Chapter 4 TRANSATLANTIC TRANSFORMATIONS: THE ORIGINS AND IDENTITIES OF AFRICANS IN THE AMERICAS Paul E. Lovejoy E thnicity and religious ailiation provide distinct categories that were essential in the identiication of the enslaved, as they were for all sec- tions of society in both Africa and the Americas. 1 In the context of slavery, ethnicity and religious ailiation are often thought to have overlapped to a considerable extent, although as Maureen Warner-Lewis has argued, ethnic and religious plurality was common (Warner-Lewis, 1997). hus, Yoruba slaves are readily identiiable through religious practices, particularly their association with orisha, Ifà divination, and santeria. Similarly, Ewe/Fon are associated with vodun, and while obeah is sometimes associated with Akan and more recently perhaps with Igbo origins, the ethnic/religious overlay is again apparent. In the context of some ‘creole’ societies in the Ameri- cas, there is disagreement over the African roots of particular religious practices and beliefs, in which ethnic origins and religious observance are considered to be intrinsically linked. his essay is an attempt to distinguish religious and ethnic factors in the process of identiication and community formation under slavery 2 Religion and ethnicity ofered related but contrasting mechanisms for group identity that must be examined in historical context. Despite confusion in the scholarly literature, I would contend that both religion and ethnicity served to integrate individuals of diverse backgrounds into communities and social networks of interaction that were products of the slave trade. Both ethnicity and religion ‘creolized’ slaves in the sense that gh