader. Although this book contains much new information, espe-
cially on recent developments that are only beginning to be documented in
print, it does not pretend to be an original scholarly monograph. Similarly, it
does not attempt to be a comprehensive reference book on Caribbean music,
which would demand a volume several times the size of this one. Instead,
it is, by choice, a book with a circumscribed scope. For one thing, I have
adopted a relatively narrow conception of the “Caribbean Basin,” excluding,
for example, the musics of coastal Venezuela, Central America, and Mexico,
however interesting they may be. Further, even within such limits, instead
of attempting to include all possible genres and subcategories, I have en-
deavored to highlight the most important and representative aspects of each
music culture rather than attempting to include all possible genres and sub-
categories. As a result, a considerable range of subjects, from Cuban changüí
to Jamaican benta music, is not fully covered herein. To the Cubanophile
interested in her island’s arará drumming, for example, I offer my apolo-
gies—and a set of recommended readings. But, as the title promises, rumba
and reggae, among many other genres, are definitely present, and they are
given much more thorough treatment than would be possible in a sketchy
survey that attempted to touch on every category.
Production of a third edition of this book seemed appropriate for several
reasons. The first edition, printed in 1995, clearly served its purpose, as it sold
well among both college students and lay readers and received the Annual
Best Book Prize from the Caribbean Studies Association. However, the

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 Preface to the Third Edition ■ xv

decade after 1995 saw a number of significant developments in Caribbean

music, from the flowering of reggaeton and timba to the mainstreaming of
Dominican bachata, not to mention the emergence of an entire new genera-
tion of performers. The sheer volume of accessible information on Caribbean
music also increased dramatically, both on the Internet and in publications
by Gage Averill, Robin Moore, Norman Stolzoff, Ned Sublette, Chris Wash-
burne, and others. The second edition, produced in 2006, reflected many of
these developments and contained various revisions and additions. Among
these were some charcoal renderings of photos, drawn by me and intended
less to highlight my artistic talent, which is in any case unimpressive, than
to avoid copyright complications.
Given the rapidity with which Caribbean music evolves and new infor-
mation about it appears, the 2006 edition, too, found itself in need of updat-
ing. To that end, I am pleased to be able to present this third edition, for
which Michael Largey wrote Chapter 6 and I wrote (and take sole responsi-
bility for) the remainder. This new edition incorporates much information
from recent publications, such as those by Geoffrey Baker, Donna Hope,
Sydney Hutchinson, and Robin Moore, as well as from the vast amount of
material on the Internet. More importantly, it covers significant recent devel-
opments, including the ongoing reggaeton and bachata boom, the expansion
of music videos, the impact of the Internet, the restructuring of the music
industry, and the ongoing colorful perversities of the Jamaican dancehall
scene. It also discusses dance styles in much greater depth than the earlier
editions. In general, it is also laden with miscellaneous new material and
reworkings of the old, reflecting my ongoing education in the field.
In writing this edition I have drawn heavily from the earlier work of
such writers as Leonardo Acosta, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Flores, Donald Hill,
Argeliers León, Gordon Lewis, Fernando Ortiz, John Storm Roberts, and
Gordon Rohlehr, and—among the more current generations of writers (in
addition to those mentioned above)—Paul Austerlitz, Hal Barton, Orlando
Fiol, David Garcia, Frank Korom, Benjamin Lapidus, Deborah Pacini, Ste-
phen Steumpfle, and Amanda Villepastour, to name but a few. Particularly
useful and inspiring in writing the Jamaica chapter was the monumental
work of Kenneth Bilby, who contributed to the earlier editions of this book.
Journal articles by Enrique Fernandez, Daisane McClaine, Gene Scaramuz-
zo, and others have also been helpful, and I am indebted to these authors not
only for the information they provided but also for more than one felicitous
turn of phrase that I have borrowed.
More specific thanks are due to the many individuals and institutions
that have assisted me in completing this volume. Delfín Pérez and Chris
xvi ■ Preface to the Third Edition

Washburne were invaluable Latin music gurus. Regarding the researching of

Indo-Caribbean music, I must mention Narsaloo Ramaya, Ajeet Praimsingh,
Kries Ramkhelawan, Rudy Sasenarine, Moean Mohammad, Mukesh Ragoo,
and Mungal Patesar. I have also been fortunate to have at hand another set
of excellent informants in the more than one thousand Caribbean students
who have taken my classes at John Jay College and who have been of invalu-
able help in keeping me in touch with current developments and in provid-
ing their perspectives on music. I have also learned much from my current
and former students at the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York, especially Manuela Arciniegas, Ryan Bazinet, Javier Diaz, Johnny
Frias, Stephanie Jackson, Angelina Tallaj, Janice Mahinka, and others al-
ready mentioned.
For their help in collecting photographs for the volume, thanks are due
to John Amira, the Ethnic Folk Arts Center, Sydney Hutchinson, Sandra
Levinson of the Center for Cuban Studies, Chantal Regnault, Roberta Singer
of City Lore, and Lois Wilcken. Donald Hill guided me through the treach-
erous world of copyright permissions. I also thank Sophia Manuel for trying
to teach me how to draw with charcoal, Liliana for keeping me up on cur-
rent developments in the club scene, and Beth for letting me neglect domes-
tic duties to undertake Caribbean research trips (which mostly consisted
of various sorts of “liming”). On behalf of Michael Largey, gratitude is also
extended to Gage Averill, Lolo Beaubrun, Allison Berg, Dominique Cy-
rille, Laura Donnelly, Julian Gerstin, and Jocelyne Guilbault. Finally, I thank
Susan Deeks and Joan Vidal for the fine copyediting.

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 The Caribbean at a Glance
(Country, Capital, Estimated
2015 Country Population)

The Dutch Caribbean

(formerly the Netherlands Caribbean)

Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten: pop.

315,000

The English-Speaking Caribbean

Anguilla (United Kingdom): The Valley; pop. 13,500
Antigua and Barbuda: St. John; pop. 68,320
Bahamas: Nassau; pop. 322,000
Barbados: Bridgetown; pop. 278,000
British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom): Road Town; pop. 28,000
Cayman Islands: George Town; pop. 57,000
Dominica: Roseau; pop. 72,000 (English and French Creole spoken)
Grenada: St. George; pop. 110,000
Guyana: Georgetown; pop. 735,000 (30 percent African, 47 percent East
Indian, 9 percent Amerindian, 14 percent mixed)
Jamaica: Kingston; pop. 2,980,000
Montserrat (United Kingdom): pop. 4,900
St. Kitts–Nevis: Basseterre; pop. 46,000
St. Lucia: Castries; pop. 174,000 (English and French Creole spoken)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Kingstown; pop. 103,000
Caribbean. (Map by the Center for Cartographic Research and Spatial Analysis,
Michigan State University.)

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xx ■ The Caribbean at a Glance

Trinidad and Tobago: Port of Spain; pop. 1,224,000 (34 percent Afro-
Trinidadian, 35 percent Indo-Trinidadian, 23 percent mixed, 8
percent other)
Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom): Grand Turk; pop. 32,000
U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas): Charlotte Amalie;
pop. 107,000

The French Caribbean

Guadeloupe (France): Basse-Terre; pop. 404,000
Haiti: Port-au-Prince; pop. 10,000,000
Martinique (France): Fort-de-France; pop. 386,000

The Spanish Caribbean

Cuba: Havana; pop. 11,210,000
Dominican Republic: Santo Domingo; pop. 9,500,000
Puerto Rico (United States): San Juan; pop. 3,548,000

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Caribbean
Currents
www.ebook3000.com
 1

Introduction
The Caribbean Crucible

T
he global impact of Caribbean music constitutes something of an
enigma in world culture. How could music styles of such global popu-
larity and influence be fashioned by a population that makes up well
under 1 percent of the world’s peoples, scattered in an archipelago, and quite
lacking in economic and political power? How is it that reggae, emanating
from small and impoverished Jamaica, can resound and be actively cultivated
everywhere from Hawaii to Malawi? Why should it be Cuba that produces the
style that comes to dominate much of African urban music in the mid-twen-
tieth century? Or, to go further back in time, what made the Caribbean Basin
so dynamic that its Afro-Latin music and dance forms such as the sarabanda
and chacona could take Spain by storm in the decades around 1600 and go
on to enliven Baroque music and dance in Western Europe?
This book may not definitively answer these questions, although a few
hypotheses are indeed suggested. On a metaphorical level, the Caribbean has
been likened to a fuse that connects the Old Worlds—Europe and especially
Africa—to the New World, and with so much energy and intensity passing
through it, that fuse gets very, very hot, with a heat that generates music of
extraordinary expressivity. Perhaps somewhat more tangibly, the Caribbean,
like certain other parts of the New World, constituted a site where those two
dynamic Old World music cultures met and interacted in ways that were
unique to that region and its sociohistorical conditions. Much of the rich-
ness of these original music cultures was lost in crossing the Atlantic, but
much was retained. In the crucible of the Caribbean—with its particular
2 ■ Chapter 1

combination of white political power and black demographic power, and of

insular isolation and maritime cross-fertilization—these musical elements
simmered, effervesced, and eventually bubbled over, enriching the world
around with the unique vitality of the mambo and the merengue.
There are other senses in which Caribbean vernacular musics evolved as
quintessentially suited to modernity and global appeal. Some have argued
that the cultural encounter enabled African-derived musics to replenish
the warm sensuality that centuries of Christianity had repressed in Europe,
making Caribbean and Afro-American musics ideally suited to a distinc-
tively modern aesthetic and social worldview at last liberated from such in-
hibitions. Other scholars, as I suggest later, have contended that the uniquely
modern and expressive power of Caribbean musics has derived from their
inherently innovative, open, and creole nature, as the product of people at
once liberated from Old World traditions but able to draw on them, and
having a heightened self-consciousness as being part of mainstream Western
culture and, at the same time, on its margins.
Some of the vitality of Caribbean music seems to derive from its im-
portance within Caribbean society and the sheer amount of attention and
creative energy it commands. Caribbeans are well aware of the international
prominence of their music, and they accord it a preeminent symbolic status
at home. It is not merely that in Cuba a reggaeton singer can earn thousands
of dollars a month while a doctor earns only $20, or that legions of young Ja-
maican men dream of being dancehall deejays, with a Benz, a gold chain, and
a “truckload of girls.” Jamaicans are well aware that artists like Bob Marley
and Vybz Kartel are famous throughout much of the world—certainly more
so than their political leaders. We can also well imagine the incommensurate
renown enjoyed by Kevin Little in St. Vincent (population 100,000), or by
Rihanna in Barbados when they generate mega-hits such as “Turn Me On”
and “Diamonds,” respectively—with the latter approaching a billion hits on
YouTube. Likewise, in Trinidad calypso not only spreads news; it is the news,
with politicians, journalists, and other public figures endlessly debating and
denouncing the latest songs. Indeed, when Muslim militant thug Abu Bakr
attempted to seize power in a 1990 coup, one of his first (and last) acts was
to set up an all-calypso radio station. Music, in a word, is the most visible,
popular, and dynamic aspect of Caribbean expressive culture.
As styles like reggae and Cuban dance music achieve international popu-
larity, they become part of the world’s cultural history, as well as that of the
Caribbean. Ultimately, Caribbean music can scarcely be compartmentalized
as a local, regional entity when some 6 million people of Caribbean descent
populate the cities of North America and Great Britain, and when the world

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 Introduction ■ 3

is united as never before by the mass media and international capital. In a

global village where Sri Lankan schoolboys sing Bob Marley tunes, Hawai-
ian cowboys sing Puerto Rican aguinaldos, Congolese bands play mambos,
and reggaeton hits routinely garner hundreds of millions of YouTube views,
Caribbean music has truly become world music and, in its own way, world
history, as well.

The Amerindian Heritage

The prehistory of Caribbean music begins with the culture of the region’s
first inhabitants, the Amerindians, whose fifteenth-century population his-
torians have estimated, not very helpfully, at somewhere between 250,000
and 6 million. The currently favored guess is about half a million, with the
largest concentration on the island now called Hispaniola. The Ciboneys of
Cuba had been in the region the longest but became outnumbered by other
groups, especially the more advanced Taino Arawaks and, in the Lesser An-
tilles, the supposedly warlike Caribs. Because of the presence of these Indi-
ans, it may be better to speak not of a “discovery” of the region by Europeans
but of the encounter of two cultures, although the actual period of intense
cultural interaction lasted little more than a century, by which time most
Indians had perished. Nevertheless, any historical account of Caribbean
music and culture must commence with the practices of the Amerindians,
as described by the Spanish.
Indigenous Caribbean music centered on a socioreligious ceremony
sometimes called areito, in which as many as a thousand participants danced
in concentric circles around a group of musicians. The musicians sang myth-
ological chants in call-and-response style, playing rattles (later called ma-
racas), gourd scrapers (güiros), and slit drums called mayohuacán. The slit
drums were hollowed logs with H-shaped tongues cut into them. Although
most scholars think the Indians of the Caribbean originally came from what
is now Venezuela, the use of slit drums suggests some affinity with Aztecs
and other Mexican Indian groups, who played similar instruments called
teponaztli.
The Spaniards, far from bringing progress and civilization to their Ca-
ribbean subjects, enslaved and effectively exterminated them. The Indians
were forced to work in mines while Spanish pigs ran wild and overran their
crops. Those who did not perish from starvation, disease, or forced labor
were killed outright or committed mass suicide. Christopher Columbus
himself set the tenor, presiding over the death of a third of the population
of Hispaniola during his sixteen-month governorship (1496–97). By 1600,
4 ■ Chapter 1

the Caribbean Indian populations had dwindled into isolated communities.

DNA tests have revealed that large percentages of Dominicans and Puerto
Ricans have partial Amerindian ancestry, but Native American culture and
music have largely passed into oblivion. Today Amerindians and their lan-
guage survive in only a few villages in Dominica and, more substantially,
in the form of the African-intermixed “Black Caribs,” or Garifuna, of Hon-
duras and Belize, whence they were exiled from St. Vincent by the British.
To fill the need for labor, the colonists had to turn to slaves from Africa; as
Trinidad’s Prime Minister Eric Williams put it, the Europeans used Negroes
they stole from Africa to work the land they stole from the Indians.
To a certain extent, early colonial-era culture emerged as a mixture of
European, African, and Amerindian traditions. The still popular Cuban
cult of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, for instance, mixes elements
of the worship of the Taino god Atabey, the Yoruba deity Oshún, and the
European Virgin of Illescas. On the whole, however, little remains of Indian
culture except for place names, foods, and words like “hammock,” “mana-
tee,” “yucca,” “hurricane,” and “tobacco”—the last surviving as the Indi-
ans’ parting gift (or retributive curse) to the world. But while Indian culture
and music are largely lost, the Indian past has continued to be invoked as a

Taino dancers in Hispaniola, as portrayed by the seventeenth-century artist

R. P. Labat.

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 Introduction ■ 5

Taino dancers as imagined, perhaps more accurately, by a modern artist.

(Adapted by Peter Manuel from O. J. Cardoso and M. García, Los Indocubanos
[Havana: Editorial Gente Nueva, 1982].)

symbol for various purposes. Still celebrated in Cuba are the names of the
Arawak princess Anacaona and the chieftain Hatuey for their valiant strug-
gle against the Spaniards. Puerto Ricans still use the Taino name for their
island, Borikén, as a symbol of independence, which lives on as a memory
and a goal.
In other contexts, a mythical Indian heritage has often been asserted
as a way to deny the reality of the region’s African heritage. Thus, obscu-
rantist folklorists such as Cuba’s Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes have tried to
6 ■ Chapter 1

argue—in a musical equivalent of the flat earth theory—that his country’s

music derived mostly from an admixture of Hispanic elements with those
of the Tainos, rather than of the Yorubas and Bantus. Even some blacks
and mulattos have tried to deny their own ancestry, perhaps claiming to be
“dark-skinned Indians” (indios oscuros, in Dominican parlance). But since
the Amerindian heritage has played little role in post-Columbian music, we
must look elsewhere for the roots of most Caribbean music—specifically, in
the musical cultures of Europe and Africa.

The African Heritage

The Caribbean is host to a variety of ethnic groups, including East Indi-
ans, Chinese, Syrians, and Caucasian Europeans. However, throughout the
region, descendants of the 4 or 5 million enslaved Africans brought by the
colonists are a common denominator. In islands such as Haiti, they consti-
tute nearly the entire population, while even in the more Caucasian Puerto
Rico, black communities have exerted a musical influence quite incom-
mensurate with their demographic size. Moreover, just as Afro-American
musics and their derivatives, such as rock, came to pervade world culture in
the twentieth century, so have the African-derived elements in Caribbean
music provided much of what has distinguished it and made it internation-
ally famous.
Afro-Caribbeans, like Caribbean people as a whole, have traditionally
been divided not only by insular geography but also by language and the
political fragmentation of colonialism. At the same time, however, they have
shared the general experiences of slavery, the cultural uprooting it entailed,
and the direct roles of creating a set of new, creolized cultures. For the past
two centuries, scholars (and pseudo-scholars) have argued about the degree
to which black communities in the Caribbean and the United States have
been able to retain elements of their traditional African cultural roots. A tra-
ditional white view had been that Africa had little particular culture to begin
with, and that the slaves had lost touch with that, as well. Anthropologist
Melville Herskovits challenged this conception in The Myth of the Negro Past
(1941), and in his wake scholars have devoted many volumes to documenting
the existence of African-derived elements in modern Afro-American and
Afro-Caribbean cultures. Such writing has also criticized the tendency to
regard slaves as passive victims of circumstance, instead stressing the ways
in which slaves and free blacks fashioned their own culture—“the world the
slaves made,” as the subtitle reads in Eugene Genovese’s brilliant Roll, Jordan,

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Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 CHAP. XXVII.

Moreover, neither is it sufficient to assert, “that nature, art, and

the sympathy of things in the universe, as if they were the parts of
one animal, contain premanifestations of certain things with
reference to each other; nor that bodies are so prepared, that there
is a presignification of some by others.” For these things, which are
very clearly seen, exhibit a certain divulsed vestige of divine
prediction, in a greater or less degree; since it is not possible for any
thing to be perfectly destitute of divine divination. But as in all things
the image of good exhibits a similitude of divinity; thus, likewise, in
all things a certain obscure or more manifest image of divine
prediction shines forth to the view. Nevertheless, no one of these is
such as the divine species of divination; nor must the one, divine,
and unmingled form of it be characterized from the many phantasms
which proceed from it into generation. Nor, if there are certain other
false and deceitful resemblances, which are still more remote from
reality, is it fit to adduce these in forming a judgment of it. But the
divine form or species of divination is to be apprehended according
to one intelligible and immutable truth; and the mutation which
subsists differently at different times is to be rejected as unstable and
unadapted to the Gods. If, therefore, that which is truly divination is
a thing of this kind, i. e. is a divine work, who would not blush to
ascribe it to nature, which produces its effects without reason and
intellect, as if nature elaborated in us a certain prophetic apparatus,
and inserted this aptitude in some things in a greater but in others in
a less degree? For in those things in which men receive auxiliaries
from nature in the attainment of their proper perfection, in these,
also, certain aptitudes of nature precede; but in things in which no
human work is proposed [to be effected], in these neither does the
end pertain to us. And when a certain good, which is more ancient
than our nature, has a prior arrangement, it is not possible in this
case that a certain natural excellence should become the prepared
subject of it. For in those things of which there are perfections, in
these imperfect preparations are ingenerated; but both these are the
habits of men [and not of Gods]. Hence, of those things which are
not present with us, so far as we are men, there will not be a
preparative from nature. There is not, therefore, a natural seed in us
of divine prediction. If some one, however, should in a more general
way assert, that there is a certain human divination, of this there will
be a certain physical preparation. But with respect to that which may
be truly denominated divination, and which pertains to the Gods, it
is not proper to think that this is ingrafted by nature. For both other
things, and also the indefinite, according to the more and the less,
are the attendants on this. Hence it is separated from divine
divination, which abides in stable boundaries. On this account, also,
it is requisite strenuously to contend against him who asserts that
divination originates from us. You likewise adduce clear indications
of this from the works performed in predicting what is future. For
you say, “that those who invoke [the divinities for the purposes of
divination] have about them stones and herbs, bind certain sacred
bonds, which they also dissolve, open places that are shut, and
change the deliberate intentions of the recipients, so as to render
them worthy, though they were before depraved.” All these
particulars, therefore, signify that the inspiration accedes externally.
It is requisite, however, not only to preassume this, but also to define
what the inspiration of divine origin is, which produces divine
divination. For if this is not done, we shall not previously know what
its peculiarity is, in consequence of not attributing to it its proper
character, and adapting this to it as a certain seal. And this, indeed,
has been accurately done by us a little before.
 CHAP. XXVIII.

You adduce, however, as a thing by no means to be despised, “the

artificers of efficacious images.” But I should wonder if these were
admitted by any one of the theurgists who survey the true forms of
the Gods. For why should any one exchange truly existing beings for
images, and descend from the first to the last of things? Or do we not
know that all things effected by an adumbration of this kind, have an
obscure subsistence, are the phantasms only of that which is true,
and appear to be good, but in no respect are so? Other things, also, of
this kind that accede, are borne along in a flowing condition of being;
but obtain nothing genuine, or perfect, or manifest. But this is
evident from the mode of their production: for not divinity, but man
is the maker of them. Nor are they produced from uniform and
intelligible essences, but from matter, which is assumed for this
purpose. What good, therefore, can germinate from matter, and from
the material and corporeal-formed powers which are in bodies? Or is
not that which derives its subsistence from human art, more imbecile
than men themselves, who impart existence to it? By what kind of
art, likewise, is this image fashioned? For it is said, indeed, to be
fashioned by demiurgic art; but this is effective of true essences, and
not of certain images. Hence the image-producing art is distant by a
great interval from the seminal production of realities. Besides,
neither does it preserve a certain analogy with divine fabrication. For
divinity does not fabricate all things, either through the celestial
physical motions, or through a partial matter, or through powers
thus divided; but he produces the worlds by conceptions, will, and
immaterial forms, and through an eternal and supermundane soul.
The maker of images, however, is said to elaborate them through the
revolving stars. But the thing does not in reality subsist so as it
appears to do. For since there are certain infinite powers in the
celestial Gods, the last genus of all the powers in them is physical.
But again, of this power one portion being inherent in spermatic
reasons [or productive powers], and prior to these reasons being
established in immoveable natures, essentially precedes generation.
But another portion being inherent in sensible and visible motions
and powers, and in celestial effluxions and qualities, has dominion
over the whole visible order of things. This last power, therefore, in
all these rules over the circumterrestrial manifest generation in
places about the earth. Many other arts, however, as for instance, the
medical[84] and gymnastic, use this power, which has dominion over
visible generation, and the qualities of the effluxions sent from the
heavens employ it, and likewise all such arts as in their operations
communicate with nature. And moreover, the image-making art
attracts a certain very obscure genesiurgic portion from the celestial
effluxions.
Such, therefore, as the truth is, such also it is requisite to unfold it
to others. It must be said, then, that the maker of images neither uses
the celestial circulations, nor the powers which are inherent in them,
nor those powers which are naturally established about them; nor, in
short, is it possible to come into contact with them. But he
artificially, and not theurgically, applies himself to the last effluxions
which openly proceed from the nature of them, about the last part of
the universe. For these effluxions, I think, being mingled with a
partial matter, are capable of being changed and transformed
differently at different times. They likewise receive the transposition,
from some things to others, of the powers which are in partial
natures. The variety, however, of such like energies, and the
composition of a multitude of material powers, are not only entirely
separated from divine fabrication, but also from natural production.
For nature produces her proper works collectively, and at once, and
accomplishes all things by simple and incomposite energies. Hence it
remains that a commixture of this kind, about the last and manifest
celestial effluxion, and about the things which are moved by a
celestial nature, is artificial.
 CHAP. XXIX.

Why, therefore, does the maker of images, who effects these

things, desert himself, though he is better than these images, and
consists of things of a more excellent nature, and confide in
inanimate idols, which are inspired with the representation alone of
life, contain a renovated harmony, and which is externally
multiform, and are in reality diurnal? Shall we say that something
genuine and true is inherent in them? Nothing, however, which is
fashioned by human art is genuine and pure. But you will say, that
simplicity and uniformity of energy predominate in the whole of
their composition. This is very far from being the case. For the idol,
according to its visible composition, is mingled from all-various and
contrary qualities. Shall we say then, that a certain pure and perfect
power is manifest in them? By no means. For a thing of this kind
possesses an adventitious multitude of effluxions, collected from
many places, and which shows itself to be imbecile and evanescent.
But if these particulars, which we have enumerated, are not found to
take place in images, is stability present with them, as it is said to be
[by the patrons of these images]? By no means, likewise, is this the
case. For these idols are extinguished with much greater rapidity
than the images which are seen in mirrors. For they are immediately
formed by the accession of fumigations from exhaling vapours; but
when the fumigation is mingled with, and diffused through, the
whole air, then the idol is likewise immediately dissolved, and is not
naturally adapted to remain for the smallest portion of time. Why,
therefore, should the man who is a lover of truth, pay attention to
these useless delusions? I, indeed, do not think them to be of any
value. For if the makers of these images know that the fictions about
which they are busily employed, are nothing more than the
formations of passive matter, the evil arising from an attention to
them will be simple. But in addition to this, these idol-makers are
similar to the images in which they confide. And if they pay attention
to these idols as if they were Gods, the absurdity will be so great, as
neither to be effable by words, nor to be endured in deeds. For a
certain divine splendour never illuminates a soul of this kind,
because it is not adapted to be imparted to things which are entirely
repugnant to it; neither have those things which are detained by dark
phantasms a place for its reception. This delusive formation,
therefore, of phantasms, will be conversant with shadows, which are
very remote from the truth.
 CHAP. XXX.

You say, however, “that the makers of images observe the motion
of the celestial bodies, and can tell from the concurrence of what
star, with a certain star or stars, predictions will be true or false;
and also whether the things that are performed will be inanities, or
significant and efficacious.” But neither will these phantasms, on
this account, possess any thing divine. For the last of the things
which are in generation are moved in conjunction with the celestial
courses, and are copassive with the effluxions which descend from
the heavenly bodies. Moreover, if any one considers these things
accurately, he will find that they demonstrate the contrary to what is
here asserted. For how is it possible that things which are in every
respect mutable, and this with facility, and which are all-variously
turned by external motions, so as to become inefficacious, or
prophetic, or significant, or effective, or at different times different,
should contain in themselves, by participation, any portion, however
small, of divine power? What then, are the powers which are
inherent in matter the elements of dæmons? By no means: for no
partial sensible bodies generate dæmons; but much more are these
generated and guarded by dæmons. Neither is any man able to
fashion, as by a machine, certain forms of dæmons; but, on the
contrary, he is rather fashioned and fabricated by them, so far as he
participates of a sensible body. But neither is a certain dæmoniacal
multitude generated from the elements of sensibles; since, on the
contrary, this multitude is simple, and energizes uniformly about
composite natures. Hence, neither will it have sensibles more
ancient, or more stable than itself; but being itself more excellent
than sensibles, both in dignity and power, it imparts to them the
permanency which they are able to receive. Unless indeed, you
denominate idols dæmons, not rightly employing an appellation of
this kind. For the nature of dæmons is one thing, and that of idols
another. The order of each, likewise, is very different. Moreover, the
leader of idols is different from the great leader of dæmons. And this,
also, you admit. For you say, “that no God or dæmon is drawn down
by idols.” What, therefore, will be the worth of a sacred deed, or of
the foreknowledge of what is future, if it is entirely destitute of
divinity and a dæmon? So that it is requisite to know what the nature
is of this wonder-working art, but by no means to use or confide in it.
 CHAP. XXXI.

Again, therefore, still worse than this is the explanation of sacred

operations, which assigns as the cause of divination, “a certain genus
of dæmons, which is naturally fraudulent, omniform, and various,
and which assumes the appearance of Gods and dæmons, and the
souls of the deceased.” I shall, therefore, relate to you, in answer to
this, what I once heard from the prophets of the Chaldeans.
Such Gods as are truly divinities, are alone the givers of good;
alone associate with good men, and with those that are purified by
the sacerdotal art, and from these amputate all vice, and every
passion. When these, also, impart their light, that which is evil, and
at the same time dæmoniacal, vanishes from before more excellent
natures, in the same manner as darkness when light is present; nor is
it able to disturb theurgists in the smallest degree, who receive from
this light every virtue, obtain worthy manners, become orderly and
elegant in their actions, are liberated from passions, and purified
from every disorderly motion, and from atheistical and unholy
conduct. But those who are themselves flagitious, and who leap, as it
were, to things of a divine nature in an illegal and disorderly manner,
these, through the imbecility of their proper energy, or through
indigence of inherent power, are not able to associate with the Gods.
Because, likewise, they are excluded, through certain defilements,
from an association with pure spirits, they become connected with
evil spirits, are filled from them with the worst kind of inspiration,
are rendered depraved and unholy, become replete with intemperate
pleasures, and every kind of vice, are emulous of manners foreign to
the Gods, and, in short, become similar to the depraved dæmons,
with whom they are connascent. These, therefore, being full of
passions and vice, attract to themselves, through alliance, depraved
spirits, and are excited by them to every kind of iniquity. They are
also increased in wickedness by each other, like a circle conjoining
the beginning to the end, and similarly making an equal
compensation. Hence deeds which are the nefarious offences of
impiety, which are introduced into sacred works in a disorderly
manner, and which are also confusedly performed by those who
betake themselves to such works, and at one time, as it seems, cause
one divinity to be present instead of another, and again, introduce
depraved dæmons instead of Gods, whom they call equal to the Gods
(αντιθεους)—such deeds as these you should never adduce in a
discourse concerning sacerdotal divination. For good is more
contrary to evil than to that which is not good. As, therefore, the
sacrilegious are in the most eminent degree hostile to the religious
cultivation of the Gods; thus, also, those who are conversant with
dæmons who are fraudulent, and the causes of intemperance, are
undoubtedly hostile to theurgists. For from these every depraved
spirit departs, and when they are present, is entirely subverted.
Every vice, too, and every passion, are by these perfectly amputated:
for a pure participation of good is present with the pure, and they are
supernally filled with truth from a divine fire. These, therefore, suffer
no impediment from evil spirits, nor are these spirits any obstacles to
the goods of their souls. Nor are theurgists disturbed by pride, or
flattery, or the enjoyment of exhalations, or any violence; but all
these, as if struck by lightning, yield and recede, without touching
the theurgist, or being able to approach to them. Hence this genus of
divination is undefiled and sacerdotal, and is truly divine. This, also,
does not, as you say it does, require me, or any other as an arbiter, in
order that I may prefer it to a multitude of other things; but it is itself
exempt from all things, is supernatural, and has an eternal
preexistence, neither receiving a certain opposition, nor a certain
transcendency, which has a prearrangement in many things, because
it is of itself liberated, and uniformly precedes all things. And to this
it is requisite that you, and every one who is a genuine lover of the
Gods, should give himself wholly; since by this mean irreprehensible
truth will be obtained in divinations, and perfect virtue in souls; and
through both these, an ascent will be afforded to theurgists to
intelligible fire, which ought to be preestablished as the end of all
foreknowledge, and of every theurgic operation. Hence you in vain
adduce the opinion of those who think that divination is effected by
an evil dæmon, since these do not deserve to be mentioned in
speculations concerning the Gods. At the same time, likewise, they
are ignorant of the means of distinguishing truth from falsehood,
because they are from the beginning nourished in darkness, and are
wholly incapable of knowing the principles from which these are
produced. Here, therefore, we shall terminate our discussion
concerning the mode of divination.
 SECTION IV.

CHAP. I.

Let us then, in the next place, consider the opposing arguments,

what they are, and what reason they possess. And if we should
discuss some things a little more abundantly, in consequence of
speaking freely and at leisure, it is requisite that you should promptly
attend to, and endure what, we say. For it is necessary that great
labour should be bestowed on the greatest disciplines, and that they
should be accurately explored for a long time, if you intend to know
them perfectly. Do you, therefore, conformably to the present
hypothesis, propose the arguments which occasion the doubt, and I
will answer you. Say then, “it very much perplexes me to understand
how superior beings, when invoked, are commanded by those that
invoke them, as if they were their inferiors.” But I will unfold to you
the whole division, which is worthy of regard, concerning the powers
that are invoked; from which you will be able clearly to define what is
possible and what is impossible, in the subjects of your investigation.
For the Gods, indeed, and the natures that are more excellent than
we, through the wish of what is beautiful, and from an unenvying
and exuberant fulness of good, benevolently impart to those that are
worthy, such things as are fit for them, commiserating the labours of
sacerdotal men, but being delighted with those that they have
begotten, nourished, and instructed. But the middle genera are the
inspective guardians of judgment. These inform us what ought to be
done, and from what it is fit to abstain. They also give assistance to
just works, but impede such as are unjust; and as many endeavour to
take away unjustly the property of others, or basely to injure or
destroy some one, they cause these to suffer the same things as they
have done to others. But there is, likewise, another most irrational
genus of dæmons,[85] which is without judgment, and is allotted only
one power, through an arrangement by which each of these dæmons
presides over one work alone. As therefore, it is the province of a
sword to cut, and to do nothing else than this, thus also of the spirits
which are distributed in the universe, according to the partible
necessity of nature, one kind divides, but another collects, things
which are generated. This, however, is known from the phænomena.
For the Charonean[86] spiracles, as they are called, emit from
themselves a certain spirit, which is able to corrupt promiscuously
every thing that falls into them. Thus, therefore, of certain invisible
spirits, each is allotted a different power, and is alone adapted to do
that which it is ordained to perform. He, therefore, who turns from
their natural course things which contribute to the universe in an
orderly manner, and illegitimately performs a certain thing, in this
case receives the injury arising from that which he uses badly. This,
however, pertains to another mode of discussion.
 CHAP. II.

But we sometimes see that take place which is now proposed to be

considered. For it happens that spirits are commanded [to do this or
that] who do not use a reason of their own, and have not the
principle of judgment. Nor does this occur irrationally. For our
dianoia naturally possessing the power of reasoning about and
judging of things as they are, and comprehending in itself many
powers of life, is accustomed to command the most irrational spirits,
and such as derive their perfection from one energy alone. Hence, it
invokes these as more excellent natures, because it endeavours to
attract to particulars from the whole world, in which we are
contained, things which contribute to wholes.[87] And it commands
them as inferior natures, because frequently certain parts of things in
the world [such as our reasoning power] are more pure and perfect
than things which extend themselves to the whole world. Thus, for
instance, if one thing is intellectual [as is the case with our dianoia],
but another is wholly inanimate or physical, then that which
proceeds to a less extent has a more principal power than that which
is more extended, though the former falls far short of the latter in
magnitude and multitude of domination. For these things, also,
another reason may be assigned, and which is as follows: in all
theurgical operations the priest sustains a twofold character; one,
indeed, as man, and which preserves the order possessed by our
nature in the universe; but the other, which is corroborated by divine
signs, and through these is conjoined to more excellent natures, and
is elevated to their order by an elegant circumduction, this is
deservedly capable of being surrounded with the external form of the
Gods. Conformably, therefore, to a difference of this kind, the priest
very properly invokes, as more excellent natures, the powers derived
from the universe, so far as he who invokes is a man; and again, he
commands these powers, because through arcane symbols, he, in a
certain respect, is invested with the sacred form of the Gods.
 CHAP. III.

Dissolving, however, the doubts in a way still more true, we think

it requisite, in invoking superior natures, to take away the evocations
which appear to be directed to them as to men, and also the
mandates in the performance of works, which are given with great
earnestness. For if the communion of concordant friendship, and a
certain indissoluble connexion of union, are the bonds of sacerdotal
operations, in order that these operations may be truly divine, and
may transcend every common action known to men, no human work
will be adapted to them; nor will the invocations of the priest
resemble the manner in which we draw to ourselves things that are
distant; nor are his mandates directed as to things separated from
him, in the way in which we transfer one thing from others. But the
energy of divine fire shines forth voluntarily, and in common, and
being self-invoked and self-energetic, energizes through all things
with invariable sameness, both through the natures which impart,
and those that are able to receive, its light. This mode of solution,
therefore, is far superior, which does not suppose that divine works
are effected through contrariety, or discrepance, in the way in which
generated natures are usually produced; but asserts that every such
work is rightly accomplished through sameness, union, and consent.
Hence, if we separate from each other that which invokes and that
which is invoked, that which commands and that which is
commanded, that which is more and that which is less excellent, we
shall, in a certain respect, transfer the contrariety of generations to
the unbegotten goods of the Gods. But if we despise all such things,
as it is just we should, as of an earth-born nature, and ascribe that
which is common and simple, as being more honourable, to the
powers who transcend the variety which is in the realms of
generation, the first hypothesis of these questions will be
immediately subverted, so that no reasonable doubt concerning
them will be left.
 CHAP. IV.

What then shall we say concerning the next inquiry to this, viz.
“why the powers who are invoked think it requisite that he who
worships them should be just, but they when called upon to act
unjustly do not refuse so to act?” To this I reply, that I am dubious
with respect to what you call acting justly, and am of opinion that
what appears to us to be an accurate definition of justice does not
also appear to be so to the Gods. For we, looking to that which is
most brief, direct our attention to things present, and to this
momentary life, and the manner in which it subsists. But the powers
that are superior to us know the whole life of the soul, and all its
former lives; and, in consequence of this, if they inflict a certain
punishment from the prayer of those that invoke them, they do not
inflict it without justice, but looking to the offences committed by
souls in former lives;[88] which men not perceiving think that they
unjustly fall into the calamities which they suffer.
 CHAP. V.

The multitude, also, are accustomed to doubt in common the very

same thing concerning providence, viz. why certain persons are
afflicted undeservedly, as they have not done any thing unjustly prior
to their being thus afflicted. For neither here is it possible to
understand [perfectly] what the soul is, and its whole life, how many
offences it has committed in former lives, and whether it now suffers
from its former guilt. In this life, also, many unjust actions are
concealed from human knowledge, but are known to the Gods, since
neither is the same scope of justice proposed to them as to men. For
men, indeed, define justice to be the soul’s performance of its own
proper business,[89] and the distribution of desert, conformably to the
established laws, and the prevailing polity. But the Gods, looking to
the whole orderly arrangement of the world, and to the subserviency
of souls to the Gods, form a judgment of what is just. Hence the
judgment of just actions with the Gods is different from what it is
with us. Nor is it wonderful, if we are unable, in most things, to
arrive at the supreme and most perfect judgment of more excellent
natures. What also hinders, but that to each thing by itself, and in
conjunction with the whole alliance of souls, justice may in a very
transcendent manner be decreed by the Gods? For if a communion of
the same nature in souls, both when they are in and when they are
out of bodies, produces a certain identical connexion and common
order with the life of the world, it is likewise necessary that, a
fulfilment of justice should be required by wholes, and especially
when the magnitude of the unjust deeds antecedently committed by
one soul transcends the infliction of one punishment due to the
offences. But if any one should add other definitions, through which
he can show that what is just subsists with the Gods in a way
different from that in which it is known by us, from these also our
design will be facilitated. For me, however, the beforementioned
canons are alone sufficient for the purpose of manifesting the
universal genus, and which comprehends every thing pertaining to
the medicinal punishments inflicted by divine justice.
 CHAP. VI.

In order, therefore, that from an abundance of arguments we may

contend against the objection which is now adduced, we will grant, if
you please, the contrary to what we have asserted, viz. that certain
unjust things are performed in this business of invocations. That the
Gods, however, are not to be accused as the causes of these is
immediately manifest. For those that are good are the causes of
good; and the Gods possess good essentially. They do nothing,
therefore, that is unjust. Hence other causes of guilty deeds must be
investigated. And if we are not able to discover these causes, it is not
proper to throw away the true conception respecting the Gods, nor
on account of the doubts whether these unjust deeds are performed,
and how they are effected, to depart from notions concerning the
Gods which are truly clear. For it is much better to acknowledge the
insufficiency of our power to explain how unjust actions are
perpetrated, than to admit any thing impossible and false respecting
the Gods; since all the Greeks and Barbarians truly opine the
contrary to be the case with divine natures. After this manner,
therefore, the truth respecting these particulars subsists.
 CHAP. VII.

Moreover, it is necessary to add the causes whence evils[90]

sometimes arise, and to show how many and of what kind they are.
For the form of them is not simple; but, being various, is the leader
of the generation of various evils. For if what we a little before said,
concerning images and evil dæmons, who assume the appearance of
Gods and good dæmons, is true, an abundant evil-producing tribe,
about which a contrariety of this kind usually happens, will from
hence appear to flow. For an evil dæmon requires that his
worshipper should be just, because he assumes the appearance of
one belonging to the divine genus; but he is subservient to what is
unjust, because he is depraved. The same thing, likewise, that is said
of good and evil may be asserted of the true and the false. As,
therefore, in divinations we attribute true predictions to the Gods
alone, but when we detect any falsehood in predictions we refer this
to another genus of cause, viz. that of dæmons; thus, also, in things
just and unjust, the beautiful and the just are to be alone ascribed to
Gods and good dæmons; but such dæmons as are naturally
depraved, perpetrate what is unjust and base. And that, indeed,
which consents and accords with itself, and always subsists with
invariable sameness, pertains to more excellent natures; but that
which is hostile to itself, which is discordant, and never the same, is
the peculiarity in the most eminent degree of dæmoniacal
dissension, about which it is not at all wonderful that things of an
opposing nature should subsist; but perhaps the very contrary, that
this should not be the case, would be more wonderful.
 CHAP. VIII.

We may, however, beginning from another hypothesis,

demonstrate the same thing. We must admit that the corporeal parts
of the universe are neither sluggish nor destitute of power, but as
much as they excel our concerns in perfection, beauty, and
magnitude, by so much also is the power which is present with them
greater. Each, likewise, by itself is capable of effecting different
things, and produces certain different energies. They are also capable
of effecting things much more numerous on each other. And besides
this, a certain multiform production extends to parts from wholes;
partly from sympathy, through similitude of powers, and partly from
the aptitude of the agent to the patient. If, therefore, certain evils and
destructions happen to parts, they are salutary and good as with
reference to wholes and the harmony of the universe, but to parts
they introduce a necessary corruption, either from not being able to
bear the energies of wholes, or from a certain other commixture and
temperament of their own imbecility, or, in the third place, from the
privation of symmetry in the parts to each other.
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