The images that link these "spirit groups" (Shapiro, p. 832) are "maintained and codified through the agency of the symbols of blood, oil, honey and water." The rituals go well beyond "what Catholicism teaches" and indeed through these cultural activities the participants are rejecting Catholicism (which Lily certainly was doing in Kidd's novel) and saying that slaves have as much power as the Catholic saints.
In the Giro group that Shapiro (who is an anthropologist and who conducted field work in Brazil) attended, dende oil along with "water and honey" was placed "behind the door" during spirit sessions "to remove irradiations from the street and the crossroads so that bad things would not happen" (Shapiro, p. 835). The author (pp. 836-837) met Helena, a Giro spirit leader, and learned that honey is "specifically associated with the caboclo spirits of indigenous Amerindians who are characteristically either young and handsome, brave and obstreperous, hunters or cowboys, or wild and savage." These spirits that are connected with honey are the epitome of freedom "of action and will" and they are healers -- the "antithesis of slave spirits." When honey is on a plate on the white tablecloth it is used "to sweeten a person's feelings or path." And so honey in the Giro spirit dynamic has absolutely no "symbolic connection with Africa or slavery." And because it is light amber in color (neither dark like blood and dende nor light like water) it "transforms color from something that stains a person as poor" (like being Afro-Brazilian) and immoral to a sign of incorporation of positive attitudes" (Shapiro, p. 837). A positive attitude is certainly a part of Lily's life and times, and honey blends in ideally with this concept.
Zuckerman, Phil. "The Sociology of Religion of W.E.B. Du Bois." Sociology...
Twice she disappeared in the fogged billows, then gradually reemerged like a dream rising up from the bottom of the night" (Kidd, p. 67). Bees creating "wreaths around her head" is adding another image to the element of honey and bees. In the ancient Greco-Roman world people wore wreaths as an indication of their rank in society, or their status, or their occupation. Apollo wore a wreath of laurel
Secret Life of Bees Taking place in the vicious American South in 1964, the era of the Civil Rights Act and increasing racial resentment, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees is an plausible story not just about bees, but of the coming-of-age story, of the gift of love to transform our lives, and of the often misunderstood desire for comparable women and human rights. Even though this novel is
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