Dallas, USA - Police and religious experts say that a pot containing a human skull, found near the bodies of a missing couple last week, appears to be a shrine of the Afro-Caribbean religion Palo Mayombe.
Detectives stressed that there is no connection between the killings and the shrine. And religious scholars said that despite stereotypes, there is no element of human sacrifice in Palo Mayombe or other Afro-Caribbean religions, such as Santeria or Voodoo.
The pot was found Jan. 29 near Interstate 45 and Dowdy Ferry Road as police searched for the couple. But it was across a river and hundreds of yards from the bodies.
The three-legged iron vessel was wrapped in black and red cloth and contained animal bones, chicken feathers, a machete and an 18-inch statue of a man, carved from dark wood. Police also found a human skull.
It appears to be a prenda or nganga, used by followers to house the spirits of the dead and of nature, said Eoghan Ballard, who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on African religions.
Palo Mayombe originated in the Congo in west-central Africa. Like Santeria and Voodoo, it spread to the Caribbean through the slave trade and to the U.S. after the Cuban exodus of the 1960s.
"It's important to remember these aren't synonyms," Mr. Ballard said. "They are names for very different African religions."
Palo Mayombe is a naturalistic religion in which followers believe in drawing energy from the earth, said Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, a religious studies professor at the University of Miami.
Ms. Maldonado said there is much less scholarly research on the religion than on Santeria or Voodoo. Palo Mayombe is rare and secretive.
There are numerous Palo denominations, and as they developed through the slave trade, followers mixed in other customs. Some Palo priests believe they can make bad things happen to other people, giving the religion a reputation for black magic, Ms. Maldonado said.
"There's no governing body that dictates religious ritual, so there's not as if there is a manual you're given," she said.
Ms. Maldonado said she had never come across a human skull in her studies of Palo Mayombe, but Mr. Ballard said he had.
But both doubted that the skull had been stolen from a grave.
"Most of them now buy them through legal sources [such as medical supply stores] because like most people, they don't want to be arrested," Mr. Ballard said. A search of eBay found a handful of purported human skulls being sold for about $300.
Hutchins police Detective Emily Owens said it remains a mystery why the shrine was in the woods because the vessel is usually associated with home worship.
"We don't think there was any rituals going on out at the site," she said. "There may be a reason why it was out there. I haven't found that out yet."
Mr. Ballard suggested two theories. He said a follower might have been instructed through a ritual to set it there for a certain time to allow it to gain energy from nature. It's also possible that a follower converted to Christianity and disposed of an object they now considered an implement of the devil.
Other experts said it might have been disposed of after its owner died, allowing it to return to nature.
The shrine's discovery near the bodies of Linoshka Torres and Luis Campos and the initial linking by police to Santeria has angered followers of that religion, who said it only fuels stereotypes that the group practices human sacrifice.
"This is absolutely, absolutely not Santeria," said Ernesto Pichardo, a vocal Santeria priest in the Miami area.
He said Santeria has been given a bad name by criminals. In 1989, a cult and drug-smuggling ring killed 15 people near Matamoros, Mexico, under the guise of Santeria.
"He was just outright killing people related to the drug trade, and he was using this delusion of religion to control the people he was involved with," Mr. Pichardo said.
There is a double standard for Afro-Caribbean religions, he said: When crimes happen and ritual objects are found, people automatically think it's part of the religion. But when mothers kill their children to give them to God or to protect them from the devil, people attribute it to mental illness.