Dr. Monroe's current research includes ethnographic descriptions, oral narratives, interviews, and ritual observations that center on the nganga of Palo Monte. He approaches the analysis of the nganga through a material and ritual assessment of this religious object that communicates the discourse of practitioners and uncovers a more informative notion of cultural production in practice. An in-depth exploration of nganga provides a material site in the cultural construction of Reglas Congas and informs discussions of diasporic consciousness. Religious studies, art history, and anthropology (and other social sciences) inform the examination of the nganga by contextualizing a historical backdrop for understanding religiosity, material culture, and cultural conceptions. The historical review of disparate representations of these practices suggests that the way in which scholars have approached African diasporic continuities in Cuban religious practices. Many approaches have not attended to how Spanish colonial practices were active participants in the political formation of African Cuban ethnicity and these disparate beliefs systems. Consequently, assessments of the means in which African identified practices overlap ignores how these practices are hierarchically bound within a larger colonial history of power and ordered perceptions.