prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Migene González-Wippler is leading expert on a religion that developed among which ethnic group ?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Ovambo people
The Ovambo people (pronounced [ovambo] (listen)), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama), are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily modern Namibia  They are the single largest ethnic group in Namibia, accounting for about half of the population  They have retained many aspects of their cultural practices, despite concerted efforts from Christian missionaries to wipe out what were believed to be ‘pagan practices’  They are also found in the southern Angolan province of Cunene, where they are more commonly referred to as "Ambo"  The Ovambo consist of a number of kindred Bantu ethnic tribes who inhabit what was formerly  called Ovamboland  In Angola, they are a minority, accounting for about two percent of the total Angolan population There are about 2 million ethnic Ovambo, and they are predominantly Lutheran Christians (97%) 

Demographics
The Ovambo people reside in the flat sandy grassy plains of north Namibia and the Cunene Province in south Angola, sometimes referred to as Ovamboland  These plains are generally flat, stoneless and at high altitude Water courses, known as oshanas, irrigate the area  In the northern regions of Ovamboland is tropical vegetation sustained by abundant but seasonal rainfall that floods the region into temporary lakes and islands  In dry season, these pools of water empty out  The Ovambo have adapted to the widely varying seasonal weather patterns with their housing, agriculture, and livestock practices The Ovambo people are a Bantu-speaking group  In Namibia, these are the AaNdonga, Ovakwanyama, Aakwambi, Aangandjera, Aambalantu, Ovaunda, Aakolonkadhi, Aakwaluudhi and Aambandja  In Angola, they are the Ovakwanyama, Aakafima, Evale and Aandonga  The Ovakwanyama are the largest sub-tribe 

History
The Ovambo started migrating to their current location around the 14th century from the Zambia region to the northeast  They settled near the Angola-Namibia border then expanded further south in Namibia in the 17th century  They have a close cultural, linguistic and historical relationship to the Herero people found in more southern parts of Namibia, and Kavango people to their east settled around the Okavango River In contrast to most ethnic groups in Africa, their isolated, low-density pastoral nomadic lifestyle left the Ovambo people largely unaffected by Swahili-Arab and European traders before the 19th century  When Germany established a colony in Namibia in 1884, they left the Ovambo people undisturbed  The Germans focused on the southern and coastal regions  After World War I, Namibia was annexed by the South African government into the Union of South Africa as the Territory of South West Africa  This brought major changes, with South African plantation, cattle breeding and mining operations entering the Ovamboland  The Portuguese colonial administration in Angola, who had previously focused on their coastal, northern and eastern operations, entered southern Angola to form a border with the expanding South African presence  The Ovambo people launched several armed rebellions against South African rule in the 1920s and 1930s, which were all suppressed by the Union Defence Force The South African administration in Namibia continued the so-called "Police Zone" in south, a region created by the Germans with a veterinary Red Line covering about two-thirds of the province later to become Namibia  Ovambo people were not allowed to move into the Police Zone, neither other tribes nor Europeans could move north without permits  This isolated the Ovambo people, preserving traditional authorities and reducing numbers of White farmers in the north  However, because of labor shortage in the Police Zone and South Africa, in part because of massacre of native Africans such as through the Herero and Namaqua genocide, the South African government allowed migrant wage labor  Numerous Ovambo people became migrant laborers in South African towns such as Cape Town and in the Police Zone, where they experienced segregation and lived under highly restrained human rights The South African Apartheid rule was brought into the Ovamboland in 1948  The South African government declared the Ovamboland an independent province in 1973, and appointed chiefs aligned with the South African government's policies  The Ovambo people rejected these developments, and in 1975 the appointed chief minister of Ovamboland was assassinated  In conjunction with the armed SWAPO movement, Namibia and its Ovambo people gained independence from South Africa in 1990 

Religion
Traditional religion
The traditional religion of the Ovambo people is the primary faith of less than 3%, as most state Christianity to be their primary faith  The Ovambo's traditional religion envisions a supreme being named Kalunga, with their rites and rituals centered around sacred fire like many ethnic groups in southwestern Africa  The Kalunga cosmology states that the Supreme Being created the first man and first woman, who had a daughter and two sons  It is the daughter's lineage that created Ovambo people, according to the traditional beliefs of the matrilineal Ovambo people The rituals involve elaborate fire making and keeping ceremonies, rain making dance, and rites have involved throwing herbs in the fire and inhaling the rising smoke  The head priest traditionally was the king of a tribe, and his role was in part to attend to the supernatural spirits and be the chief representative of the Ovambo tribe to the deities 

Christianity
Christianity arrived among the Ovambo people in the late 19th century  The first Finnish missionaries arrived in Ovamboland in the 1870s, and Ovambo predominantly converted and thereof have identified themselves as Lutheran Christians  The influence of the Finnish missions not only related to the religion, but cultural practices  For example, the typical dress style of the contemporary Ovambo women that includes a head scarf and loose full length maxi, is derived from those of the 19th-century Finnish missionaries The Ovambo now predominantly follow Christian theology, prayer rituals and festivities, but some of the traditional religious practices have continued, such as the use of ritual sacred fire  They also invoke their supreme creator Kalunga  Thus, the Ovamba have preferred a syncretic form of Christianity  Most weddings feature a combination of Christian beliefs and Ovambo traditions  Their traditional dancing is done to drumming (Oshiwambo folk music) 

Society and culture
The traditional home is a complex of huts surrounded by a fence of large vertical poles linked by two horizontal poles on each side  The complex is a maze with two gates but it is easy to get lost within the homestead  Each hut generally has a different purpose, such as a Ondjugo (the woman of the homestead's hut) or Epata (kitchen area) 
The Ovambo people lead a settled life, relying mostly on a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry  The staple crops have been millet and sorghum (iilyavala), and beans (omakunde) are another popular crop  In drier regions or seasons, pastoral activity with herds of cattle (eengobe/eenghwandabi), goats (iikombo/onakamela) and sheep (eedi) becomes more important  The animal husbandry is not for meat (ombelela), but primarily as a source of milk (omashini)  Their food is supplemented by hunting, fishing, and gathering During the colonial era, the Ovambo were active in elephant (eenjaba) hunting for their tusks to supply the ivory demand, and they nearly hunted the elephants in their region to extinction 

Each Ovambo tribe had a hereditary chief who is responsible for the tribe  Many tribes adapted representation by having a council of headmen who run tribal affairs  Members of the royal family of the Owamboland are known as aakwanekamba, ovakwaluvala, ovakwamalanga, ovakwaanime, aakwanyoka and many more; only those who belong to this family by birth, through the maternal line, have a claim to chieftainship  The tribes figure their descent by a matrilineal kinship system, with hereditary chiefs arising from the daughter's children, not the son's  Polygyny is accepted, with the first wife recognized as the senior 

Ovambo brew a traditional liquor called ombike  It is distilled from fermented fruit mash and particularly popular in rural areas  The fruit to produce ombike are collected from makalani palms (Hyphaene petersiana), jackal berries (Diospyros mespiliformis), buffalo thorns (Ziziphus mucronata), bird plumes and cluster figs (Ficus racemosa)  Ombike, with additives like sugar, is also brewed and consumed in urban areas  This liquor is then called omangelengele; it is more potent and sometimes poisonous  New Era, a Namibian English-language daily newspaper, reported that clothes, shoes, and tyres have been found to have been brewed as ingredients of omangelengele 

Ovambo clans
The following table contains the names, areas, dialect names and the locations of the Ovambo according to T  E  Tirronen's Ndonga-English Dictionary  The table also contains information concerning the classification of noun class of the Proto-Bantu language for these words 

See also
Herero people
Himba people
Nama people
Oorlam people
Passage 2:
Santería
Santería (Spanish pronunciation: [san̪ t̪eˈɾi a]), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diasporic religion that developed in cuba during the late 19th century  It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional Yoruba religion of West Africa, the Catholic form of Christianity, and Spiritism  There is no central authority in control of Santería and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as creyentes ("believers") 
Santería is polytheistic and revolves around deities called oricha  Deriving their names and attributes from traditional Yoruba divinities, they are equated with Roman Catholic saints  Each human is believed to have a personal link to a particular oricha who influences their personality  Various myths are told about these oricha, who are regarded as subservient to Olodumare, a transcendent creator deity  Olodumare is believed to be the ultimate source of aché, a supernatural force permeating the universe that can be manipulated through ritual actions  Practitioners venerate the oricha at altars, either in the home or in the casa (temple), which is run by a santero (priest) or santera (priestess)  Membership of the casa requires initiation  Offerings to the oricha include fruit, liquor, flowers and sacrificed animals  A central ritual is the toque de santo, in which practitioners drum, sing, and dance to encourage an oricha to possess one of their members and thus communicate with them  Several forms of divination are used, including Ifá, to decipher messages from the oricha  Offerings are also given to the spirits of the dead, with some practitioners identifying as spirit mediums  Healing rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies and talismans also play a prominent role 
Santería developed among Afro-Cuban communities following the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries  It formed through the blending of the traditional religions brought to Cuba by enslaved West Africans, the majority of them Yoruba, and Roman Catholicism, the only religion legally permitted on the island by the Spanish colonial government  In urban areas of West Cuba, these traditions merged with Spiritist ideas to form the earliest casas during the late 19th century  After the Cuban War of Independence resulted in an independent republic in 1898, its new constitution enshrined freedom of religion  Santería nevertheless remained marginalized by Cuba's Roman Catholic, Euro-Cuban establishment, which typically viewed it as brujería (witchcraft)  In the 1960s, growing emigration following the Cuban Revolution spread Santería abroad  The late 20th century saw growing links between Santería and related traditions in West Africa and the Americas, such as Haitian Vodou and Brazilian Candomblé  Since the late 20th century, some practitioners have emphasized a "Yorubization" process to remove Roman Catholic influences and created forms of Santería closer to traditional Yoruba religion 
Practitioners of Santería are primarily found in Cuba's La Habana and Matanzas provinces, although communities exist across the island and abroad, especially among the Cuban diasporas of Mexico and the United States  The religion remains most common among working-class Afro-Cuban communities although is also practiced by individuals of other class and ethnic backgrounds  The number of initiates is estimated to be in the high hundreds of thousands  These initiates serve as diviners and healers for a much larger range of adherents of varying levels of fidelity, making the precise numbers of those involved in Santería difficult to determine  Many of those involved also identify as practitioners of another religion, typically Roman Catholicism 

Definitions
The term Santería translates into English as the "way of the saints"  This term was first used by scholarly commentators in the 1930s and later spread among the religion's practitioners themselves  It has become the most popular name for the religion, although some practitioners find it offensive  A common alternative is Regla de Ocha, meaning "the rule of ocha", ocha being a term for the religion's deities  Some adherents regard this as the religion's "official" name  The tradition has also been called Lucumí, in reference to the colonial Spanish term for the Yoruba people, or alternatively La Religión Lucumí ("the Lucumí religion") or Regla Lucumí ("the rule of Lucumí") Santería is an Afro-Caribbean religion, and more specifically an Afro-Cuban religion  In Cuba it is sometimes described as "the national religion", although it has also spread abroad  Santería's roots are in the traditional religions brought to Cuba by enslaved West Africans, the majority of them Yoruba, between the 16th and 19th centuries  In Cuba, these religions mixed with the Roman Catholicism introduced by Spanish colonialists  Roman Catholic saints were conflated with West African deities, while enslaved Africans adopted Roman Catholic rituals and sacramentals  In the 19th century, elements from Spiritism—a French variant of Spiritualism—were drawn into the mix, with Santería emerging as a distinct religion in western Cuba during the late 19th century Although Santería is the best known of the Afro-Cuban religions, and the most popular, it is not the only one  Others include Palo, which derives from practices originating in the Congo Basin, and Abakuá, which has its origins among the secret male societies practiced among the Efik-Ibibio  Many practitioners of Palo and Abakuá also follow Santería  Another Afro-Cuban religion is Arará, which derives from practices among the Ewe and Fon; although its origins are not Yoruba, it is sometimes considered a branch of Santería rather than a separate system  
Santería also has commonalities with other West African and West African-derived traditions in the Americas which collectively form the "Orisha religion", "Orisha Tradition", or "Orisha worship " These include Haitian Vodou and Brazilian Candomblé, sometimes characterized as "sister religions" of Santería due to their shared origins in Yoruba traditional religion Santería is a flexible and eclectic tradition, with considerable variation in how it is practiced  There is no strict orthodoxy, no key sacred text, and no central authority in control of the entire religion  It has absorbed elements from many cultures that it has encountered, such as that of the Chinese migrants who came to Cuba in the 19th century, while in continental North America, Santería has also incorporated influences from Central American and Mexican religions as well as from New Age and modern Pagan practices  As well as it being common for Cubans to idiosyncratically blend ideas from different religions, many of Santería's practitioners claim multiple religious allegiances  Santería's adherents often consider themselves to be Roman Catholics—some priests and priestesses of Santería refuse to initiate anyone who is not a baptised Roman Catholic—and others consider themselves to be Spiritists, Hindus, Vodouists, or Jews 

Terms for practitioners
Different vocabulary indicates the level of a practitioner's involvement, with the various terms sometimes reflecting different political and social agendas  Practitioners of both Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions are called creyentes ("believers")  Some people external to the religion have referred to its practitioners as "santerians" although this is not used by adherents themselves  A non-initiate, including those who may attend public Santería ceremonies, is an aleyo ("stranger"); these non-initiates make up the majority of people involved in the religion  Initiates are known as santero if male, and santera if female, although these two terms have sometimes been used for anyone, initiate or not, who participates in the religion  Alternative terms for an initiate are babalocha or babaloricha ("father-deity") if male and an iyalocha or iyaloricha ("mother-deity") if female  Those who have a sustained engagement with the religion are also referred to as omoricha ("children of the oricha"), aboricha ("one who worships the oricha"), and an oloricha ("one who belongs to the oricha") 

Beliefs
Olodumare and the oricha
Santería teaches the existence of an overarching divinity, known as Olodumare, Olofi, or Olorun  Practitioners believe that this divinity created the universe but takes little interest in human affairs  As this creator deity is inaccessible to humanity, no major offerings are dedicated to it  The three facets of this divinity are understood slightly differently; Olodumare represents the divine essence of all that exists, Olorun is regarded as the creator of all beings, while Olofi dwells in all creation  In taking a triplicate form, this deity displays similarities with the Christian Trinity 

The oricha
Santeria is polytheistic, revolving around deities called oricha, ocha, or santos ("saints")  The term oricha can be both singular and plural, because Lucumí, the ritual language of Santería, lacks plural markers for nouns  Practitioners believe that some oricha were created before humanity, while others were originally humans who became oricha through some remarkable quality  Some practitioners perceive the oricha as facets of Olodumare, and thus think that by venerating them they are ultimately worshipping the creator god  Certain oricha are female, others male  They are not regarded as wholly benevolent, being capable of both harming and helping humans, and displaying a mix of emotions, virtues, and vices Origin myths and other stories about the oricha are called patakíes  Each oricha is understood to "rule over" a particular aspect of the universe, and they have been described as personifications of different facets of the natural world  They live in a realm called orún, which is contrasted with ayé, the realm of humanity  Oricha each have their own caminos ("roads"), or manifestations, a concept akin to the Hindu concept of avatars  The number of caminos an oricha has varies, with some having several hundred  Practitioners believe that oricha can physically inhabit certain objects, among them stones and cowrie shells, which are deemed sacred  Each oricha is also associated with specific songs, rhythms, colors, numbers, animals, and foodstuffs 

Among the oricha are the four "warrior deities", or guerrors: Eleguá, Ogun, Ochosi, and Osun  Eleguá is viewed as the guardian of the crossroads and thresholds; he is the messenger between humanity and the oricha, and most ceremonies start by requesting his permission to continue  He is depicted as being black on one side and red on the other, and practitioners will frequently place a cement head decorated with cowrie shells that represents Eleguá behind their front door, guarding the threshold to the street  The second guerro is Ogun, viewed as the oricha of weapons and war, and also of iron and blacksmiths  The third, Ochosi, is associated with woods and hunting, while the fourth, Osun, is a protector who warns practitioners when they are in danger Perhaps the most popular oricha, Changó or Shango is associated with lightning and fire  Another prominent oricha is Yemaja, the deity associated with maternity, fertility, and the sea  Ochún is the oricha of rivers and of romantic love, while Oyá is a warrior associated with wind, lightning, and death, and is viewed as the guardian of the cemetery  Obatalá is the oricha of truth and justice and is deemed responsible for helping to mould humanity  Babalú Ayé is the oricha associated with disease and its curing, while Osain is linked to herbs and healing  Orula is the oricha of divination, who in Santería's mythology was present at the creation of humanity and thus is aware of everyone's destiny  Ibeyi takes the form of twins who protect children  Olokún is the patron oricha of markets, while his wife Olosá is associated with lagoons  Agagyú is the oricha of volcanoes and the wasteland  Some oricha are deemed antagonistic to others; Changó and Ogun are for instance enemies Although in Santería the term santo is regarded as a synonym of oricha and is not a literal reference to Christian saints, the oricha are often conflated with one or more Roman Catholic saints based on similar attributes  For instance, the Holy Infant of Atocha, a depiction of Christ as a child, is conflated with Eleguá, who is seen as having a childlike nature  Babalú Ayé, who is associated with disease, is often identified with the Catholic Saint Lazarus, who rose from the dead, while  Changó is conflated with Santa Barbara because they both wear red  Cuba's patron saint, Our Lady of Charity, is equated with Ochún  It has been argued that Yoruba slaves initially linked their traditional deities with Christian saints as a means of concealing their continued worship of the former from the Spanish authorities, or as a means of facilitating social mobility by assimilating into Roman Catholic social norms 

Relationships with the oricha
Santería's focus is on cultivating a reciprocal relationship with the oricha, with adherents believing that these deities can intercede in human affairs and help people if they are appeased  Practitioners argue that each person is "born to" a particular oricha, whether or not they devote themselves to that deity  This is a connection that, adherents believe, has been set before birth  Practitioners refer to this oricha as one that "rules the head" of an individual; it is their "owner of the head"  If the oricha is male then it is described as the individual's "father"; if the oricha is female then it is the person's "mother"  This oricha is deemed to influence the individual's personality, and can be recognised through examining the person's personality traits, or through divination To gain the protection of a particular oricha, practitioners are encouraged to make offerings to them, sponsor ceremonies in their honor, and live in accordance with their wishes, as determined through divination  Practitioners are concerned at the prospect of offending the oricha 
Creyentes believe that the oricha can communicate with humans through divination, prayers, dreams, music, and dance  Many practitioners also describe how they "read" messages from the oricha in everyday interactions and events  For instance, a practitioner who meets a child at a traffic intersection may interpret this as a message from Eleguá, who is often depicted as a child and who is perceived as the "guardian" of the crossroads  At that point the practitioner may turn to divination to determine the precise meaning of the encounter  The information obtained from these messages may then help practitioners make decisions about their life 

Birth and the dead
Santería teaches that the human head contains a person's essence, their eledá or orí  It maintains that before birth, the eledá goes before Olodumare, where it is given its essential character, and forms a link with the oricha who becomes "the owner of the head"  The concept of the eledá derives from Yoruba traditional religion, where it is seen as a person's "spiritual double"  In Santería, this concept idea has syncretised with Roman Catholic beliefs about guardian angels and Spiritist notions of the protecciones or protector spirits  There is no strict orthodoxy on this issue and thus interpretations differ  Practitioners often believe that everyone has a specific destiny, their destino (destiny) or camino (road), although their fate is not completely predetermined Ancestor veneration is important in Santería  The religion entails propitiating the spirits of the dead, known as egun, espíritus, or muertos  Practitioners believe that the dead must be treated with respect, awe, and kindness; they are consulted at all ceremonies  Although the dead are not deemed as powerful as the oricha, they are still thought capable of assisting the living, with whom they can communicate through dreams, intuition, and spirit possession  Santería teaches that a person can learn to both see and communicate with the dead  Practitioners will often provide offerings, typically seven glasses of water, to the egun to placate and please them  Especially propitiated are those egun regarded as ancestors; these ancestors can include both hereditary forebears or past members of one's congregation, with practitioners believing that a creyente becomes an ancestor when they die Adherents believe that everyone has a cuadro espiritual ("spiritual portrait" or "spiritual picture") of egun who protect them  Individuals can have as many as 25 protectores, or protective spirits  The religion maintains that all people have multiple egun accompanying them at all times, and that these can be benevolent, malevolent, or a mix of both  Practitioners also believe that the number and identities of these spirits can be determined through divination  It draws a distinction between evolved spirits, who can help those they are attached to, and unevolved spirits, who lack the wisdom and skill to be useful and instead cause havoc  Santería teaches that through offerings and prayers, individuals can help some of their unevolved spirits to become evolved  Santería also divides the spirits into categories that each exhibit different traits, reflecting stereotypes about different social groups, with such spirits often portrayed as African, Haitian, Gypsy, Arab, or Plains Indian  The gitano (gypsy) spirits for instance are believed capable of foreseeing impending troubles and diagnosing illnesses while the congo spirits of Africa are perceived as strong-willed, powerful, and adept at guiding people through hostile circumstances 

Aché
Aché is a major cosmological concept in Yoruba traditional religion and has been transferred to Santería  Aché is regarded as the organizing power of the cosmos; the Hispanic studies scholars Margarite Fernández Olmos and Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert referred to it as "a spiritual-mystical energy or power found in varying degrees and in many forms throughout the universe"  The medical anthropologist Johan Wedel described it as "life force" or "divine force", while the folklorist Michael Atwood Mason called aché the "ritual generative power"  The ethnomusicologist Katherine Hagedorn described aché as "the realized and inherent divine potential in all aspects of life, even in apparently inert objects " She added that "Aché is neither good nor bad; rather, aché is motion" While deeming Olodumare the ultimate embodiment of aché, practitioners believe that aché permeates all life, and is present in both the visible and invisible world  It is nevertheless deemed to sometimes congregate more densely, for instance in the forces of nature, specific locales, and in certain human individuals; initiates are believed to attract more of it than other humans  Santería holds that aché can emanate from the human body via speech, song, dance, and drumming, and can be transmitted through such acts as singing praise songs for the oricha or sacrificing an animal  Among practitioners, aché is sometimes described as conveying notions of luck, health, and prosperity, and has the power to fortify a person's health 

Morality, ethics, and gender roles
Santería has standards for behavior expected of practitioners, encouraging behaviors influenced by the mythological stories about the oricha  The religion presents strict rules regarding how to interact with other people and with the supernatural, for instance placing emphasis on respect for elders and superiors  A general attitude in Santería is that if an individual maintains good character, the oricha will aid them  Practitioners generally take socially conservative stances, having high regard for traditional family structures, marriage, fidelity, and child-rearing; adherents in the United States often adopt more progressive stances on issues surrounding gender and sexuality than their counterparts in Cuba The religion is non-dualistic and does not view the universe as being divided between good and evil; rather, all things are perceived as being complementary and relative  Several academics have described Santería as having a "here-and-now" ethos distinct from that of Christianity, and the social scientist Mercedes C  Sandoval suggested that many Cubans chose Santería over Roman Catholicism or Spiritism because it emphasizes techniques for dealing with pragmatic problems in life  In the U S , some African American adherents have contrasted what they regard as the African-derived ethos of Santería with the non-African origins of Christianity, thus adopting it as a religion readily combined with black nationalism The scholar of religion Mary Ann Clark labelled Santería a "female oriented and female normative" religion, arguing that all of its practitioners are expected to take on "female gender roles" during its rituals  Women can hold the highest leadership positions, although restrictions are placed on them while menstruating  Similar restrictions are also placed on homosexual males, traditionally prohibiting them from taking part in certain forms of divination and ritual drumming  Many gay men are nevertheless santeros, and some santeras are lesbians  A stereotype exists that all male Santería priests are homosexual, and members of other Afro-Cuban traditions with a more masculinist orientation, such as Palo, have often denigrated it for being dominated by women and men they consider to be "womanly" 

Practices
Santería is a practice-oriented religion; ritual correctness is considered more important than belief  It has an elaborate system of ritual, with its rites termed ceremonias (ceremonies)  Most of its activities revolve around the oricha, focusing on solving the problems of everyday life  Practitioners usually use the term "work" in reference to ritual activity; thus "working ocha" describes its rites Santería is an initiatory religion, one which is organized around a structured hierarchy  An ethos of secrecy pervades many of its practices, with initiates often refusing to discuss certain topics with non-initiates  For this reason, Mason described Santería as a secret society  For ritual purposes, the Lucumí language is often used  Sometimes referred to as la lengua de los orichas ("the language of the oricha"), it is regarded as a divine language through which practitioners can contact the deities  Although some practitioners are uncomfortable using it, most initiates know tens or hundreds of Lucumí words and phrases  Most Cubans do not understand the Lucumí language, barring a few words that have filtered into Cuban Spanish  Lucumí derives from the Yoruba language, although it has become "increasingly fragmented and unintelligible" since the 19th century  As Yoruba transitioned into Lucumí, the Yoruba pronunciations of many words were forgotten, and in the early 21st century some practitioners have studied the Yoruba language to better understand the original meaning of Lucumí words 

Houses of worship
Rituals take place in the casa templo ("house of worship"), casa de santos ("house of saints"), casa de religión ("house of religion"), or ilé ("house")  This casa ("house") is usually the personal home of a santero or santera  It will typically have an inner room, the igbodu ("sacred grove of the festival"), where the most important rituals take place  There will also be an eyá aránla or sala, often a living room, where semi-private rites can be conducted  Another space, the iban balo, or patio, will be used for public occasions, as well as for the cultivation of plants and the housing of animals due to be sacrificed  The casa will typically include a place to store ritual paraphernalia, kitchen facilities, and space for visitors to sleep The casa refers not only to the building where ceremonies take place, but also the community of practitioners who meet there  In this sense, many casas trace a lineage back to the 19th century, with some santeros and santeras capable of listing the practitioners who have been initiated into it  In some ceremonies, the names of these individuals, who are regarded as the ancestors of the house, are recited in chronological order 
Although members of different houses often interact, each casa is largely autonomous, allowing for variation in their practices  In Cuba, it is common for Santería practitioners to meet with each other regularly, and to regard each other as being akin to a family: the familia de santo  Conversely, in an area like Veracruz in Mexico, many practitioners attend group rituals and then leave, sometimes never seeing their co-practitioners again Most casas are established by a santero or santera who has attracted a following  An apprentice is known as their ahijado (godson) or ahijada (goddaughter)  They refer to their santero/santera as padrino (godfather) or madrina (godmother)  The relationship between santeros/santeras and their "godchildren" is central to the religion's social organization, and practitioners believe that the more "godchildren" a santera or santero has, the greater their aché  The "godchildren" are expected to contribute both their labor and finances to events held at the casa and in return the santero/santera provides assistance for their needs  Within the religion, offending one's godparent is regarded as also offending the oricha that "rules the head"  Practitioners express respect both to their godparent and the oricha via a ritual prostration, the moforibale, in which they bow their head to the floor  The precise form of the moforibale differs depending on whether the individual's personal oricha is male or female 

Shrines
Altars or shrines to the oricha are typically found both within the igbodu and in practitioners' homes  Central to these altars are sacred objects, termed fundamentos ("fundamentals"), which are contained within porcelain vessels, often tureens, called sopera  The most important of the fundamentos are stones termed otanes (sing  otán), which are regarded as the literal and symbolic representation of the oricha, and thus living entities  They are deemed to be sources of aché, with older otanes having more aché than younger ones Practitioners will collect stones from the landscape and then use divination to determine which ones contain an oricha and, if so, which oricha it is  Specific otanes sometimes display traits linking them to particular oricha; for example ocean stones are linked with Yemaya, river pebbles with Ochún, and meteorite fragments with Changó  Each oricha is deemed to prefer a particular color and number of otanes in sopera devoted to them; Changó has six or ten black stones, Obatala has eight white stones, while Ochún favors five yellow stones  New otanes undergo a bautismo ("baptism") rite, entailing them being washed in osain, a mixture of herbs and water, and then "fed" with animal blood  When an initiate receives their stones, they take an oath to protect them and feed them at least annually 

Other material placed inside the sopera includes cowrie shells; usually 18 are added although the precise number differs depending on which oricha the sopera is devoted to  The sopera will often be covered by a cloth known as a pañuelo that is colored in accordance with the oricha in question  Often laid over the sopera are necklaces known as collares, again representing a particular oricha  On the altar, the sopera will be arranged in a descending hierarchy depending on which oricha each is dedicated to, with that of Obatala at the top Many altars contain few or no anthropomorphic depictions of the oricha, although will often include objects associated with them; a wooden axe for Changó or a fan for Ochún, for instance  Creating these altars is deemed expensive and time-consuming  Material may be selected based on the tastes of the adherent; anthropologists have observed practitioners who have included Taoist figurines or statues of wizards, on their altars  Food and flowers are often placed on the altar as offerings  Although rarely included on their altars, practitioners will often have statues of Roman Catholic saints elsewhere in their homes In addition to their altar to the oricha, many practitioners have altars set aside for the spirits of the dead  These typically consist of a white-covered table known as a bóveda, something derived from the White Table of Spiritism  Bóveda often feature photographs of deceased relatives, to whom offerings are given; popular offerings for the spirits of the dead include seven glasses of water, a cafecito coffee, and the aguardiente liquor  Alternatively, many practitioners of Santería—like those who follow Palo—will have a rinconcito ("little corner"), a small area in which they collect together assorted objects, often those typically found in a household, as a material manifestation of the dead  Offerings to the dead may be placed here  Many practitioners will also enshrine their family ancestors under the bathroom sink  This location is chosen so that the ancestors can travel between the realms of the living and the dead via the water in the pipes 

Offerings and animal sacrifice
Offerings are called ebbó (or ebó), and are given to the oricha, ancestral spirits, to a person's own ori, and sometimes to the earth  These offerings can consist of fruit and other foodstuffs, liquor, flowers, candles, money, or slaughtered animals  Divination is often used to determine the exact nature of the offering; initiates are supposed to provide offerings on a regular basis, and at least once a year  Given to strengthen the supernatural forces, to thank them, or as a supplication, they help form a reciprocal relationship with these entities in the hope of receiving something in return  If this fails to materialise, practitioners may resort to several explanations: that the details of the ritual were incorrect, that the priest or priestess carrying out the rite lacked sufficient aché, or that the wrong ebbó was provided for the situation Conducted by a matador, animal sacrifice is called matanza  It is usually carried out by a man, with menstruating women prohibited from involvement   Birds—including guinea fowl, chickens, and doves—are commonly sacrificed, usually by having their throats slit or their heads twisted and ripped off  For rituals of greater importance, sacrifices are often of four-legged animals  Some practitioners describe the killing of animals as an acceptable substitute to human sacrifice, and in Cuba there have been persistent rumours of children being sacrificed in Santería rites  The oricha and egun are believed to "eat" the blood of the victim; the latter's lifeforce is deemed to transfer to the oricha, thus strengthening its aché  An animal that struggles to avoid being killed is sometimes understood as having particular strength which will then pass to the oricha Once killed, the animals' severed heads may be placed on top of the sopera belonging to the oricha to which the sacrifice has been directed  After the carcass has been butchered, some of the organs—known as acheses—may be cooked and offered to the oricha; other parts will be eaten by practitioners  Some of the blood may be collected and added to omiero, an infusion of herbs and water  Believed to contain much aché, this liquid is used for removing malevolent influences and in ceremonies for baptising ritual tools  Santería's animal sacrifice has been a cause of concern for many non-practitioners  It has sometimes brought adherents into confrontation with the law, as with the 1993 case of Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v  City of Hialeah, in which the U S  Supreme Court ruled that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Santería were unconstitutional 

Initiation
Initiation is known as kariocha, "making ocha", or "making santo"  A charge is levied for initiation; this varies depending on the client, but is often equivalent to a year's wage  Each initiation varies in its details, which are often concealed from non-initiates  The initiate is known as an iyabó or iyawó, a term meaning both "slave of the oricha" and "bride of the oricha"  As well as the santero or santera overseeing the initiation ceremony, the event may be attended by an oyubona or oyugbona ("one who witnesses"), who acts as a secondary godparent to the new initiate The initiation process takes seven days, plus two days of preparatory rituals  During this preparation, a misa espiritual ("spiritual mass") will typically take place to gain the blessings of the ancestral egun, and an ebó de entrada ("opening sacrifice") will be made to the oricha or the egun  Next comes the ceremonia del río ("ceremony of the initiate"), in which offerings are given to Ochún, and the rompimiento ("breaking"), in which the oyubona takes the initiate to purify themselves in a river  The rest of the initiation takes place in the igbodu, where the initiate sleeps upon a mat on the floor for the seven days  No one uninvolved in the initiation is permitted entry  The initiate is given their own otanes, as well as objects representing the warrior oricha  They are also given beaded necklaces, known as elekes, ilekes, or collares  Each necklace is a different color associated with a specific deity  During the prendición ("pinning") ritual, a heavy necklace known as the collar de mazo is placed on the initiate  During the lavatorio ("washing"), the initiate's head is bathed in omiero, designed to rid them of any malevolent spirits attached to them  Often, their hair will be shaved off 

On the día del itá ("day of history"), usually the third day, the initiate will undergo the itá, a session with a diviner  The diviner will reveal the initiate's Lucumí ritual name, a praise name of the oricha that rules their head  This name often incorporates elements indicating the initiate's tutelary oricha; devotees of Yemajá for instance usually include omí ("water"), while those of Changó often have obá ("king")  Next comes the asiento ("seating"), or coronación ("coronation"), which marks the point when the aché of the tutelary oricha is believed to literally enter the initiate's cranium  The otanes of several oricha are placed to the initiate's head, culminating in those of their tutelary oricha  An animal sacrifice usually follows, involving at least five four-legged animals and 25 birds  The following day is el Día del Medio ("the middle day"), when guests—including the initiate's family and friends—pay homage to them  It includes drumming and a feast  On the seventh day of the initiation, the new initiate leaves the casa and visits the marketplace, where they make offerings to Eleguá and steal something small, also as an offering to Eleguá The initiate can finally take their otanes home  They may then undergo a year-long period, the iyaworaje ("journey of the iyawo"), during which they must observe certain restrictions, the nature of which depends on their tutelary oricha  This may for instance include abstaining from sexual intercourse, wearing only white, or not cutting their hair  The iyaworaje ends with the ebó del año ceremony  Once this is done, they may lead rituals and help initiate others  Thenceforth, they will celebrate the annual anniversary of their initiation, their cumpleaños de santo ("birthday in the saint")  Although a largely orally-transmitted tradition, santeros and santeras often emphasise teaching in a non-verbal manner, encouraging their initiates to learn through taking part in the ritual activities  Since at least the 20th century, some initiates have kept libretas, notebooks in which they have written down material relevant to the practice of Santería  These may be shared with their own initiates or kept private 

Toque de santo
Santería's main public ritual is a drumming ceremony called the toque de santo, or tambor  Lasting for up to several hours, this is usually seen as an offering to the oricha, performed to gain their favor  The goal of the rhythms and songs is to summon the oricha to earth, at which point they can possess one of the participants  It is believed that the collective energy built up by the group is necessary in achieving this  In turn, the oricha are believed capable of soothing the grieving, healing the sick, blessing the deserving, and rebuking those who have behaved badly The toque de santo uses double-headed drums called batá, which are sometimes regarded as the central symbol of Santería  There are multiple types of batá: the iyá is the largest, the itótele is smaller, and the okónkolo is the smallest  For ceremonial purposes, these drums must be wooden; adding metal elements could offend Changó, who is associated with wooden artefacts, because of their links with his enemy, Ogun  They may however have brass bells associated with Ochún, known as chaworo, affixed to their rim  Before being used in ceremonies, these drums are baptized, after which they are referred to as a tambor de fundamento  This baptism entails washing the drums in omiero, making sacrifices to Osain, and affixing an afoubo, a small leather bag containing items including a parrot feather and glass beads, to the interior of the drum 

Practitioners believe that the consecrated batá contain a substance called añá, itself an avatar of Ochún  Many drummers avoid mentioning the añá in public and may not refer to it by name  Drums which have not been baptised are not viewed as containing añá, and are called tambores judìos ("Jewish drums")  Particular rhythms played on the drums may be associated with a specific oricha, a group of oricha, or all of the oricha  Those playing the batá are called batáleros  Santería drumming is male dominated; women are discouraged from playing the batá during ceremonies, although by the 1990s some women practitioners in the U S  had taken on the role  Practitioners explain the taboo with the view that menstrual blood can weaken the drum's añá, and that women playing these drums during ceremonies become infertile Praise songs are sung for the oricha, with specific songs associated with particular deities  The lead singer at such ceremonies is known as an akpwón  During the opening verse of the song, the akpwón may break into a personal prayer  The akpwón can switch from song to song quickly, with the drummers having to adapt their rhythm accordingly  A chorus of singers will respond to the akpwón, often while swaying back and forth  These choral responses may split into a two or three-part harmony  Dancing also takes place, with each oricha associated with a particular dance style  The dances at the toque de santo are believed to generate aché, strengthening the link between the realms of the oricha and humanity  Dancing either alone or first in front of the drums at the toque de santo is considered a privilege and is usually reserved for the most experienced initiate present  There are specific rules of engagement that are laid out for taking part in the toque de santo; dancing poorly at the ritual is considered an insult to the oricha 

Possession
Possession is important in Santería, and the purpose of the toque de santo is to call down an oricha to possess one of the participants  The possessed individual is referred to as the "horse", with the oricha having "mounted" them  According to practitioners, becoming possessed by an oricha requires an individual giving up their consciousness to the deity, and accordingly they often claim no memory of the events that occurred during the possession  Some have stated that reaching the mental state whereby an individual can become possessed takes much practice  The onset of the trance is marked by body spasms, termed arullarse Once an individual is possessed, they may be taken into an adjacent room where they are dressed in the ritual clothing pertaining to the possessing oricha, after which they are returned to the main room  As well as speaking in the Lucumí language, those possessed may then display gestures associated with a particular oricha; for instance, those believing themselves possessed by Ochún may wipe their skirt over other people, representing the waves of the ocean, while those regarding themselves as being possessed by Eleguá may steal from assembled participants  The possessed individual will then provide healing or dispense advice; sometimes a possessed person will reprimand others present, for instance for failing to carry out their ritual obligations, or issue them a warning  Some practitioners have also reported becoming possessed by an oricha in non-ritual contexts, such as while sleeping or walking through the streets, or during drumming performances carried out for non-religious purposes 

Healing and amuletic practices
Healing is important in Santería, and health problems are the most common reason why people approach a santero or santera for help  When operating as healers, practitioners are sometimes termed curanderos, or osainistas  Particular focuses of Santería healing include skin complaints, gastrointestinal and respiratory problems, sexually transmitted infections, and issues of female reproduction; some practitioners provide concoctions to induce abortion  Santería healers will typically use divination to determine the cause of an ailment before prescribing treatment Santería teaches that supernatural factors cause or exacerbate ailments  It claims that oricha may make someone sick, either as punishment or to encourage them to make a change in their life, often to become an initiate  The oricha must then be propitiated to stop, sometimes with the sick individual receiving initiation  Santería also holds that a spirit of the dead may attach itself to an individual and thus harm them  Adherents also often believe that humans can harm one another through supernatural means, either involuntarily, by giving them the mal de ojo (evil eye), or deliberately, through brujería (witchcraft)  The latter are often perceived as acting out of envy, utilising cursing techniques from Palo, for which they have employed material, such as hair or nail clippings, taken from their victim Herbalism is a major component of Santería healing practices, with healing plants, termed egwe, having an important role in the religion  Practitioners believe that each species of plant has its own aché which holds healing power; medicinal plants are deemed more powerful if harvested from the wild rather than being cultivated, for the latter can lack aché  Adherents often believe that different types of plant have different temperaments and personalities; some are shy or easily frightened and thus need to be approached with the appropriate etiquette 

To heal a patient, the santero/santera may also prescribe omiero, give them a cleansing bath, or provide them with a collares necklace  They may perform a ritual to transfer the sickness to an animal, sacrifice an animal to a specific oricha to request healing, or encourage an oricha to possess the sick individual and thus heal them  Different oricha are linked to the healing of specific ailments; Ochún is for instance usually requested when dealing with genital problems  People who are sick may undergo the rogación de la cabeza ("blessing of the head"), in which coconut water and cotton are applied to the head to feed the orí  Many practitioners will also encourage their clients to seek mainstream medical assistance, either from doctors or psychotherapists, with Santería healing seen as complementary to medical science Santería features protective talismans known as resguardos  These are created using herbs and blood and produced while in contact with the otanes  Resguardos are often given to small children, who are deemed particularly vulnerable to sorcery  Charms and amulets are also used as a general prophylaxis against illness; one example are ears of corn that are wrapped in purple ribbon and placed behind a doorway  Other rituals are designed to protect against sorcery, as for instance with the scattering of petals of the gálan de día in the house or the placement of okra by the door  In Cuba, protective rituals from Santería have often been invoked in hospitals to prevent the cambio de vida ("life switch"), a practice by which the ailments of a sick person are believed to be transferred to another individual, often without the latter's knowledge 

Divination
Divination is a central aspect of Santería, taking place before all major rites and being utilized by adherents at critical moments of their life  Three main divinatory techniques are employed: obi, dilogún, and Ifá  Highly skilled diviners are known as an oríate or italero/italera (male and female), and sometimes work in this role fulltime 

Clients approach these diviners for a divinatory consulta (consultation), usually to ask for advice about their health, family problems, or legal issues, and in doing so will pay the diviner a fee, the derecho  Attending a divination ritual in this way is commonly the first time that an individual encounters Santería so directly  During the session, offerings will be given to an overseeing oricha; the diviner will then cast small objects onto a board or table and interpret the way in which they fall  The diviner asks the client questions and seeks to answer them by making multiple throws  The diviner will ultimately determine which oricha will assist the client in dealing with their problems and outline what sacrifices will be appropriate to secure the aid of said oricha Obi, also known as biagué, involves the casting of four pieces of a dried coconut shell, with the manner in which they fall being used to answer a question  Any practitioner can utilise this technique, which is also used in Palo  Dilogún entails the casting of cowrie shells, and is considered more complex in that it requires a knowledge of the patakie stories  Dilogún typically involves a set of 21 cowrie shells, filed flat on their round side; these are fed with both omiero and blood  Like obi, dilogún is generally seen as being open to all practitioners of Santería, although some groups reserve it for postmenopausal women Ifá is the most complex and prestigious divinatory system used in the religion  It typically involves the casting of consecrated palm nuts to answer a question, with the nuts offering 256 possible configurations  Although Ifá also has a separate existence from Santería, the two are closely linked, sharing the same mythology and conception of the universe; the oricha of Ifá, Orula or Ọ̀rúnmila, has a prominent place within Santería  High priests of Ifá are known as babalawos and although their presence is not essential to Santería ceremonies, they often attend in their capacity as diviners  Many santeros are also babalawos, although it is not uncommon for babalawos to perceive themselves as being superior to most santeros  Unlike the more open policy for Santería initiates, only heterosexual men are traditionally allowed to become babalawos, although some babalawos are gay men, and since the 21st century a small number of women have also been initiated 

Funerals and mediumship
Funeral rites, called itulu, are designed to appease the soul of the deceased  As part of this, a funeral mass is held in a Roman Catholic church nine days after the individual has died to ensure that their soul successfully travels to the realm of the spirits  A year of additional rites for the dead individual follow, a period ended with the levantamiento de platos, the breaking of a dish, to symbolise the deceased's final departure from the realm of the living As well as having been influenced by Spiritism, Santería is often intertwined with Espiritismo, a Puerto Rican tradition focused on contacting the dead; this is particularly the case in areas such as New York and New Jersey  Sometimes the word "Santerismo" is used to refer to a blend between the two traditions  Various santeros or santeras are believed capable of communicating with spirits; seances conducted for this purpose are called misas espirituales ("spiritual masses") and are led by mortevas ("deaders") who are usually women  During these rituals, the medium may be possessed by a spirit of the dead, who then engages in healing practices or offers advice and warnings to those assembled  Adopted from Espiritismo, they are often included in initiation and funerary rites  An additional ritual found in Santería is the tambor para egún, a drum ceremony for the spirits of the dead Some practitioners whose approach to Santería is influenced by Espiritismo also create cloth dolls for deceased family members and spirit guides  The spirit is believed to enter and inhabit the doll, with some practitioners stating that they can see the inhabiting spirit  Sometimes the doll's clothing is changed to please the spirit, while offerings, such as glasses of water or fruit, are placed before them  These spirit dolls may also be passed down through the generations within a family 

History
Background
After the Spanish Empire conquered Cuba, the island's Arawak and Ciboney populations dramatically declined  To provide a new labor source for the sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations they had established on Cuba, the Spanish then turned to buying slaves sold at West African ports  Slavery was widespread in West Africa; most slaves were prisoners of war captured in conflicts with neighbouring groups, although some were convicted criminals  The first enslaved Africans arrived in Cuba in 1511, although the largest numbers came in the 19th century  Cuba continued to receive new slaves until at least 1860, with full emancipation occurring in 1886  In total, between 702,000 and 1 million enslaved Africans were brought to Cuba  Most came from a stretch of Western Africa between the modern nation-states of Guinea and Angola  The great plurality were Yoruba, from the area encompassed by modern Nigeria and Benin; the Yoruba had a shared language and culture but were divided among different states  They largely adhered to Yoruba traditional religion, which incorporated many local orisha cults although with certain orisha worshipped widely due to the extent of the Yoruba-led Oyo Empire In Cuba, slaves were divided into groups termed naciones (nations), often based on their port of embarkation rather than their own ethno-cultural background; those who were Yoruba speakers, as well as Arara and Ibo people, were identified as the "Lucumí nation"  Enslaved West Africans brought their traditional religions with them to Cuba; some were from the priestly class and possessed knowledge of traditions such as Ifá  While hundreds of orisha were worshipped across West Africa, fewer than twenty became prominent in Santería, perhaps because many kin-based orisha cults were lost when traditional kinship networks were destroyed through enslavement  Orisha associated with agriculture were abandoned, probably because slaves had little reason to protect the harvests of slave-owners  Many myths associated with the oricha were transformed, creating kinship relationships between different oricha which were not present in West African mythologies  As Santería formed, separate West African orisha cults were reconstituted into a single religious system, one which had a newly standardized pantheon of oricha In Spanish Cuba, Roman Catholicism was the only religion that could be practiced legally  Cuba's Roman Catholic Church made efforts to convert the enslaved Africans, but the instruction in Roman Catholicism provided to the latter was typically perfunctory and sporadic  In Cuba, traditional African deities perhaps continued to be venerated within clubs and fraternal organizations made up of African migrants and their descendants  The most important of these were the cabildos de nación, associations that the establishment regarded as a means of controlling the Afro-Cuban population  These operated as mutual aid societies and organized communal feasts, dances, and carnivals  The Catholic Church saw these groups as a method for gradual evangelisation, through which they tolerated the practice of some African customs while stamping out those they most fiercely objected to  It is probable that in these groups, priests of different West African orisha interacted and began to develop a new system  In the late 18th and early 19th century new laws restricted the cabildos' activities, although their membership expanded in the 19th century 
The final decades of the 19th century also saw a growing interest in Spiritism, a religion based on the ideas of the French writer Allan Kardec, which in Cuba proved particularly popular among the white peasantry, the Creole class, and the small urban middle class  Ideas from Spiritism increasingly filtered into and influenced Santería 

Formation and early history
The earliest casas teaching Santería emerged in urban parts of western Cuba during the late 19th century  As a trained priesthood emerged, they ensured a level of standardisation among new initiates  Although it drew on older West African cults, Santeria was, as described by Clark, "a new religious system"  Urban-to-rural migration then spread Santería elsewhere in Cuba, and in the 1930s it probably arrived in Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, which lies at the eastern end of the island Following the Cuban War of Independence, the island became an independent republic in 1898  In the republic, Afro-Cubans remained largely excluded from economic and political power, and negative stereotypes about them remained pervasive throughout the Euro-Cuban population  Afro-Cuban religious practices were often referred to as brujería (witchcraft) and thought to be connected to criminality  Although the republic's new constitution enshrined freedom of religion and Santería was never legislated against, throughout the first half of the 20th century various campaigns were launched against it  These were often encouraged by the press, who promoted allegations that white children were being abducted and murdered in Santería rituals; this reached a fever pitch in 1904 after two white children were murdered in Havana in cases that investigators speculated were linked to brujería One of the first intellectuals to examine Santería was the lawyer and ethnographer Fernando Ortiz, who discussed it in his 1906 book Los negros brujos (The Black Witchdoctors)  He saw it as a barrier to the social integration of Afro-Cubans into broader Cuban society and recommended its suppression  In the 1920s, there were efforts to incorporate elements of Afro-Cuban culture into a wider understanding of Cuban culture, such as through the Afrocubanismo literary and artistic movement  These often drew upon Afro-Cuban music, dance, and mythology, but typically rejected Santería rituals themselves  In 1942, Rómula Lachatañeré's Manuel de santería was published, representing the first scholarly attempt to understand Santería as a religion; in contrast to Ortiz, he maintained that the tradition should be seen as a religious system as opposed to a form of witchcraft  Lachatañeré was instrumental in promoting the term Santería in reference to the phenomenon, deeming it a more neutral description than the pejorative-laden terms such as brujería then in common use 

After the Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 resulted in the island becoming a Marxist–Leninist state governed by Fidel Castro's Communist Party of Cuba  Committed to state atheism, Castro's government took a negative view of Santería  Practitioners experienced police harassment, were denied membership of the Communist Party, and faced limited employment opportunities  They required police permission to perform rituals, which was sometimes denied  The state nevertheless promoted art forms associated with Santería in the hope of using them to promote a unified Cuban identity  While espousing anti-racism, Castro's government viewed the promotion of a separate Afro-Cuban identity as counter-revolutionary Following the Soviet Union's collapse in the 1990s, Castro's government declared that Cuba was entering a "Special Period" in which new economic measures would be necessary  As part of this, it selectively supported Afro-Cuban and Santería traditions, partly out of a desire to boost tourism; this Santería-focused tourism was called santurismo  Priests of Santería, Palo, and Ifá all took part in government-sponsored tours for foreigners desiring initiation into such traditions, while Afro-Cuban floor shows became common in Cuban hotels  In 1991, the Communist Party approved the admission of religious members, and in 1992 the constitution was amended to declare Cuba a secular rather than an atheist state  This liberalisation allowed Santería to leave behind its marginalisation, and during the 1990s it began to be practiced more openly 

The second half of the 20th century saw a growing awareness of Santería's links with other orisha-worshipping religions in West Africa and the Americas  These transnational links were reinforced when the Ooni of Ife Olubuse II, a prominent Yoruba political and religious leader, visited Cuba in 1987  Cuba's government permitted the formation of the Yoruba Cultural Association, a non-governmental organization, in the early 1990s, while various practitioners of Santería visited Nigeria to study traditional Yoruba religion  A yorubización (Yorubization) process emerged, with attempts made to remove Roman Catholic elements from Santería; this process was criticised by those who saw Santería's syncretism as a positive trait The Cuban Revolution fuelled Cuban emigration, especially to the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela  With an increased Cuban presence in the U S , Santería grew in many U S  cities, being embraced by Latino Americans as well as European Americans and African Americans  Some African Americans regarded it as an authentically African religion, especially when purged of Roman Catholic elements, sometimes perceiving it as a religious wing of the Black Power movement  A prominent exponent of this approach was the black nationalist activist Walter King  After being initiated in Cuba, he established a temple in Harlem before relocating with his followers in 1970 to a community in Sheldon, South Carolina, that they called the Yoruba Village of Oyotunji  Having a strained relationship with many other santeros and santeras, who accused him of racism, King gradually came to call his tradition "Orisha-Voodoo" rather than Santería  In the U S , Santería, along with Haitian Vodou, also proved an influence on the revival of Louisiana Voodoo in the late 20th century  One of the most prominent figures in this revival, Ava Kay Jones, had previously been involved in King's Orisha-Voodoo 

Demographics
The scholars of religion Anibal Argüelles Mederos and Ileana Hodge Limonta estimated that in the early 21st century around 8% of Cubans were initiates of Santería, which would amount to between 800,000 and 900,000 people  There are a greater number of people who are not initiates but turn to santeros and santeras for assistance on practical matters  In 1991, the Cuban anthropologist López Valdés suggested that about 90 percent of Cuba's population practiced some form of religion and that of that 90 percent, a greater number practiced one of the Afro-Cuban religions than "pure Catholicism"  In 2004, Wedel suggested that practitioners of Santería "greatly outnumber" those who practiced Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Judaism in Cuba Although also found in rural areas, in Cuba Santería has always been a primarily urban phenomenon, predominating in the north-west provinces of La Habana and Matanzas  While it has both Afro-Cuban and Euro-Cuban followers, Wedel noted that in the 1990s Santería was "more common in working-class, low-income neighborhoods dominated by Afro-Cubans " Wedel believed that men and women practice in roughly equal numbers  Some practitioners grow up in Santería as the children of initiates, although others only approach the religion as adults  While it accepts new followers, Santería is a non-proselytizing religion Emigration has spread Santería across most of Latin America and also to the United States and Europe  In Mexico, it established a particular presence in Veracruz and Mexico City, in Canada it centred in Toronto, while in Europe casas have been formed in Spain and Germany  Santería was present in the U S  by the 1940s, increasing its presence following the Cuban Revolution  Clustering in Florida, California, New Jersey, and New York, it attracted converts from varied ethnic backgrounds  U S  casas vary in their ethnic makeup, often reflecting broader racial divisions in U S  society  Based on his ethnographic work in New York City during the 1980s, Samuel Gregory noted that there Santería was not a "religion of the poor", but contained a disproportionately high percentage of middle-class people such as teachers, social workers, and artists  The American Religious Identification Survey of 2001 estimated that there were then approximately 22,000 practitioners in the U S , although in the mid-1990s the scholar Joseph Murphy suggested that hundreds of thousands of people in the country had engaged with Santería in some form, often as clients 

Reception
By the late 1980s, Santería had received considerable interest from established Christian churches, health professionals, and social scientists  Some initiates mistrusted academics and were thus either vague or deliberately misleading in their answers to the latter's questions, although the 1990s saw non-Cuban ethnographers seeking initiation into the religion, thus blurring the distinction between practitioner and anthropological observer  The religion was also explored in other media; the Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando released the film Oggún in 1992  Various songs have referenced Santería and its oricha; the Cuban American singer Celia Cruz for example recorded a version of "Que viva Chango" ("Long Live Chango"), while a Cuban band called themselves Los Orichas  Santería's influence can also be seen in the names of the Cuban liquor Santero and the state-owned machete factory Ogún Christian views of Santería have been largely negative, and in Cuba, it has faced much opposition from the Roman Catholic clerical establishment over the centuries  Many Cuban intellectuals and academics also take a dim view of Santería  Opposition to the religion is also evident outside Cuba  When the International Afro-Caribbean Festival in Veracruz was launched in 1994, it showcased art and ritual by Mexican santeros/santeras, although this brought public protests from Roman Catholic organizations, who regarded such rites as Satanic, and animal welfare groups, who deemed the sacrifices to be inhumane  The festival's organizers yielded to the pressure, cutting the Santería elements of the festival by 1998  Pervasive stereotypes link Santería to criminal activity, and its rituals for self-protection have been adopted by various groups involved in narcotics trafficking within the U S  Santeros and santeras are often accused of financially exploiting their initiates and clients—an accusation sometimes made by other practitioners of Santería itself  Various practitioners have also found that their involvement in Santería has strained their relationship with spouses or other family members who are not involved, and in some cases adherents have abandoned Santería to join other religious movements such as Pentecostalism 
Passage 3:
Fezara people
Fezara is an ethnic group of Sudan, who emigrated from Arabia to Egypt, and then to Sudan  The number of persons in this ethnic group is about 200,000  Most members of this ethnic group are Muslims  This ethnic group speaks Sudanese Arabic 
Passage 4:
Migene González-Wippler
Migene González-Wippler is a Puerto Rican new-age author and a leading expert on the Afro-Caribbean religion of Santería 

Education
González-Wippler was born in Puerto Rico and has degrees in psychology and anthropology from the University of Puerto Rico, and from Columbia University, from where she earned a Ph D  in cultural anthropology 

Career
In addition to her solid background in social sciences she has also worked as a science editor for the Interscience Division of John Wiley, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Museum of Natural History, and as an English editor for the United Nations in Vienna, where she resided for many years    She is a cultural anthropologist and lectures frequently at universities and other educational institutions    She writes about Santeria-its practices, beliefs and organization 

Bibliography
El libro completo de magia, hechizos, y ceremonias
El libro de las sombras
Keys to the Kingdom: Jesus & the Mystic Kabbalah
Book of Shadows
The Complete Book of Amulets & Talismans
Luna, Luna: Magia, poder y seducción
La Magia de las piedras y los cristales
Sueños: Lo que significan para usted
Amuletos y Talismanes
La magia y tú
What Happens After Death: Scientific & Personal Evidence for Survival
Santería: La Religión
Dreams and What They Mean to You
The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies & Magic
Las llaves del reino: Jesús y la cábala cristiana
Kabbalah For The Modern World
Angelorum: El libro de los ángeles
Santería: mis experiencias en la Religión
Peregrinaje: la vida después de la muerte
 Santería: the Religion: Faith, Rites, Magic, Llewellyn Publications: 2002 ISBN 9781567183290
Cabala para el mundo moderno
 Powers of the Orishas: Santeria and The Worship of Saints
Context 2: Passage 1:
Elle King
Tanner Elle Schneider (born July 3, 1989), known professionally as Elle King, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress  Her musical style is influenced by country, rock and blues In 2012, King released her debut EP, The Elle King EP, on RCA; one track from that EP, "Playing for Keeps", is the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series She released her debut album, Love Stuff, in 2015  It produced the US top ten single "Ex's & Oh's", which earned her two Grammy Award nominations  King has also toured with acts such as Of Monsters and Men, Train, James Bay, The Chicks, Heart, Joan Jett, Michael Kiwanuka, and Miranda Lambert  Her parents are actor and comedian Rob Schneider and former model London King   She uses her mother's surname to distinguish herself and her career and identity from her father's, telling ABC News that "I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself: that I am my own person "King is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, two each in the rock and country categories, and received honors from the Country Music Association Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards 

Early life
King was born on July 3, 1989, in Los Angeles, California, to then-Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider and London King, a former model  Her parents divorced and her mother remarried  She grew up living in Ohio, between Wellston and Columbus  When she was nine, her stepfather, Justin Tesa, gave her a record by all-female hard-rock band the Donnas; she views this as the pivotal moment when she decided she wanted to be a musician  Around this time, she also started listening to the Runaways and Blondie, and she made her acting debut alongside her father in the movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo At the age of 13, King started playing guitar, immersing herself in the music of Otis Redding, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, AC/DC (she has the phrase "dirty deeds" tattooed on her biceps), and Earl Scruggs  Her interest in the country and bluegrass of Hank Williams and Earl Scruggs inspired her to learn the banjo  During her teenage years, she attended Buck's Rock camp in Connecticut, where she starred successfully in a number of musicals King spent her teenage years in New York City, but she has also lived in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Copenhagen, Denmark  Upon graduating from Elisabeth Irwin High School/Little Red School House, she moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the University of the Arts, studying painting and film  During these college years, she had an artistic epiphany seeing a live show where the band onstage used a banjo purely for accompaniment purposes, eschewing the bluegrass and country musical vocabulary traditionally associated with the instrument  King then began to use the banjo as a compositional tool  After college, she briefly lived in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, before moving back to New York where she currently resides in Bushwick, Brooklyn 

Career
1999–2013: Career beginnings
In 1999, she debuted as an actress in her father's film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo  In 2005, at age 16, she started gigging around New York City, using a fake ID to gain entry to the local nightclubs  King immersed herself in the local songwriting scene and honed her performance skills by busking around town  King was then signed by newly appointed RCA Chairman Peter Edge  Her debut single "Good To Be A Man", was released on March 13, 2012, as a digital download and also as a 7" vinyl single  On June 12, 2012, the four-song The Elle King EP was released on RCA  The EP was recorded in New York and was produced by Andy Baldwin and Chris DeStefano, with King herself producing a track  The EP's lead track, "Playing for Keeps", was chosen as the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series that premiered on June 10, 2012, on VH1 King was spotlighted as an "Artist to Watch in 2012" by Esquire Magazine and made television appearances on VH1 Big Morning Buzz Live and the Late Show with David Letterman  King has played Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest Festival, as well as the Hammersmith Apollo  She has also taped her own PBS Arts In Context special for KLRU Austin at the Austin City Limits recording studio  She toured with Of Monsters and Men, Train and Michael Kiwanuka and has opened for Dashboard Confessional, Dropkick Murphys, Dry the River, James Bay and Ed Sheeran 

2014–present: Love Stuff, Shake the Spirit and Come And Get Your Wife
In September 2014, King released "Ex's & Oh's", which serves as the lead single off her debut album  She released the album, Love Stuff on February 17, 2015  She performed "Ex's & Oh's" the next day on The Today Show to promote it  The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming King's first top ten single in the United States  "Ex's & Oh's" received two nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song  In July 2015, King supported Modest Mouse on their UK tour  "Under the Influence" and "America's Sweetheart" were later released as singles for rock radio and mainstream radio, respectively  In 2016, her single "Good Girls" featured on the Ghostbusters soundtrack and played over the movie's credits  In 2016, she teamed up with country singer Dierks Bentley for the song "Different for Girls"  They performed this song at the 50th CMA Awards on November 2, 2016, when she and Bentley won the award for Musical Event of the Year On March 6, 2017, she premiered a new single "Wild Love" featuring a sparse electronic production, marking a slight departure from her previous style in music  King released her second studio album, Shake the Spirit, on October 19, 2018, which she made with her band the Brethren  On August 3, 2019, she was featured singing on a version of  Lindsey Stirling's "The Upside"  Throughout 2019, King served as a guest co-host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show opposite lead host Nev Schulman King's third album, Come Get Your Wife, was released on January 27, 2023, and displays a move into country music 

Musical style and influences
According to The Guardian, King's musical style is "steeped in every genre of vintage Americana  – sassy rock'n'roll, vampy R&B, country sadness and a little blues " King's music was classified as blues rock by Nylon, and as alternative country by Alternative Nation  According to King, "I say that I sing a little bit of country blues, [   ] it kind of changes from song to song, whatever I'm listening to or feeling  Sometimes it's really country, sometimes it's soulful, sometimes it's, like, wrist-slitting folk music; sad songs " She cited Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Otis Redding, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and AC/DC as her musical influences 

Personal life
King started dating Andrew Ferguson in January 2016  The couple met in a hotel lobby in London and were engaged 12 days later on a sailing trip around the San Francisco Bay  They married on February 14, 2016, and confirmed their intent to divorce on May 15, 2017  On April 23, 2017, Ferguson was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly grabbing King by the throat and threatening to kill her, though this charge was later dropped  King and Ferguson briefly reconciled in late 2017 On October 9, 2020, King and tattoo artist Dan Tooker became engaged when simultaneously proposing to each other on their first anniversary of dating  Five months later, it was revealed she was pregnant with their first child  On September 1, 2021, she gave birth to a son named Lucky  The couple broke up in 2023 
King has several tattoos, and worked at a tattoo company called East Side Ink 

Discography
Studio albums

Love Stuff (2015)
Shake the Spirit (2018)
Come Get Your Wife (2023)

Filmography
Concert tours
Headlining
Love Stuff Tour (2015)
Shake The Spirit Tour (2019)
A-FREAKIN-MEN Tour (2022)

Opening act
Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance (2010)
Of Monsters and Men – My Head Is an Animal Tour (2011)
Train – California 37 Tour (2012)
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again Tour (2012)
Dropkick Murphys – Signed and Sealed in Blood Tour (2013)
Ed Sheeran – + Tour (2013)
Dry the River – Alarms in the Heart Tour (2014)
James Bay – Chaos and the Calm Tour (2015)
Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves Tour (2015)
Maroon 5 – Maroon V Tour (2016)
Dixie Chicks – DCX MMXVI World Tour (2016)
Miranda Lambert – Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour (2019)
Joan Jett & Heart – Love Alive Tour (2019)
Chris Stapleton - Chris Stapleton's All-American Road Show (2022)

Awards and nominations
Passage 2:
Big Stan
Big Stan is a 2007 American prison comedy film starring, produced and directed by Rob Schneider in his directorial debut with help from his company From Out of Nowhere Productions while the rest of the cast consisting of Jennifer Morrison, Scott Wilson, Henry Gibson, Richard Kind, Sally Kirkland, Jackson Rathbone, M  Emmet Walsh, Dan Haggerty and David Carradine  It tells the story of a real estate con artist who gets sentenced to three years in prison and spends the six months before it getting trained to survive in prison by a martial arts guru  This film was Gibson's final role before his death in 2009 
Although released in some markets during the fall of 2008, it was released straight to DVD in the U S  on March 24, 2009  It debuted at number 17 on the DVD rental charts of March 23–30, 2009 

Plot
Stan Minton (Rob Schneider) is a wealthy real estate con artist, married to Mindy (Jennifer Morrison)  One day, he is arrested for conning elderly people out of their savings  His lawyer Mal (Richard Kind) defends him at the trial presided over by Judge Perry (Richard Riehle) as the forewoman (Sally Kirkland) finds him guilty where the sentencing will be tomorrow 
While talking with Stan, Mal refuses to bribe Judge Perry since he does not practice that kind of law and states to Stan that any shyster on the street would do it for him  Inspired by the bench advertisement outside, Stan fires Mal from the case and hires Lew Popper (M  Emmet Walsh) as a replacement for the sentencing  Judge Perry sentences Stan to 3 years at the Oakfield Correctional Facility while giving him 6 months by Judge Perry to "reorganize the charity" Stan established to teach music to mentally disabled children 
As he can't go on a permanent vacation to Brazil on Lew's advice due to his assets being frozen, Stan gets drunk and visits a biker bar where he has the fear of jailhouse rape instilled in him by a biker ex con (Dan Haggerty) that strains his marriage to Mindy  This leads him to hire the mysterious guru known as "The Master" (David Carradine) who helps transform him into a Martial Arts expert 
During his incarceration, Stan befriends an elderly inmate named Larry (Henry Gibson) who is serving a life sentence for murdering his partner  Stan also befriends a sympathetic prison guard named Bullard (Kevin Gage) and learns more about the cliques and gang activities formed inside the prison  He then uses his new-found skills to bring peace and harmony to the prison yard by intimidating his fellow inmates like Big Raymond (Bob Sapp) into preventing them from harming each other  With this, peace is restored in at Verlaine State Correctional Facility and Stan gains their respect, eventually becoming their leader 
However, the corrupt warden Gasque (Scott Wilson) has plans to force its closure with a riot and sell off the property as valuable real estate  Stan helps him with the real estate aspects in exchange for early parole  However, his peacemaking efforts threaten the warden's plan for a riot and he is persuaded to bring back violence 
In a last minute attack of conscience, he deliberately blows the parole hearing to rush back and prevent the deaths of his fellow inmates only to discover that his message of peace has sunk in and the prisoners are dancing instead of fighting  Warden Gasque orders the guards to open fire on the dancing men  When they refuse, he grabs a gun in front of the Board of Governors and shoots wildly  Warden Gasque attempts to shoot Stan, but he is stopped by Mindy and the Master, who had sneaked in  Stan was surprised that the Master had trained Mindy during his incarceration when he thought they were having an affair during an earlier Conjugal 
Three years later, Stan leaves the prison where Bullard had been sworn in as the new warden of Verlaine State Correctional Facility  Gasque becomes the new inmate following his arrest for his illegal activities as Big Raymond intimidates him to say goodbye to Stan  Lew is also an inmate after he had foreseen that he would be arrested for having slept with a member of the jury and for being a corrupted lawyer  Stan is met by his wife, his young daughter Mindy Jr , and the Master outside the prison  While the Master has become Mindy Jr 's nanny, Stan is annoyed that he has been smoking near her 

Cast
Rob Schneider as "Big" Stan Minton, a rich real estate con artist 
Jennifer Morrison as Mindy Minton, Stan's wife 
Scott Wilson as Francis Gasque, the corrupt prison warden of Verlaine State Correctional Facility who seeks to get the prison closed down so that he can sell the land 
Henry Gibson as Larry / "Shorts", an inmate that Stan befriends who is serving a life sentence for killing his partner 
Richard Kind as Mal, Stan's lawyer 
Sally Kirkland as Madame Foreman, a jury member that finds Stan guilty 
Jackson Rathbone as Robbie, an inmate who is a hippie and former drug dealer 
M  Emmet Walsh as Lew Popper, a shyster that Stan replaces Mal with during his trial 
David Carradine as The Master, a martial arts guru that trains Stan to survive prison 
Marcelo Ortega as Big Haa, an inmate 
Marcia Wallace as Alma
Diego Corrales as Julio
Randy Couture as Carnahan
Don Frye as Nation Member
Brandon Molale as Guard Piken
Lil Rob as Inmate
Brandon T  Jackson as Deshawn, an inmate 
Olivia Munn as Maria, a secretary 
Barbara Dodd as Mrs  Darby, an old lady that Stan tried to con 
Richard Riehle as Judge Perry, a judge that presides over Stan's trial 
Kevin Gage as Bullard, a sympathetic prison guard 
Dan Inosanto as Prison Chef
Bob Sapp as Big Raymond, a tough inmate 
Tsuyoshi Abe as Dang, a Vietnamese Mafia member and one of the Master's students 
Ahman Green as Lee Otis, a former bank robber and inmate 
Salvator Xuereb as Patterson, the leader of the Nazi Prison Gang 
Buddy Lewis as Cleon, the leader of the Black Prison Gang 
Peter Vasquez as Juanito, the leader of the Mexican Prison Gang 
Megan Cavanagh as a Parole Board member 
Dan Haggerty as an ex-con who is gay
Faith Womack as Mindy Jr , Stan and Mindy's daughter 
Andrew Bernhard as InmateRob Schneider's mother Pilar cameos as one of the Board of Governors  Wes Takahashi, former animator and visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, makes a cameo appearance as a bartender 

Production
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 11% based on reviews from 9 critics (1 positive, 8 negative), with an average rating of 3 00/10 Julie Rigg of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was highly critical of the rape-based humor, and concluded " I wasted two valuable hours of my life on Big Stan—don't make the same mistake " Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes asked "If there's been a clumsier, dumber, more casually put together collection of badly timed gags, racial stereotypes and lazy performances this year, I have yet to see it   How could [Schneider] be in so many movies over a 20-year career and learn so little about making a movie?" Brian Orndorf of DVDTalk com called it "a forgettable, unfunny waste of time"  He criticized the "unrelenting" repetition of rape jokes, but believed that Schneider acted the character's fear of rape convincingly MovieHole rated it 3 5 out of 5 and called it Schneider's best film since The Hot Chick 
Passage 3:
John Schneider (producer)
John Steven Schneider (born April 23, 1962) is an American film, television and multi-media producer and artists' manager based in Los Angeles, California  The Pacifica, California, native made his first forays into show business when he took on the position of personal manager for his younger brother, comedian and actor Rob Schneider, and subsequently managed the San Francisco area rock band Head On  Eventually, John transitioned into producing movies such as The Hot Chick and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, alongside executive producers Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo 
John was the executive producer of Rob, a situation comedy starring Rob Schneider, which aired on the CBS television network in 2012, and co-produced the Academy Award-nominated 2012 feature film Hitchcock  He also serves as the personal manager of comedian, talk-show host and actor Tom Green, and creative consultant for Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst  Schneider produced Tom Green Live—the weekly talk show hosted by Green on entrepreneur/media mogul Mark Cuban's AXS TV channel—and is currently engaged in program development for CBS-TV, Showtime and The CW networks in conjunction with The Tannenbaum Company  In addition to his various production and management credits, John previously owned and operated the San Francisco nightclub DNA Lounge, and, at the age of 23, was elected to the Pacifica, California school board  He now resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and three daughters 

Filmography
On the Road with Tom Green (TV special) (2015) - executive producer
Tom Green Live (2013) - executive producer
Hitchcock (2012) - co-producer
Rob (TV series) (2012) - executive producer
The Chosen One (2010) - producer
American Virgin (2009) - executive producer
Big Stan (2007) - producer
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) - producer
The Hot Chick (2002) - producer
The Animal (2001) - co-producer
Passage 4:
Sarah Price (filmmaker)
Sarah Price (born 1970) is an American filmmaker, director and producer known for the feature documentary American Movie (1999 Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, released by Sony Pictures Classics) Price is a member of the Directors Guild of America 

Early life
Price spent the first five years of her life in London, England, her early school years in the American Midwest and East Coast, and later attended high school at the International Schools in Frankfurt, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya   Price was educated at the University of Iowa 

Career
She directed Caesar's Park (2001 SXSW Int'l Film Fest, Sundance Channel), The Yes Men (2003 Toronto Int'l Film Festival, released by United Artist/MGM), and Summercamp! (2006 Toronto Int'l Film Fest, Sundance Channel)  Price was also a cinematographer on The Yes Men Fix the World (2009 Sundance Film Fest/HBO), and a Co-Producer of Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (2008 Toronto Int’l Fest)   In 2009, she expanded into commercial directing and is represented by Independent Media Inc   Sarah further expanded into episodic television in 2014, directing The Carrie Diaries for Warner Brothers 
In 2016, Sarah Price's documentary film "L7: Pretend We're Dead" was first screened   Price describes hearing a song by L7 while working as a DJ at her college radio station as the seed of her curiosity and interest in the group   The film was nominated for the Jury Prize at the 2017 Hollywood Film Festival and for the Indiemusic Schweppes Award at the IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival in 2018   "L7: Pretend We're Dead" won the Jury Prize at the Bordeaux Rock - Musical Ecran in 2018 
Passage 5:
Registered Offender
Registered Offender is the debut comedy album by actor and stand-up comedian Rob Schneider   Released in July 2010 by Oglio Records, it contains a mixture of sketches and songs, with all voices performed by Schneider   The content is adult in nature and features various scatological references   The album was recorded at various times and locations during 2007–2009   A 7" vinyl single of the musical track "She's Gonna Come" b/w "Swain the Legend" was released simultaneously with the CD version of the album 

Background
"She's Gonna Come" features Schneider backed by a studio ensemble dubbed the Fabulous Dunderheads - which consists of members of the San Diego, CA-based alternative rock band The Night Marchers, led by former Rocket from the Crypt singer/guitarist John Reis 

Track listing
What I Want
Iraq Love
Yoko and Julian
She's Gonna Come
Swain the Legend
Virtual Kidnappers
Car Wash
The Perfect S--t
Agent for Porn Stars
Sex Offenders
The Liar Corp 
Welcome to the Jungle
Sea of J--z
Mom and Dad Party
Graduation Speech
Hidden Bonus Track
Passage 6:
Real Rob
Real Rob (stylized onscreen as REⱯL ROB) is an American streaming television sitcom created by Rob Schneider  It premiered on December 1, 2015, on Netflix, and follows the everyday life of Schneider, including his real-life wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  On July 27, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 29, 2017 

Cast
Main
Rob Schneider as himself
Patricia Schneider as herself, Rob's wife who is of Mexican descent and younger than he is 
Jamie Lissow as himself, Rob's incompetent assistant 
Miranda Scarlett Schneider as herself, introduced in the series as the 11-month-old daughter of Rob and Patricia 

Co-Starring
Max Amini as Stalker, a guy who watches Rob's every move 
Andrei Aldochine as Udo, a male stripper whom Patricia hires as their nanny 
Adam Korson as Andy, Rob's agent 

Also Starring
Kym Jackson as Margaret, Jamie's girlfriend who works at a marijuana store 
Keith Stubbs as Rob's Accountant The series guest stars David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Adam Sandler, Michael Madsen, Danny Trejo, and George Lopez 

Episodes
Episodes were directed by Rob Schneider and written by Rob Schneider, Patricia Schneider and Jamie Lissow 

Season 1 (2015)
Season 2 (2017)
Reception
"Real Rob" was met with a largely negative response from critics  The show held a score of 36 on Metacritic based on 5 critic reviews, and a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 critic reviews On February 20, 2016, Internet personality Arin Hanson voiced his frustrations regarding Real Rob on his daily Let's Play webseries Game Grumps  Hanson felt the show's main issue was that Schneider's character was both unlikable and unrelatable, going as far as to say that "it's a show with no demographic " While Hanson's overall feelings toward the show were negative, he stated that he felt compelled to keep watching and also praised the performance of Patricia Schneider, citing her as a legitimately funny presence  Schneider eventually saw Hanson's rant and later appeared as a special guest on the show along with Patricia on May 16, 2016 
Passage 7:
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, producer, and director  After several years performing stand-up comedy, Schneider found wider success during his tenure as a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1994  Following his departure from SNL, he went on to a career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) and its 2005 sequel, The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), The Benchwarmers (2006), and Big Stan (2007)  Schneider is the father of singer Elle King 

Early life
Schneider was born in San Francisco, California on Halloween Day in 1963, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Pacifica  His parents were Pilar (née Monroe), a former kindergarten teacher and ex-school board president, and Marvin Schneider, a real estate broker  His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic  Schneider's maternal grandmother was a Filipina who met and married his grandfather, a white American army private, while he was stationed in the Philippines  His mixed background has been a common theme throughout his career  Schneider graduated from Terra Nova High School in 1982 and then attended San Francisco State University  His older brother, John, is a producer 

Career
Early career
Schneider made his debut appearance on television in 1987, on HBO's 13th Annual Young Comedians special, which was hosted by comedian Dennis Miller 

Saturday Night Live
Schneider was part of the comedy team at NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (From 1990 to 1994 at SNL), he played such roles as "Tiny Elvis", "Orgasm Guy", Richard Laymer, the office worker beside the photocopier, who addressed each of his fellow employees with an endless stream of annoying gossip  Schneider is featured in the video release The Bad Boys of Saturday Night Live, along with colleagues Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Chris Farley 

Recurring SNL characters
The Richmeister, an office worker who annoys people by giving them nicknames as they make copies 
Carlo, from the Il Cantore Restaurant sketches
The Sensitive Naked Man, a nude man who gives advice to other characters

Feature films, sitcoms, and endorsements
After leaving SNL, Schneider played supporting roles in a series of movies including Surf Ninjas, Judge Dredd, The Beverly Hillbillies, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Demolition Man, and Down Periscope  He also appeared in a recurring part on the television series Coach  In 1996, he co-starred in the NBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly, an American take on the hit British series of the same name  The U S  version ran for two seasons 
Schneider starred in the 1999 feature film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a tale of a fish-tank cleaner who incurs a massive debt and is forced to become a "man-whore " This was followed by The Animal, about a man given animal powers by a mad scientist; The Hot Chick, wherein the body of a petty thief named Clive Maxtone (played by Schneider) is mystically switched with the body of a pretty, but mean-spirited high school cheerleader named Jessica Spencer (played by Rachel McAdams in her film debut); and the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo



ground_truth: West African descendants

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Sarah Price and Rob Schneider are both what profession? 

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  The latter movie was not well received by critics or moviegoers, and as a result, Schneider won a 2005 Worst Actor Razzie Award for his role in the film In 2006, Schneider co-starred in the baseball-themed family comedy The Benchwarmers, along with his fellow SNL alumnus David Spade as well as Jon Heder  Other film roles include Schneider's appearance with Jim Henson's Muppets in the 1999 film Muppets from Space, and his role as a San Francisco hobo in the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days 
Schneider's directorial debut, the comedy Big Stan, was released in some overseas markets during the fall of 2008, with a U S  release in early 2009  In the film, he starred as a real estate con artist who is arrested for perpetrating real-estate scams  He is sentenced to prison, so he takes a crash-course in martial arts to survive incarceration 
Schneider has also appeared in numerous comedies starring his SNL comrade Adam Sandler, including 1998's The Waterboy, 2010's Grown Ups, and 2020's Hubie Halloween  The comedic characters Schneider plays in these films include an overly enthusiastic Cajun man who proclaims the catch-phrase, "You can do it!"; an amiable Middle Eastern delivery boy; a prison inmate; and Sandler's one-eyed Hawaiian sidekick, Ula  Schneider has uttered the line "You can do it!" as a running gag in Sandler's films The Waterboy, Little Nicky, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard, and Bedtime Stories, as well as in a deleted scene from Click (a sample of Schneider saying the phrase also turns up in the song "Original Prankster" by The Offspring)  Returning the favor, Sandler appeared in a cameo to spout the same line in Schneider's The Animal  Schneider narrated Sandler's 2002 animated movie Eight Crazy Nights, and voiced the part of a Chinese waiter  Schneider also had an uncredited cameo as a Canadian-Japanese wedding-chapel minister in the 2007 Sandler-Kevin James comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, and played a Palestinian cab driver who serves as the title character's nemesis in the 2008 Sandler film You Don't Mess with the Zohan 
Schneider played a variety of roles in the 2005 television special Back to Norm, starring another former SNL player Norm Macdonald, and appeared on episodes of the popular television shows Seinfeld and Ally McBeal  Schneider hosted the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit '97 TV special, and the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, and was a frequent guest on NBC's late-night variety program The Tonight Show with Jay Leno  In Schneider's appearance with Leno on the July 24, 2007 episode of The Tonight Show, he showed up in drag as actress Lindsay Lohan after the latter cancelled following a controversial arrest for driving under the influence Besides his efforts in movies and television, Schneider released his first comedy album Registered Offender in July 2010  Registered Offender is composed of audio sketches and songs, with Schneider himself doing all of the character voices on the recording  He also revived his stand-up comedy career in 2010 with an international tour of theaters, clubs, and casinos Schneider appeared in the music video for country singer Neal McCoy's "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", as the song's title character  McCoy and Schneider met while the two went on a USO tour in support of U S  troops two months after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 
Schneider starred as the title character in the CBS sitcom Rob, which was loosely based on his real life  The series was canceled by CBS in May 2012   In 2015, he produced, directed and starred in Real Rob, a sitcom that follows his life and includes his real-life wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  Netflix released a season of 8 episodes, and a second season in 2017 Schneider is the official celebrity spokesperson for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Ten Ren Tea company in Taipei Schneider was spokesperson for State Farm Insurance, but was dropped in 2014 due to his anti-vaccination views In May 2016, Schneider was featured as a special guest on the Let's Play webseries Game Grumps, alongside his wife Patricia, commentating over Midway's Mortal Kombat Trilogy  They reappeared on the show in November 2017, then commentating over Konami's Contra 
In 2021, Schneider competed on season six of The Masked Singer as the wild card contestant "Hamster"  A running gag is that "Hamster" would pantomime urinating on Nick Cannon and get affectionate with him  When unmasked on the fifth week, Schneider dedicated his performance of Luis Miguel's Sabor a Mí to Patricia and his daughters Miranda, Madeline, and Elle  In addition, Schneider did a variation of his Townie character's "You can do it" line by quoting Hamster's final words "You can do it Masked Singer, all night long!"
In 2022, he starred, produced, and directed in Daddy Daughter Trip, which served as his third film as a director and also starred his wife Patricia and daughter Miranda  The film will be exclusively shown in Harkins Theaters 

Personal life
Schneider has a daughter with former model London King, musician Elle King, who was born in 1989  On September 1, 2021, King gave birth to a son named Lucky, Schneider's first grandchild In 1996, Schneider established the Rob Schneider Music Foundation  The foundation returned music education to Pacifica's elementary schools by paying the teachers' salaries and providing funds for instruments and other equipment  Prior to Schneider's efforts, the school system did not have music education programs for many years Schneider once co-owned the DNA Lounge, a San Francisco nightclub On April 23, 2011, Schneider married television producer Patricia Azarcoya Arce, in Beverly Hills, California  Their first child, Miranda Scarlett Schneider, was born in 2012  The couple had their second daughter, Madeline Robbie Schneider, in September 2016  The family supports Mexican soccer club Tigres, which is based in Patricia's hometown of Monterrey 

Political views and positions
In 2013, Schneider switched political parties from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, explaining: "The state of California is a mess, and the super majority of Democrats is not working  I've been a lifelong Democrat and I have to switch over because it no longer serves the people of this great state "That same year, Schneider endorsed Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly for governor in the election the following year In an interview on Larry King Now in 2017, Schneider said he was an independent but leaned more conservative 

Anti-vaccination activism
Schneider has been an outspoken critic of childhood vaccinations  In an interview with News10 in Sacramento, Schneider opined that "The efficacy of these shots have not been proven     And the toxicity of these things – we're having more and more side effects  We're having more and more autism " Schneider's statements have been discredited as lacking any factual basis  He also views the actions from the state to mandate vaccinations as government overreach Schneider has actively opposed the passage of two California laws, California Assembly Bill 2109 and California Senate Bill 277, which both intended to make childhood vaccination exemptions harder to obtain  On September 28, 2012, Schneider and California State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly spoke at the "Medical Freedom Rally", where they urged California Governor Jerry Brown to veto Assembly Bill 2109, which would have made it more difficult for parents to utilize philosophical reasons for exemptions from mandatory childhood vaccinations  While the bill was not vetoed, Governor Brown added a signing message instructing the Department of Health to add a religious exemption and to make sure the process is not overly burdensome to parents In 2015, Schneider fought against California Senate Bill 277, which removed exemptions to mandatory vaccinations due to personal beliefs, even leaving a phone message to California state Assemblywoman and bill co-author Lorena Gonzalez saying that he would spend money against her in her next re-election  Gonzalez, in an interview with The Washington Times, said that she found the message to be disturbing, but upon calling back, she said, "he was actually much nicer to me, but let's be honest … that is 20 mins of my life I'll never get back arguing that vaccines don't cause autism with Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo  #vaccinateyourkids "

Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Passage 8:
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is a 1999 American sex comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Harris Goldberg and Rob Schneider  The film stars Schneider in the title role, with William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, and Arija Bareikis in supporting roles  The film tells the story of a hapless fishtank cleaner who goes into business as a male prostitute in an attempt to earn enough money to repair damage he caused while house-sitting  The film is notable for being the first film produced by Happy Madison Productions 
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was released in the United States on December 10, 1999, by Buena Vista Pictures  While the film received generally negative reviews from critics, it was a box office success, grossing over $92 million worldwide against a $17 million budget A sequel, titled Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, was released in August 2005 by Sony Pictures Releasing 

Plot
Deuce Bigalow, an insecure fishtank cleaner, is fired for cleaning the tank at a public aquarium while naked  Deuce is unsuccessful in attracting women, so he attempts to keep himself busy at work  On a house call, he meets the Argentinian male prostitute Antoine Laconte  Antoine is going on a business trip, and so asks Deuce to care for his sick lionfish and protect his home while he is away  Deuce accidentally sets Antoine's kitchen on fire when trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster, and breaks an expensive fish tank, causing a lot of water damage 
Fearing Antoine will kill him (Antoine even tells him he will if he messes the place up), Deuce is forced to find a way to pay $6,000 for the damage  Low-rent pimp T J  Hicks offers to help Deuce make enough money to buy a new fish tank, and convinces Deuce to take over the absent Antoine's role as a gigolo  Deuce decides to make the clients feel better about themselves since he only desires to have sex with beautiful women 
Deuce meets unusual clients but he still manages to get along with them, despite there being no sex involved, by helping them with certain issues in their lives  The clients include Carol, a woman who is severely narcoleptic; Ruth, who has Tourette syndrome with coprolalia, and therefore is afraid of socializing; Fluisa, a mannish obese woman weighing close to 750 pounds; and Tina, a woman that has a pituitary gland disorder and is extremely tall  Deuce's list of clients gradually increases, with each client being satisfied by much more fulfilling measures due to his personal attention and friendship  However, Deuce falls in love with one of his clients, Kate, who has a prosthetic leg  She later breaks up with Deuce when she finds out that he was a prostitute hired by her friends 
Meanwhile, Deuce is being stalked by Detective Chuck Fowler, who demands Antoine's "black book" of clients and threatens to take Deuce to jail if he does not comply  Deuce eventually helps Fowler please his wife by stripping and erotically dancing for her, and the two make amends  Deuce is still taken into custody on prostitution charges, as Fowler needs someone to bring in and Deuce refuses to betray his friend T J  At the hearing, it is revealed that Deuce never slept with any of the clients except for Kate  Since Deuce gave back the money to Kate and was not paid for sex with her, he is cleared of all charges 
Using the money he made, Deuce restores Antoine's fish tank, although due to time constraints, he is warned that the glass may not be installed properly  Unfortunately, Kate's blind roommate accidentally kills the prize fish in Antoine's aquarium when she starts the mixer in which the fish was being kept  Deuce buys a replacement fish and returns to Antoine's house just before he returns  Antoine taps the new aquarium and the glass shatters  Deuce then reveals his prostituting adventures to the furious Antoine  Enraged, Antoine tries to kill Deuce and at one point shoots a crossbow bolt at him  Fluisa shows up, comes between the two men, and saves Deuce's life (she is not killed because the bolt hits her breasts, between which she has hidden a roast chicken)  Antoine is then arrested by Detective Fowler and Deuce marries Kate 
The end sequences then follow  Deuce's father becomes a male prostitute  Fluisa underwent extensive liposuction and became a model in Victoria's Secret known as Naomi  Ruth opens up an all-girls school for people with Tourette's  Carol manages to fulfill her dream trip to France and dies falling off the Eiffel Tower  T J  starts his own reality show dedicated to his experiences as a male prostitute  An incarcerated Antoine marries Tina 

Cast
Production
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was the first film released by the Happy Madison Productions film production company  Adam Sandler served as the film's executive producer  Sandler also starred behind the scenes and can be heard yelling the infamous "Freak!' line and other various lines in the background 

Soundtrack
"Call Me" - Blondie
"Spill the Wine" - Eric Burdon and War
"You Sexy Thing" - Hot Chocolate
"Get Down Tonight" - KC and the Sunshine Band
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
"I'm Not in Love" - 10cc
"Magnet and Steel" - Walter Egan
"No Worries" - Hepcat
"Can't Smile Without You" - Sean Beal
"Lift Me Up" - Jeff Lynne
"Call Me" - Emilia Maiello

Release
Box office
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo opened theatrically on December 10, 1999 in 2,154 venues and earned $12,224,016 in its opening weekend, ranking third in the North American box office behind Toy Story 2's fourth weekend and fellow newcomer The Green Mile  The film ended its run, having grossed $65,538,755 in the United States and Canada, and $27,400,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $92,938,755  Based on a $17 million budget, the film was a box office success 

Critical reception
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo received negative reviews from critics  On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 22% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 4 01/10  The site's consensus states: "According to critics, Deuce Bigalow is just too dumb and filled with old, tired gags " On Metacritic it has a score of 30 out of 100 based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews"  Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, stating "It's the kind of picture those View n' Brew theaters were made for, as long as you don't View " Kendall Morgan from The Dallas Morning News writes in her review, "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo makes There's Something About Mary look like Masterpiece Theatre "

Sequel
In 2005, a sequel, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, was released by Sony Pictures Releasing 
Passage 9:
Rob (TV series)
Rob (stylized as ¡Rob!) is an American sitcom television series that premiered on CBS on January 12, 2012, at 8:30 pm (ET) as a mid-season replacement for Rules of Engagement, and ended on March 1, 2012  The series stars Rob Schneider alongside Cheech Marin, Claudia Bassols, Diana Maria Riva, Eugenio Derbez, Ricky Rico, and Lupe Ontiveros  The show was produced by Two and a Half Men's The Tannenbaum Company and CBS Productions 
On May 13, 2012, CBS canceled the series after one season 

Synopsis
The series follows Rob (Rob Schneider), a former lifelong bachelor and landscape architect with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, who marries into a tight-knit Mexican American family and attempts to be closer to them, often ending in disastrous results despite his good intentions 

Cast and characters
Rob Schneider as Rob
Claudia Bassols as Maggie, Rob's much-younger wife
Cheech Marin as Fernando, Maggie's cynical father
Diana Maria Riva as Rosa, Maggie's wise cracking and sarcastic mother who sees through all of Fernando's ploys
Eugenio Derbez as Hector, Rosa's brother, Maggie's uncle, and the self-proclaimed "best friend" of Rob
Lupe Ontiveros as Abuelita, Fernando's mother and Maggie's grandmother

Production
The pilot first appeared on CBS's development slate in October 2010  On February 4, 2011, CBS placed a pilot order, written by Rob Schneider and Lew Morton, and directed by Jamie Widdoes  The series' executive producers were Schneider, Morton, and Kim and Eric Tannenbaum  The series then premiered January 12, 2012, and concluded on March 1, 2012, after eight episodes 

Episodes
U S  Nielsen ratings
International broadcast
In Canada, the series airs on Global and premiered on January 19, 2012, after The Office 

Reception
Reviews for Rob were generally unfavorable  Jace Lacob of The Daily Beast described it as CBS's "worst new show" and wrote of the first episode that "there isn’t a single Latin name among the writers or producers" and that it "offers a wafer-thin appreciation and awareness of Mexican culture, one that doesn’t go beyond guacamole and the occasional use of the Spanish endearment mija (my daughter) " Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote in his review that "Some of this barrage of stereotypes might be passable if even one character were intelligently written and skillfully played, but there's hardly a moment or performance in Rob that doesn't reek of the leftover and the second-rate" and that "Schneider's the only actor who even seems to be trying " In a more positive review, Glenn Garvin of The Miami Herald wrote in his review that the show is a "rather funny sitcom about the cultural collisions that occur every day in an increasingly blended America"  The show received a 28/100 rating on Metacritic 

Season ratings
Passage 10:
The Hot Chick
The Hot Chick is a 2002 American fantasy comedy film written and directed by Tom Brady, with additional writing by Rob Schneider  Schneider stars as Clive Maxtone, a middle-aged criminal who switches bodies with mean-spirited cheerleader Jessica Spencer, played by Rachel McAdams  Anna Faris stars as Jessica's best friend, April, and Matthew Lawrence plays Jessica's steady boyfriend  
Adam Sandler served as executive producer and has a small role in the film as the Mambuza Bongo Player, a character based on one played by Schneider in a Saturday Night Live sketch  Sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry and singers Ashlee Simpson, Angie Stone, and Michelle Branch also had small roles  Parts of the film were shot at Redondo Union High School and El Segundo High School  The film was a moderate box office success, but received negative reviews from critics who criticized the jokes and Schneider's performance 

Plot
In 50 BC, in an Abyssinian castle, the princess Nawa uses a pair of enchanted earrings to escape an arranged marriage by swapping bodies with a slave girl  When each woman wears one of the earrings, their bodies are magically swapped while their minds remain in place 
In her modern-day suburban home, Jessica Spencer is a beautiful but mean-spirited "hot chick"  Her closest friends are April, Keecia, and Lulu  April is Jessica's best friend, and all four girls are cheerleaders  At school one day, Jessica makes fun of an overweight girl named Hildenburg and a Wiccan girl named Eden  After that, she and her friends visit the local mall, where Jessica gets her rival Bianca into trouble and finds the earrings in an African-themed store  The earrings are not for sale, so Jessica steals them 
Shortly afterward, small-time criminal Clive Maxtone robs a nearby gas station  When Jessica and her friends stop there and mistake him for an employee, he services their car to avoid raising suspicion  She accidentally drops one of the earrings on the ground, the girls drive away, and Clive picks up the earring  That evening, in their respective homes, Jessica and Clive put on their earrings  When they wake up the next morning, each of them is trapped in the other's body  This is especially difficult for Jessica, who has a cheering competition and the school prom coming up soon 
After Jessica convinces her friends of who she is, they help her investigate the body swap  Hildenburg, Eden, and Bianca are all innocent, Hildenburg and Eden join Jessica after she apologizes to them, and Eden finds a picture of the earrings on the internet  When the girls return to the African store, the owner explains how the earrings work and tells the girls they must find the other earring soon or the change will become permanent 
Meanwhile, Jessica is hired for two jobs while secretly living with April  At her own home, where she works as a gardener, her parents tell her about their marital problems and she helps them rekindle their sex life  
At school, while cleaning the boys' locker room as a custodian, she spies on her boyfriend Billy, who truly loves her, and April's boyfriend Jake, who has been cheating on her  Faced with Jake's infidelity, April begins to fall in love with Jessica, who agrees to take her to the prom  
At the cheering competition, Jessica signals romantically to Billy while disguised as the school mascot, but when the head of her suit falls off, he becomes confused and leaves with Bianca  
Jessica goes to the prom with April and they kiss  Jake sees this and is so upset, he spills his drink on his date  April confesses to being in love with Jessica, who tells April she is perfect and doesn't need anybody  Jessica tries to win Billy back, telling Billy it's her in Clive's body, but he is so shocked and confused that he runs off  
During this time, Clive has been using Jessica's body to make money from men, including Billy, who gives him his money and car, believing he is Jessica  Clive then tries to run him over  On the evening of the prom, Hildenburg sees a video of Clive in Jessica's body robbing a man on the TV news, goes to the scene of the crime, and finds a business card for the club where Clive works as a pole dancer  She informs Jessica at the prom, and the girls go to the club  
When they find Clive, Jessica steals his earring and puts it on herself along with the other one  With both earrings now on the same person, Jessica's and Clive's bodies return to their original owners 
After Jessica makes up with Billy, the film ends with the school's graduation ceremony, followed by a scene in which Clive, running from the law and still dressed in lingerie and handcuffs, is picked up by a bartender who believes he is a homosexual  The bartender turns around slowly with a sinister smile on his face to look at Clive, and locks the doors  Clive screams in horror 

Cast
Wes Takahashi, former animator and visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, makes a cameo appearance as a news reporter  Schneider's mother Pilar appears as a judge of the cheerleading contest 

Production
Filming took place at University High School in West Los Angeles  Speaking on the film, Schneider commented: "No man is a hundred-percent masculine and no woman is a hundred-percent feminine – we're all just somewhere on the scale there  So what I tried to do was just play it with an innocence and gentleness, and then find some physical keys to lock-in on "

Casting
Singers Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Branch each make their feature film debut with cameo roles 

Soundtrack
Release
The Hot Chick was originally rated R, but several scenes were edited out in order to receive the broader PG-13 rating  The R version was classified 12A in Britain, maintaining the same rating given to the PG-13 theatrical version 

Reception
Box office
The film opened at #5 at the U S  box office on the weekend of December 13–15, 2002, taking in US$7,401,146, averaging $3,338 across the 2,217 theatres where it was shown  It went on to earn a total worldwide gross of $54,639,553 

Critical response
The Hot Chick received negative reviews  On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 21% based on reviews from 82 critics, with an average score of 3 90/10  The critical consensus read: "The Hot Chick's one-note concept gets stretched thin, and a lot of the jokes fall flat " On Metacritic, as of October 2020, the film had a score of 29 out 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews"  Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film two thumbs way down  Ebert gave the film half a star (out of a possible four), declaring, "The MPAA rates this PG-13  It is too vulgar for anyone under 13, and too dumb for anyone over 13 " Roeper panned the film saying "it's in color  And, it was mostly in focus "Dennis Harvey of Variety magazine wrote: "At best routinely assembled—at worst barely competent  The slapstick is labored, and the bigger setpieces flat "

Accolades
Rob Schneider was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor of the Decade for his performance in the film 

Home media
The Hot Chick was released May 13, 2003 on VHS and DVD  The DVD featured the deleted scenes that would have made the film an R, including an alternate ending 

See also
Freaky Friday  (1976)
Big (1988)
Body swaps in films



ground_truth: director

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: The large subunit and small subunit that use two types of RNA are major components that make up what?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: Passage 1:
Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs)
Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) are non-autonomous, non-coding transposable elements (TEs) that are about 100 to 700 base pairs in length  They are a class of retrotransposons, DNA elements that amplify themselves throughout eukaryotic genomes, often through RNA intermediates  SINEs compose about 13% of the mammalian genome The internal regions of SINEs originate from tRNA and remain highly conserved, suggesting positive pressure to preserve structure and function of SINEs   While SINEs are present in many species of vertebrates and invertebrates, SINEs are often lineage specific, making them useful markers of divergent evolution between species  Copy number variation and mutations in the SINE sequence make it possible to construct phylogenies based on differences in SINEs between species  SINEs are also implicated in certain types of genetic disease in humans and other eukaryotes 
In essence, short interspersed nuclear elements are genetic parasites which have evolved very early in the history of eukaryotes to utilize protein machinery within the organism as well as to co-opt the machinery from similarly parasitic genomic elements  The simplicity of these elements make them remarkably successful at persisting and amplifying (through retrotransposition)  within the genomes of eukaryotes  These "parasites" which have become ubiquitous in genomes can be very deleterious to organisms as discussed below  However, eukaryotes have been able to integrate short-interspersed nuclear elements into different signaling, metabolic and regulatory pathways and SINEs have become a great source of genetic variability  They seem to play a particularly important role in the regulation of gene expression and the creation of RNA genes  This regulation extends to chromatin re-organization and the regulation of genomic architecture  The different lineages, mutations, and activities among eukaryotes make short-interspersed nuclear elements a useful tool in phylogenetic analysis 

Classification and structure
SINEs are classified as non-LTR retrotransposons because they do not contain long terminal repeats (LTRs)  There are three types of SINEs common to vertebrates and invertebrates: CORE-SINEs, V-SINEs, and AmnSINEs  SINEs have 50-500 base pair internal regions which contain a tRNA-derived segment with A and B boxes that serve as an internal promoter for RNA polymerase III 

Internal structure
SINEs are characterized by their different modules, which are essentially a sectioning of their sequence  SINEs can, but do not necessarily have to possess a head, a body, and a tail  The head, is at the 5' end of short-interspersed nuclear elements and is an evolutionarily derived from an RNA synthesized by RNA Polymerase III such as ribosomal RNAs and tRNAs; the 5' head is indicative of which endogenous element that SINE was derived from and was able to parasitically utilize its transcriptional machinery  For example, the 5' of the Alu sine is derived from 7SL RNA, a sequence transcribed by RNA Polymerase III which codes for the RNA element of SRP, an abundant ribonucleoprotein  The body of SINEs possess an unknown origin but often share much homology with a corresponding LINE which thus allows SINEs to parasitically co-opt endonucleases coded by LINEs (which recognize certain sequence motifs)  Lastly, the 3′ tail of SINEs is composed of short simple repeats of varying lengths; these simple repeats are sites where two (or more) short-interspersed nuclear elements can combine to form a dimeric SINE  Short-interspersed nuclear elements which only possess a head and tail are called simple SINEs whereas short-interspersed nuclear elements which also possess a body or are a combination of two or more SINEs are complex SINEs 

Transcription
Short-interspersed nuclear elements are transcribed by RNA polymerase III which is known to transcribe ribosomal RNA and tRNA, two types of RNA vital to ribosomal assembly and mRNA translation  SINEs, like tRNAs and many small-nuclear RNAs possess an internal promoter and thus are transcribed differently than most protein-coding genes   In other words, short-interspersed nuclear elements have their key promoter elements within the transcribed region itself  Though transcribed by RNA polymerase III, SINEs and other genes possessing internal promoters, recruit different transcriptional machinery and factors than genes possessing upstream promoters 

Effects on gene expression
Changes in chromosome structure influence gene expression primarily by affecting the accessibility of genes to transcriptional machinery  The chromosome has a very complex and hierarchical system of organizing the genome  This system of organization, which includes histones, methyl groups, acetyl groups, and a variety of proteins and RNAs allows different domains within a chromosome to be accessible to polymerases, transcription factors, and other associated proteins to different degrees   Furthermore, the shape and density of certain areas of a chromosome can affect the shape and density of neighboring (or even distant regions) on the chromosome through interaction facilitated by different proteins and elements  Non-coding RNAs  such as short-interspersed nuclear elements, which have been known to associate with and contribute to chromatin structure, can thus play huge role in regulating gene expression   Short-interspersed-nuclear-elements similarly can be involved in gene regulation by modifying genomic architecture 
In fact Usmanova et al  2008 suggested that short-interspersed nuclear elements can serve as direct signals in chromatin rearrangement and structure   The paper examined the global distribution of SINEs in mouse and human chromosomes and determined that this distribution was very similar to genomic distributions of genes and CpG motifs  The distribution of SINEs to genes was significantly more similar than that of other non-coding genetic elements and even differed significantly from the distribution of long-interspersed nuclear elements  This suggested that the SINE distribution was not a mere accident caused by LINE-mediated retrotransposition but rather that SINEs possessed a role in gene-regulation  Furthermore, SINEs frequently contain motifs for YY1 polycomb proteins  YY1 is a zinc-finger protein that acts as a transcriptional repressor for a wide-variety of genes essential for development and signaling   Polycomb protein YY1 is believed to mediate the activity of histone deacetylases and histone acetyltransferases to facilitate chromatin re-organization; this is often to facilitate the formation of heterochromatin (gene-silencing state)  Thus, the analysis suggests that short-interspersed nuclear elements can function as a ‘signal-booster' in the polycomb-dependent silencing of gene-sets through chromatin re-organization   In essence, it is the cumulative effect of many types of interactions that leads to the difference between euchromatin, which is not tightly packed and generally more accessible to transcriptional machinery, and heterochromatin, which is tightly packed and generally not accessible to transcriptional machinery; SINEs seem to play an evolutionary role in this process 
In addition to directly affecting chromatin structure, there are a number of ways in which SINEs can potentially regulate gene expression  For example, long non-coding RNA can directly interact with transcriptional repressors and activators, attenuating or modifying their function   This type of regulation can occur in different ways: the RNA transcript can directly bind to the transcription factor as a co-regulator; also, the RNA can regulate and modify the ability of co-regulators to associate with the transcription factor   For example, Evf-2, a certain long non-coding RNA, has been known to function as a co-activator for certain homeobox transcription factors which are critical to nervous system development and organization  Furthermore, RNA transcripts can interfere with the functionality of the transcriptional complex by interacting or associating with RNA polymerases during the transcription or loading processes  Moreover, non-coding RNAs like SINEs can bind or interact directly with the DNA duplex coding the gene and thus prevent its transcription Also, many non-coding RNAs are distributed near protein-coding genes, often in the reverse direction  This is especially true for short-interspersed nuclear elements as seen in Usmanova et al  These non-coding RNAs, which lie adjacent to or overlap gene-sets provide a mechanism by which transcription factors and machinery can be recruited to increase or repress the transcription of local genes  The particular example of SINEs potentially recruiting the YY1 polycomb transcriptional repressor is discussed above   Alternatively, it also provides a mechanism by which local gene expression can be curtailed and regulated because the transcriptional complexes can hinder or prevent nearby genes from being transcribed  There is research to suggest that this phenomenon is particularly seen in the gene-regulation of pluripotent cells In conclusion, non-coding RNAs such as SINEs are capable of affecting gene expression on a multitude of different levels and in different ways  Short-interspersed nuclear elements are believed to be deeply integrated into a complex regulatory network capable of fine-tuning gene expression across the eukaryotic genome 

Propagation and regulation
The RNA coded by the short-interspersed nuclear element does not code for any protein product but is nonetheless reverse-transcribed and inserted back into an alternate region in the genome  For this reason, short interspersed nuclear elements are believed to have co-evolved with long interspersed nuclear element (LINEs), as LINEs do in fact encode protein products which enable them to be reverse- transcribed and integrated back into the genome   SINEs are  believed to have co-opted the proteins coded by LINEs which are contained in 2 reading frames  Open reading frame 1 (ORF 1)  encodes a protein which binds to RNA and acts as a chaperone to facilitate and maintain the LINE protein-RNA complex structure  Open reading frame 2 (ORF 2) codes a protein which possesses both endonuclease and reverse transcriptase activities  This enables the LINE mRNA to be reverse-transcribed into DNA and integrated into the genome based on the sequence-motifs recognized by the protein's endonuclease domain 
LINE-1 (L1) is transcribed and retrotransposed most frequently in the germ-line and during early development; as a result SINEs move around the genome most during these periods  SINE transcription is down-regulated by transcription factors in somatic cells after early development, though stress can cause up-regulation of normally silent SINEs  SINEs can be transferred between individuals or species via horizontal transfer through a viral vector SINEs are known to share sequence homology with LINES which gives a basis by which the LINE machinery can reverse transcribe and integrate SINE transcripts  Alternately, some SINEs are believed to use a much more complex system of integrating back into the genome; this system involves the use random double-stranded DNA breaks (rather than the endonuclease coded by related long-interspersed nuclear elements creating an insertion-site)  These DNA breaks are utilized to prime reverse transcriptase, ultimately integrating the SINE transcript back into the genome  SINEs nonetheless depend on enzymes coded by other DNA elements and are thus known as non-autonomous retrotransposons as they depend on the machinery of LINEs, which are known as autonomous retrotransposons <The theory that short-interspersed nuclear elements have evolved to utilize the retrotransposon machinery of long-interspersed nuclear elements is supported by studies which examine the presence and distribution of LINEs and SINEs in taxa of different species  For example, LINEs and SINEs in rodents and primates show very strong homology at the insertion-site motif  Such evidence is a basis for the proposed mechanism in which integration of the SINE transcript can be co-opted with LINE-coded protein products  This is specifically demonstrated by a detailed analysis of over 20 rodent species profiled LINEs and SINEs, mainly L1s and B1s respectively; these are families of LINEs and SINEs found at high frequencies in rodents along with other mammals  The study sought to provide phylogenetic clarity within the context of LINE and SINE activity 
The study arrived at a candidate taxa believed to be the first instance of L1 LINE extinction; it expectedly discovered that there was no evidence to suggest that B1 SINE activity occurred in species which did not have L1 LINE activity  Also, the study suggested that B1 short-interspersed nuclear element silencing in fact occurred before L1 long-interspersed nuclear element extinction; this is due to the fact that B1 SINEs are silenced in the genus most-closely related to the genus which does not contain active L1 LINEs (though the genus with B1 SINE silencing still contains active L1 LINEs)   Another genus was also found which similarly contained active L1 long-interspersed nuclear elements but did not contain B1 short-interspersed nuclear elements; the opposite scenario, in which active B1 SINEs were present in a genus which did not possess active L1 LINEs was not found  This result was expected and strongly supports the theory that SINEs have evolved to co-opt the RNA-binding proteins, endonucleases, and reverse-transcriptases coded by LINEs  In taxa which do not actively transcribe and translate long-interspersed nuclear elements protein-products, SINEs do not have the theoretical foundation by which to retrotranspose within the genome  The results obtained in Rinehart et al  are thus very supportive of the current model of SINE retrotransposition 

Effects of SINE transposition
Insertion of a SINE upstream of a coding region may result in exon shuffling or changes to the regulatory region of the gene  Insertion of a SINE into the coding sequence of a gene can have deleterious effects and unregulated transposition can cause genetic disease  The transposition and recombination of SINEs and other active nuclear elements is thought to be one of the major contributions of genetic diversity between lineages during speciation 

Common SINEs
Short-interspersed nuclear elements are believed to have parasitic origins in eukaryotic genomes  These SINEs have mutated and replicated themselves a large number of times on an evolutionary time-scale and thus form many different lineages  Their early evolutionary origin has caused them to be ubiquitous in many eukaryotic lineages 
Alu elements, short-interspersed nuclear element of about 300 nucleotides, are the most common SINE in humans, with >1,000,000 copies throughout the genome, which is over 10 percent of the total genome; this is not uncommon among other species  Alu element copy number differences can be used to distinguish between and construct phylogenies of primate species  Canines differ primarily in their abundance of SINEC_Cf repeats throughout the genome, rather than other gene or allele level mutations  These dog-specific SINEs may code for a splice acceptor site, altering the sequences that appear as exons or introns in each species Apart from mammals, SINEs can reach high copy numbers in a range of species, including nonbony vertebrates (elephant shark) and some fish species (coelacanths)  In plants, SINEs are often restricted to closely related species and have emerged, decayed, and vanished frequently during evolution  Nevertheless, some SINE families such as the Au-SINEs and the Angio-SINEs are unusually widespread across many often unrelated plant species 

Diseases
There are >50 human diseases associated with SINEs  When inserted near or within the exon, SINEs can cause improper splicing, become coding regions, or change the reading frame, often leading to disease phenotypes in humans and other animals  Insertion of Alu elements in the human genome is associated with breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, hemophilia, Dent's disease, cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, and many others 

microRNAs
The role of short-interspersed nuclear elements in gene regulation within cells has been supported by multiple studies  One such study examined the correlation between a certain family of SINEs with microRNAs (in zebrafish)  The specific family of SINEs being examined was the Anamnia V-SINEs; this family of short interspersed nuclear elements is often found in the untranslated region of the 3' end of many genes and is present in vertebrate genomes   The study involved a computational analysis in which the genomic distribution and activity of the Anamnia V-SINEs in Danio rerio zebrafish was examined; furthermore, these V-SINEs potential to generate novel microRNA loci was analyzed   It was found that genes which were predicted to possess V-SINEs were targeted by microRNAs with significantly higher hybridization E-values (relative to other areas in the genome)   The genes that had high hybridization E-values were genes particularly involved in metabolic and signaling pathways  Almost all miRNAs identified to have a strong ability to hybridize to putative V-SINE sequence motifs in genes have been identified (in mammals) to have regulatory roles  These results which establish a correlation between short-interspersed nuclear elements and different regulatory microRNAs strongly suggest that V-SINEs have a significant role in attenuating responses to different signals and stimuli related to metabolism, proliferation and differentiation  Many other studies must be undertaken to establish the validity and extent of short-interspersed nuclear element retrotransposons' role in regulatory gene-expression networks  In conclusion, though not much is known about the role and mechanism by which SINEs generate miRNA gene loci  it is generally understood that SINEs have played a significant evolutionary role in the creation of "RNA-genes", this is also touched upon above in SINEs and pseudogenes 
With such evidence suggesting that short-interspersed nuclear elements have been evolutionary sources for microRNA loci generation it is important to further discuss the potential relationships between the two as well as the mechanism by which the microRNA regulates RNA degradation and more broadly, gene expression   A microRNA is a non-coding RNA generally 22 nucleotides in length  This non-protein coding oligonucleotide is itself coded by longer nuclear DNA sequence usually transcribed by RNA polymerase II which is also responsible for the transcription of most mRNAs and snRNAs in eukaryotes   However, some research suggests that some microRNAs that possess upstream short-interspersed nuclear elements are transcribed by RNA polymerase III which is widely implicated in ribosomal RNA and tRNA, two transcripts vital to mRNA translation   This provides an alternate mechanism by which short-interspersed nuclear elements could be interacting with or mediating gene-regulatory networks involving microRNAs 
The regions coding miRNA can be independent RNA-genes often being anti-sense to neighboring protein-coding genes, or can be found within the introns of protein-coding genes  The co-localization of microRNA and protein-coding genes provides a mechanistic foundation by which microRNA regulates gene-expression  Furthermore, Scarpato et al   reveals (as discussed above) that genes predicted to possess short-interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) through sequence analysis were targeted and hybridized by microRNAs significantly greater than other genes  This provides an evolutionarily path by which the parasitic SINEs were co-opted and utilized to form RNA-genes (such as microRNAs) which have evolved to play a role in complex gene-regulatory networks 
The microRNAs are transcribed as part of longer RNA strands of generally about 80 nucleotides which through complementary base-pairing are able to form hairpin loop structures These structures are recognized and processed in the nucleus by the nuclear protein DiGeorge Syndrome Critical Region 8 (DGCR8) which recruits and associates with the Drosha protein   This complex is responsible for cleaving some of the hair-pin structures from the pre-microRNA which is transported to the cytoplasm  The pre-miRNA is processed by the protein DICER into a double stranded 22 nucleotide   Thereafter, one of the strands is incorporated into a multi-protein RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC)  Among these proteins are proteins from the Argonaute family which are critical to the complex's ability to interact with and repress the translation of the target mRNA Understanding the different ways in which microRNA regulates gene-expression, including mRNA-translation and degradation is key to understanding the potential evolutionary role of SINEs in gene-regulation and in the generation of microRNA loci  This, in addition to SINEs' direct role in regulatory networks (as discussed in SINEs as long non-coding RNAs) is crucial to beginning to understand the relationship between SINEs and certain diseases  Multiple studies have suggested that increased SINE activity is correlated with certain gene-expression profiles and post-transcription regulation of certain genes   In fact, Peterson et al  2013 demonstrated that high SINE RNA expression correlates with post-transcriptional downregulation of BRCA1, a tumor suppressor implicated in multiple forms of cancer, namely breast cancer  Furthermore, studies have established a strong correlation between transcriptional mobilization of SINEs and certain cancers and conditions such as hypoxia; this can be due to the genomic instability caused by SINE activity as well as more direct-downstream effects   SINEs have also been implicated in countless other diseases  In essence, short-interspersed nuclear elements have become deeply integrated in countless regulatory, metabolic and signaling pathways and thus play an inevitable role in causing disease  Much is still to be known about these genomic parasites but it is clear they play a significant role within eukaryotic organisms 

SINEs and pseudogenes
The activity of SINEs however has genetic vestiges which do not seem to play a significant role, positive or negative, and manifest themselves in the genome as pseudogenes   SINEs however should not be mistaken as RNA pseudogenes  In general, pseudogenes are generated when processed mRNAs of protein-coding genes are reverse-transcribed and incorporated back into the genome (RNA pseudogenes are reverse transcribed RNA genes)  Pseudogenes are generally functionless as they descend from processed RNAs independent of their evolutionary-context which includes introns and different regulatory elements which enable transcription and processing  These pseudogenes, though non-functional may in some cases still possess promoters, CpG islands, and other features which enable transcription; they thus can still be transcribed and may possess a role in the regulation of gene expression (like SINEs and other non-coding elements)   Pseudogenes thus differ from SINEs in that they are derived from transcribed- functional RNA whereas SINEs are DNA elements which retrotranspose by co-opting RNA genes transcriptional machinery  However, there are studies which suggest  that retro-transposable elements such as short-interspersed nuclear elements are not only capable of copying themselves in alternate regions in the genome but are also able to do so for random genes too   Thus SINEs can be playing a vital role in the generation of pseudogenes, which themselves are known to be involved in regulatory networks  This is perhaps another means by which SINEs have been able to influence and contribute to gene-regulation 
Passage 2:
Exonuclease VII
The enzyme exodeoxyribonuclease VII (EC 3 1 11 6, Escherichia coli exonuclease VII, E  coli exonuclease VII, endodeoxyribonuclease VII, exodeoxyribonuclease VII) is a bacterial exonuclease enzyme  It is composed of two nonidentical subunits; one large subunit and 4 small ones  that catalyses exonucleolytic cleavage in either 5′- to 3′- or 3′- to 5′-direction to yield nucleoside 5′-phosphates  The large subunit also contains an N-terminal OB-fold domain that binds to nucleic acids 
Passage 3:
Ribosomal protein
A ribosomal protein (r-protein or rProtein) is any of the proteins that, in conjunction with rRNA, make up the ribosomal subunits involved in the cellular process of translation  E  coli, other bacteria and Archaea have a 30S small subunit and a 50S large subunit, whereas humans and yeasts have a 40S small subunit and a 60S large subunit  Equivalent subunits are frequently numbered differently between bacteria, Archaea, yeasts and humans A large part of the knowledge about these organic molecules has come from the study of E  coli ribosomes  All ribosomal proteins have been isolated and many specific antibodies have been produced  These, together with electronic microscopy and the use of certain reactives, have allowed for the determination of the topography of the proteins in the ribosome   More recently, a near-complete (near)atomic picture of the ribosomal proteins is emerging from the latest high-resolution cryo-EM data (including PDB: 5AFI​) 

Conservation
Ribosomal proteins are among the most highly conserved proteins across all life forms  Among the 40 proteins found in various small ribosomal subunits (RPSs), 15 subunits are universally conserved across prokaryotes and eukaryotes  However, 7 subunits are only found in bacteria (bS21, bS6, bS16, bS18, bS20, bS21, and bTHX), while 17 subunits are only found in archaea and eukaryotes  Typically 22 proteins are found in bacterial small subunits and 32 in yeast, human and most likely most other eukaryotic species  Twenty-seven (out of 32) proteins of the eukaryotic small ribosomal subunit proteins are also present in archaea (no ribosomal protein is exclusively found in archaea), confirming that they are more closely related to eukaryotes than to bacteria Among the large ribosomal subunit (RPLs), 18 proteins are universal, i e  found in both bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea  14 proteins are only found in bacteria, while 27 proteins are only found in archaea and eukaryotes  Again, archaea have no proteins unique to them 

Essentiality
Despite their high conservation over billions of years of evolution, the absence of several ribosomal proteins in certain species shows that ribosomal subunits have been added and lost over the course of evolution  This is also reflected by the fact that several ribosomal proteins do not appear to be essential when deleted  For instance, in E  coli nine ribosomal proteins (uL15, bL21, uL24, bL27, uL29, uL30, bL34, uS9, and uS17) are nonessential for survival when deleted  Taken together with previous results, 22 of the 54 E  coli ribosomal protein genes can be individually deleted from the genome  Similarly, 16 ribosomal proteins (uL1, bL9, uL15, uL22, uL23, bL28, uL29, bL32, bL33 1, bL33 2, bL34, bL35, bL36, bS6, bS20, and bS21) were successfully deleted in Bacillus subtilis  In conjunction with previous reports, 22 ribosomal proteins have been shown to be nonessential in B  subtilis, at least for cell proliferation 

Assembly
In E  coli
The ribosome of E  coli has about 22 proteins in the small subunit (labelled S1 to S22) and 33 proteins in the large subunit (somewhat counter-intuitively called L1 to L36)  All of them are different with three exceptions: one protein is found in both subunits (S20 and L26), L7 and L12 are acetylated and methylated forms of the same protein, and L8 is a complex of L7/L12 and L10  In addition, L31 is known to exist in two forms, the full length at 7 9 kilodaltons (kDa) and fragmented at 7 0 kDa  This is why the number of proteins in a ribosome is of 56  Except for S1 (with a molecular weight of 61 2 kDa), the other proteins range in weight between 4 4 and 29 7 kDa Recent de novo proteomics experiments where the authors characterized in vivo ribosome-assembly intermediates and associated assembly factors from wild-type Escherichia coli cells using a general quantitative mass spectrometry (qMS) approach have confirmed the presence of all the known small and large subunit components and have identified a total of 21 known and potentially new ribosome-assembly-factors that co-localise with various ribosomal particles 

Disposition in the small ribosomal subunit
In the small (30S) subunit of E  coli ribosomes, the proteins denoted uS4, uS7, uS8, uS15, uS17, bS20 bind independently to 16S rRNA  After assembly of these primary binding proteins, uS5, bS6, uS9, uS12, uS13, bS16, bS18, and uS19 bind to the growing ribosome  These proteins also potentiate the addition of uS2, uS3, uS10, uS11, uS14, and bS21  Protein binding to helical junctions is important for initiating the correct tertiary fold of RNA and to organize the overall structure  Nearly all the proteins contain one or more globular domains  Moreover, nearly all contain long extensions that can contact the RNA in far-reaching regions  Additional stabilization results from the proteins' basic residues, as these neutralize the charge repulsion of the RNA backbone  Protein–protein interactions also exist to hold structure together by electrostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions  Theoretical investigations pointed to correlated effects of protein-binding onto binding affinities during the assembly processIn one study, the net charges (at pH 7 4) of the ribosomal proteins comprising the highly conserved S10-spc cluster were found to have an inverse relationship with the halophilicity/halotolerance levels in bacteria and archaea  In non-halophilic bacteria, the S10-spc proteins are generally basic, contrasting with the overall acidic whole proteomes of the extremely halophiles  The universal uL2 lying in the oldest part of the ribosome, is always positively charged irrespective of the strain/organism it belongs to 

In eukaryotes
Ribosomes in eukaryotes contain 79–80 proteins and four ribosomal RNA (rRNA) molecules 
General or specialized chaperones solubilize the ribosomal proteins and facilitate their import into the nucleus  Assembly of the eukaryotic ribosome appears to be driven by the ribosomal proteins in vivo when assembly is also aided by chaperones   Most ribosomal proteins assemble with rRNA co-transcriptionally, becoming associated more stably as assembly proceeds, and the active sites of both subunits are constructed last 

Table of ribosomal proteins
In the past, different nomenclatures were used for the same ribosomal protein in different organisms  Not only were the names not consistent across domains; the names also differed between organisms within a domain, such as humans and S  cervisiae, both eukaryotes  This was due to researchers assigning names before the sequences were known, causing trouble for later research  The following tables use the unified nomenclature by Ban et al , 2014  The same nomenclature is used by UniProt's "family" curation In general, cellular ribosomal proteins are to be called simply using the cross domain name, e g  "uL14" for what is currently called L23 in humans  A suffix is used for the organellar versions, so that "uL14m" refers to the human mitochondrial uL14 (MRPL14)  Organelle-specific proteins use their own cross-domain prefixes, for example "mS33" for MRPS33: Table S3,S4  and "cL37" for PSRP5 : Table S2,S3  (See the two proceeding citations, also partially by Ban N, for the organelle nomenclatures )

See also
Alpha operon ribosome binding site
Ribosomal protein L20 leader
Mitochondrial ribosome, for a list of its protein subunits
Passage 4:
Nuclear cap-binding protein complex
Nuclear cap-binding protein complex is a RNA-binding protein which binds to the 5' cap of pre-mRNA  The cap and nuclear cap-binding protein have many functions in mRNA biogenesis including splicing, 3'-end formation by stabilizing the interaction of the 3'-end processing machinery, nuclear export and protection of the transcripts from nuclease degradation  When RNA is exported to the cytoplasm the nuclear cap-binding protein complex is replaced by cytoplasmic cap binding complex  The nuclear cap-binding complex is a functional heterodimer and composed of Cbc1/Cbc2 in yeast and CBC20/CBC80 in multicellular eukaryotes  Human nuclear cap-binding protein complex shows the large subunit, CBC80 consists of 757 amino acid residues  Its secondary structure contains approximately sixty percent of helical and one percent of beta sheet in the strand  The small subunit, CBC20 has 98 amino acid residues  Its secondary structure contains approximately twenty percent of helical and twenty-four percent of beta sheet in the strand  Human nuclear cap-binding protein complex plays important role in the maturation of pre-mRNA and in uracil-rich small nuclear RNA 
Passage 5:
Ribozyme
Ribozymes (ribonucleic acid enzymes) are RNA molecules that have the ability to catalyze specific biochemical reactions, including RNA splicing in gene expression, similar to the action of protein enzymes  The 1982 discovery of ribozymes demonstrated that RNA can be both genetic material (like DNA) and a biological catalyst (like protein enzymes), and contributed to the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that RNA may have been important in the evolution of prebiotic self-replicating systems The most common activities of natural or in vitro evolved ribozymes are the cleavage (or ligation) of RNA and DNA and peptide bond formation  For example, the smallest ribozyme known (GUGGC-3') can aminoacylate a GCCU-3' sequence in the presence of PheAMP  Within the ribosome, ribozymes function as part of the large subunit ribosomal RNA to link amino acids during protein synthesis  They also participate in a variety of RNA processing reactions, including RNA splicing, viral replication, and transfer RNA biosynthesis  Examples of ribozymes include the hammerhead ribozyme, the VS ribozyme, leadzyme, and the hairpin ribozyme 
Researchers who are investigating the origins of life through the RNA world hypothesis have been working on discovering a ribozyme with the capacity to self-replicate, which would require it to have the ability to catalytically synthesize polymers of RNA  This should be able to happen in prebiotically plausible conditions with high rates of copying accuracy to prevent degradation of information but also allowing for the occurrence of occasional errors during the copying process to allow for Darwinian evolution to proceed Attempts have been made to develop ribozymes as therapeutic agents, as enzymes which target defined RNA sequences for cleavage, as biosensors, and for applications in functional genomics and gene discovery 

Discovery
Before the discovery of ribozymes, enzymes—which are defined as catalytic proteins—were the only known biological catalysts  In 1967, Carl Woese, Francis Crick, and Leslie Orgel were the first to suggest that RNA could act as a catalyst  This idea was based upon the discovery that RNA can form complex secondary structures  These ribozymes were found in the intron of an RNA transcript, which removed itself from the transcript, as well as in the RNA component of the RNase P complex, which is involved in the maturation of pre-tRNAs  In 1989, Thomas R  Cech and Sidney Altman shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their "discovery of catalytic properties of RNA"  The term ribozyme was first introduced by Kelly Kruger et al  in a paper published in Cell in 1982 It had been a firmly established belief in biology that catalysis was reserved for proteins  However, the idea of RNA catalysis is motivated in part by the old question regarding the origin of life: Which comes first, enzymes that do the work of the cell or nucleic acids that carry the information required to produce the enzymes? The concept of "ribonucleic acids as catalysts" circumvents this problem  RNA, in essence, can be both the chicken and the egg In the 1980s, Thomas Cech, at the University of Colorado Boulder, was studying the excision of introns in a ribosomal RNA gene in Tetrahymena thermophila  While trying to purify the enzyme responsible for the splicing reaction, he found that the intron could be spliced out in the absence of any added cell extract  As much as they tried, Cech and his colleagues could not identify any protein associated with the splicing reaction  After much work, Cech proposed that the intron sequence portion of the RNA could break and reform phosphodiester bonds  At about the same time, Sidney Altman, a professor at Yale University, was studying the way tRNA molecules are processed in the cell when he and his colleagues isolated an enzyme called RNase-P, which is responsible for conversion of a precursor tRNA into the active tRNA  Much to their surprise, they found that RNase-P contained RNA in addition to protein and that RNA was an essential component of the active enzyme  This was such a foreign idea that they had difficulty publishing their findings  The following year, Altman demonstrated that RNA can act as a catalyst by showing that the RNase-P RNA subunit could catalyze the cleavage of precursor tRNA into active tRNA in the absence of any protein component 
Since Cech's and Altman's discovery, other investigators have discovered other examples of self-cleaving RNA or catalytic RNA molecules  Many ribozymes have either a hairpin – or hammerhead – shaped active center and a unique secondary structure that allows them to cleave other RNA molecules at specific sequences  It is now possible to make ribozymes that will specifically cleave any RNA molecule  These RNA catalysts may have pharmaceutical applications  For example, a ribozyme has been designed to cleave the RNA of HIV  If such a ribozyme were made by a cell, all incoming virus particles would have their RNA genome cleaved by the ribozyme, which would prevent infection 

Structure and mechanism
Despite having only four choices for each monomer unit (nucleotides), compared to 20 amino acid side chains found in proteins, ribozymes have diverse structures and mechanisms  In many cases they are able to mimic the mechanism used by their protein counterparts  For example, in self cleaving ribozyme RNAs, an in-line SN2 reaction is carried out using the 2’ hydroxyl group as a nucleophile attacking the bridging phosphate and causing 5’ oxygen of the N+1 base to act as a leaving group  In comparison, RNase A, a protein that catalyzes the same reaction, uses a coordinating histidine and lysine to act as a base to attack the phosphate backbone Like many protein enzymes, metal binding is also critical to the function of many ribozymes  Often these interactions use both the phosphate backbone and the base of the nucleotide, causing drastic conformational changes  There are two mechanism classes for the cleavage of a phosphodiester backbone in the presence of metal  In the first mechanism, the internal 2’- OH group attacks the phosphorus center in a SN2 mechanism  Metal ions promote this reaction by first coordinating the phosphate oxygen and later stabling the oxyanion  The second mechanism also follows a SN2 displacement, but the nucleophile comes from water or exogenous hydroxyl groups rather than RNA itself  The smallest ribozyme is UUU, which can promote the cleavage between G and A of the GAAA tetranucleotide via the first mechanism in the presence of Mn2+  The reason why this trinucleotide (rather than the complementary tetramer) catalyzes this reaction may be because the UUU-AAA pairing is the weakest and most flexible trinucleotide among the 64 conformations, which provides the binding site for Mn2+ Phosphoryl transfer can also be catalyzed without metal ions  For example, pancreatic ribonuclease A and hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozymes can catalyze the cleavage of RNA backbone through acid-base catalysis without metal ions  Hairpin ribozyme can also catalyze the self-cleavage of RNA without metal ions, but the mechanism for this is still unclear Ribozyme can also catalyze the formation of peptide bond between adjacent amino acids by lowering the activation entropy 

Activities
Although ribozymes are quite rare in most cells, their roles are sometimes essential to life  For example, the functional part of the ribosome, the biological machine that translates RNA into proteins, is fundamentally a ribozyme, composed of RNA tertiary structural motifs that are often coordinated to metal ions such as Mg2+ as cofactors  In a model system, there is no requirement for divalent cations in a five-nucleotide RNA catalyzing trans-phenylalanation of a four-nucleotide substrate with 3 base pairs complementary with the catalyst, where the catalyst/substrate were devised by truncation of the C3 ribozyme The best-studied ribozymes are probably those that cut themselves or other RNAs, as in the original discovery by Cech and Altman  However, ribozymes can be designed to catalyze a range of reactions, many of which may occur in life but have not been discovered in cells RNA may catalyze folding of the pathological protein conformation of a prion in a manner similar to that of a chaperonin 

Ribozymes and the origin of life
RNA can also act as a hereditary molecule, which encouraged Walter Gilbert to propose that in the distant past, the cell used RNA as both the genetic material and the structural and catalytic molecule rather than dividing these functions between DNA and protein as they are today; this hypothesis is known as the "RNA world hypothesis" of the origin of life  Since nucleotides and RNA (and thus ribozymes) can arise by inorganic chemicals, they are candidates for the first enzymes, and in fact, the first "replicators" (i e , information-containing macro-molecules that replicate themselves)  An example of a self-replicating ribozyme that ligates two substrates to generate an exact copy of itself was described in 2002 
The discovery of the catalytic activity of RNA solved the "chicken and egg" paradox of the origin of life, solving the problem of origin of peptide and nucleic acid central dogma  According to this scenario, at the origin of life, all enzymatic activity and genetic information encoding was done by one molecule: RNA 
Ribozymes have been produced in the laboratory that are capable of catalyzing the synthesis of other RNA molecules from activated monomers under very specific conditions, these molecules being known as RNA polymerase ribozymes  The first RNA polymerase ribozyme was reported in 1996, and was capable of synthesizing RNA polymers up to 6 nucleotides in length  Mutagenesis and selection has been performed on an RNA ligase ribozyme from a large pool of random RNA sequences, resulting in isolation of the improved "Round-18" polymerase ribozyme in 2001 which could catalyze RNA polymers now up to 14 nucleotides in length  Upon application of further selection on the Round-18 ribozyme, the B6 61 ribozyme was generated and was able to add up to 20 nucleotides to a primer template in 24 hours, until it decomposes by cleavage of its phosphodiester bonds The rate at which ribozymes can polymerize an RNA sequence multiples substantially when it takes place within a micelle The next ribozyme discovered was the "tC19Z" ribozyme, which can add up to 95 nucleotides with a fidelity of 0 0083 mutations/nucleotide  Next, the "tC9Y" ribozyme was discovered by researchers and was further able to synthesize RNA strands up to 206 nucleotides long in the eutectic phase conditions at below-zero temperature, conditions previously shown to promote ribozyme polymerase activity The RNA polymerase ribozyme (RPR) called tC9-4M was able to polymerize RNA chains longer than itself (i e  longer than 177 nt) in magnesium ion concentrations close to physiological levels, whereas earlier RPRs required prebiotically implausible concentrations of up to 200 mM  The only factor required for it to achieve this was the presence of a very simple amino acid polymer called lysine decapeptide The most complex RPR synthesized by that point was called 24-3, which was newly capable of polymerizing the sequences of a substantial variety of nucleotide sequences and navigating through complex secondary structures of RNA substrates inaccessible to previous ribozymes  In fact, this experiment was the first to use a ribozyme to synthesize a tRNA molecule  Starting with the 24-3 ribozyme, Tjhung et al  applied another fourteen rounds of selection to obtain an RNA polymerase ribozyme by in vitro evolution termed '38-6' that has an unprecedented level of activity in copying complex RNA molecules  However, this ribozyme is unable to copy itself and its RNA products have a high mutation rate  In a subsequent study, the researchers began with the 38-6 ribozyme and applied another 14 rounds of selection to generate the '52-2' ribozyme, which compared to 38-6, was again many times more active and could begin generating detectable and functional levels of the class I ligase, although it was still limited in its fidelity and functionality in comparison to copying of the same template by proteins such as the T7 RNA polymerase An RPR called t5(+1) adds triplet nucleotides at a time instead of just one nucleotide at a time  This heterodimeric RPR can navigate secondary structures inaccessible to 24-3, including hairpins  In the initial pool of RNA variants derived only from a previously synthesized RPR known as the Z RPR, two sequences separately emerged and evolved to be mutualistically dependent on each other  The Type 1 RNA evolved to be catalytically inactive, but complexing with the Type 5 RNA boosted its polymerization ability and enabled intermolecular interactions with the RNA template substrate obviating the need to tether the template directly to the RNA sequence of the RPR, which was a limitation of earlier studies  Not only did t5(+1) not need tethering to the template, but a primer was not needed either as t5(+1) had the ability to polymerize a template in both 3' → 5' and 5' 3 → 3' directions A highly evolved RNA polymerase ribozyme was able to function as a reverse transcriptase, that is, it can synthesize a DNA copy using an RNA template  Such an activity is considered to have been crucial for the transition from RNA to DNA genomes during the early history of life on earth  Reverse transcription capability could have arisen as a secondary function of an early RNA-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme 
An RNA sequence that folds into a ribozyme is capable of invading duplexed RNA, rearranging into an open holopolymerase complex, and then searching for a specific RNA promoter sequence, and upon recognition rearrange again into a processive form that polymerizes a complementary strand of the sequence  This ribozyme is capable of extending duplexed RNA by up to 107 nucleotides, and does so without needing to tether the sequence being polymerized 

Artificial ribozymes
Since the discovery of ribozymes that exist in living organisms, there has been interest in the study of new synthetic ribozymes made in the laboratory  For example, artificially produced self-cleaving RNAs with good enzymatic activity have been produced  Tang and Breaker isolated self-cleaving RNAs by in vitro selection of RNAs originating from random-sequence RNAs  Some of the synthetic ribozymes that were produced had novel structures, while some were similar to the naturally occurring hammerhead ribozyme 
In 2015, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Chicago engineered a tethered ribosome that works nearly as well as the authentic cellular component that produces all the proteins and enzymes within the cell  Called Ribosome-T, or Ribo-T, the artificial ribosome was created by Michael Jewett and Alexander Mankin  The techniques used to create artificial ribozymes involve directed evolution  This approach takes advantage of RNA's dual nature as both a catalyst and an informational polymer, making it easy for an investigator to produce vast populations of RNA catalysts using polymerase enzymes  The ribozymes are mutated by reverse transcribing them with reverse transcriptase into various cDNA and amplified with error-prone PCR  The selection parameters in these experiments often differ  One approach for selecting a ligase ribozyme involves using biotin tags, which are covalently linked to the substrate  If a molecule possesses the desired ligase activity, a streptavidin matrix can be used to recover the active molecules 
Lincoln and Joyce used in vitro evolution to develop ribozyme ligases capable of self-replication in about an hour, via the joining of pre-synthesized highly complementary oligonucleotides Although not true catalysts, the creation of artificial self-cleaving riboswitches, termed aptazymes, has also been an active area of research  Riboswitches are regulatory RNA motifs that change their structure in response to a small molecule ligand to regulate translation  While there are many known natural riboswitches that bind a wide array of metabolites and other small organic molecules, only one ribozyme based on a riboswitch has been described: glmS  Early work in characterizing self-cleaving riboswitches was focused on using theophylline as the ligand  In these studies, an RNA hairpin is formed which blocks the ribosome binding site, thus inhibiting translation  In the presence of the ligand, in these cases theophylline, the regulatory RNA region is cleaved off, allowing the ribosome to bind and translate the target gene  Much of this RNA engineering work was based on rational design and previously determined RNA structures rather than directed evolution as in the above examples  More recent work has broadened the ligands used in ribozyme riboswitches to include thymine pyrophosphate  Fluorescence-activated cell sorting has also been used to engineering aptazymes 

Applications
Ribozymes have been proposed and developed for the treatment of disease through gene therapy  One major challenge of using RNA-based enzymes as a therapeutic is the short half-life of the catalytic RNA molecules in the body  To combat this, the 2’ position on the ribose is modified to improve RNA stability  One area of ribozyme gene therapy has been the inhibition of RNA-based viruses 
A type of synthetic ribozyme directed against HIV RNA called gene shears has been developed and has entered clinical testing for HIV infection Similarly, ribozymes have been designed to target the hepatitis C virus RNA, SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Adenovirus and influenza A and B virus RNA  The ribozyme is able to cleave the conserved regions of the virus's genome, which has been shown to reduce the virus in mammalian cell culture  Despite these efforts by researchers, these projects have remained in the preclinical stage 

Known ribozymes
Well-validated naturally occurring ribozyme classes:

See also
Notes and references
Further reading
External links
Tom Cech's Short Talk: "Discovering Ribozymes"
Passage 6:
Ribosome
Ribosomes () are macromolecular machines, found within all  cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation)  Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to form polypeptide chains  Ribosomes consist of two major components: the small and large ribosomal subunits  Each subunit consists of one or more ribosomal RNA (rRNA) molecules and many ribosomal proteins (RPs or r-proteins)  The ribosomes and associated molecules are also known as the translational apparatus 

Overview
The sequence of DNA that encodes the sequence of the amino acids in a protein is transcribed into a messenger RNA chain  Ribosomes bind to messenger RNAs and use their sequences for determining the correct sequence of amino acids to generate a given protein  Amino acids are selected and carried to the ribosome by transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, which enter the ribosome and bind to the messenger RNA chain via an anti-codon stem loop  For each coding triplet (codon) in the messenger RNA, there is a unique transfer RNA that must have the exact anti-codon match, and carries the correct amino acid for incorporating into a growing polypeptide chain  Once the protein is produced, it can then fold to produce a functional three-dimensional structure 
A ribosome is made from complexes of RNAs and proteins and is therefore a ribonucleoprotein complex  Each ribosome is composed of small (30S) and large (50S) components, called subunits, which are bound to each other:

(30S) has mainly a decoding function and is also bound to the mRNA
(50S) has mainly a catalytic function and is also bound to the aminoacylated tRNAs The synthesis of proteins from their building blocks takes place in four phases: initiation, elongation, termination, and recycling  The start codon in all mRNA molecules has the sequence AUG  The stop codon is one of UAA, UAG, or UGA; since there are no tRNA molecules that recognize these codons, the ribosome recognizes that translation is complete  When a ribosome finishes reading an mRNA molecule, the two subunits separate and are usually broken up but can be re-used  Ribosomes are ribozymes, because the catalytic peptidyl transferase activity that links amino acids together is performed by the ribosomal RNA Ribosomes are often associated with the intracellular membranes that make up the rough endoplasmic reticulum 
Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes in the three-domain system resemble each other to a remarkable degree, evidence of a common origin  They differ in their size, sequence, structure, and the ratio of protein to RNA  The differences in structure allow some antibiotics to kill bacteria by inhibiting their ribosomes, while leaving human ribosomes unaffected  In all species, more than one ribosome may move along a single mRNA chain at one time (as a polysome), each "reading" a specific sequence and producing a corresponding protein molecule 
The mitochondrial ribosomes of eukaryotic cells functionally resemble many features of those in bacteria, reflecting the likely evolutionary origin of mitochondria 

Discovery
Ribosomes were first observed in the mid-1950s by Romanian-American cell biologist George Emil Palade, using an electron microscope, as dense particles or granules   They were initially called  Palade granules due to their granular structure   The term "ribosome" was proposed in 1958:

During the course of the symposium a semantic difficulty became apparent  To some of the participants, "microsomes" mean the ribonucleoprotein particles of the microsome fraction contaminated by other protein and lipid material; to others, the microsomes consist of protein and lipid contaminated by particles  The phrase "microsomal particles" does not seem adequate, and "ribonucleoprotein particles of the microsome fraction" is much too awkward  During the meeting, the word "ribosome" was suggested, which has a very satisfactory name and a pleasant sound  The present confusion would be eliminated if "ribosome" were adopted to designate ribonucleoprotein particles in sizes ranging from 35 to 100S 
Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, and George Emil Palade were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1974, for the discovery of the ribosome  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 was awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A  Steitz and Ada E  Yonath for determining the detailed structure and mechanism of the ribosome 

Structure
The ribosome is a complex cellular machine  It is largely made up of specialized RNA known as ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as well as dozens of distinct proteins (the exact number varies slightly between species)  The ribosomal proteins and rRNAs are arranged into two distinct ribosomal pieces of different sizes, known generally as the large and small subunit of the ribosome  Ribosomes consist of two subunits that fit together (Figure 2) and work as one to translate the mRNA into a polypeptide chain during protein synthesis (Figure 1)  Because they are formed from two subunits of non-equal size, they are slightly longer in the axis than in diameter 

Prokaryotic ribosomes
Prokaryotic ribosomes are around 20 nm (200 Å) in diameter and are composed of 65% rRNA and 35% ribosomal proteins  Eukaryotic ribosomes are between 25 and 30 nm (250–300 Å) in diameter with an rRNA-to-protein ratio that is close to 1  Crystallographic work has shown that there are no ribosomal proteins close to the reaction site for polypeptide synthesis  This suggests that the protein components of ribosomes do not directly participate in peptide bond formation catalysis, but rather that these proteins act as a scaffold that may enhance the ability of rRNA to synthesize protein (See: Ribozyme) 

The ribosomal subunits of prokaryotes and eukaryotes are quite similar The unit of measurement used to describe the ribosomal subunits and the rRNA fragments is the Svedberg unit, a measure of the rate of sedimentation in centrifugation rather than size  This accounts for why fragment names do not add up: for example, bacterial 70S ribosomes are made of 50S and 30S subunits 
Prokaryotes have 70S ribosomes, each consisting of a small (30S) and a large (50S) subunit  E  coli, for example, has a 16S RNA subunit (consisting of 1540 nucleotides) that is bound to 21 proteins  The large subunit is composed of a 5S RNA subunit (120 nucleotides), a 23S RNA subunit (2900 nucleotides) and 31 proteins 
Affinity label for the tRNA binding sites on the E  coli ribosome allowed the identification of A and P site proteins most likely associated with the peptidyltransferase activity; labelled proteins are L27, L14, L15, L16, L2; at least L27 is located at the donor site, as shown by E  Collatz and A P  Czernilofsky  Additional research has demonstrated that the S1 and S21 proteins, in association with the 3′-end of 16S ribosomal RNA, are involved in the initiation of translation 

Archaeal ribosomes
Archaeal ribosomes share the same general dimensions of bacteria ones, being a 70S ribosome made up from a 50S large subunit, a 30S small subunit, and containing three rRNA chains  However, on the sequence level, they are much closer to eukaryotic ones than to bacterial ones  Every extra ribosomal protein archaea have compared to bacteria has a eukaryotic counterpart, while no such relation applies between archaea and bacteria 

Eukaryotic ribosomes
Eukaryotes have 80S ribosomes located in their cytosol, each consisting of a small (40S) and large (60S) subunit  Their 40S subunit has an 18S RNA (1900 nucleotides) and 33 proteins  The large subunit is composed of a 5S RNA (120 nucleotides), 28S RNA (4700 nucleotides), a 5 8S RNA (160 nucleotides) subunits and 49 proteins 
During 1977, Czernilofsky published research that used affinity labeling to identify tRNA-binding sites on rat liver ribosomes  Several proteins, including L32/33, L36, L21, L23, L28/29 and L13 were implicated as being at or near the peptidyl transferase center 

Plastoribosomes and mitoribosomes
In eukaryotes, ribosomes are present in mitochondria (sometimes called mitoribosomes) and in plastids such as chloroplasts (also called plastoribosomes)  They also consist of large and small subunits bound together with proteins into one 70S particle  These ribosomes are similar to those of bacteria and these organelles are thought to have originated as symbiotic bacteria  Of the two, chloroplastic ribosomes are closer to bacterial ones than mitochondrial ones are  Many pieces of ribosomal RNA in the mitochondria are shortened, and in the case of 5S rRNA, replaced by other structures in animals and fungi  In particular, Leishmania tarentolae has a minimalized set of mitochondrial rRNA  In contrast, plant mitoribosomes have both extended rRNA and additional proteins as compared to bacteria, in particular, many pentatricopetide repeat proteins The cryptomonad and chlorarachniophyte algae may contain a nucleomorph that resembles a vestigial eukaryotic nucleus  Eukaryotic 80S ribosomes may be present in the compartment containing the nucleomorph 

Making use of the differences
The differences between the bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomes are exploited by pharmaceutical chemists to create antibiotics that can destroy a bacterial infection without harming the cells of the infected person  Due to the differences in their structures, the bacterial 70S ribosomes are vulnerable to these antibiotics while the eukaryotic 80S ribosomes are not  Even though mitochondria possess ribosomes similar to the bacterial ones, mitochondria are not affected by these antibiotics because they are surrounded by a double membrane that does not easily admit these antibiotics into the organelle  A noteworthy counterexample, however, includes the antineoplastic antibiotic chloramphenicol, which successfully inhibits bacterial 50S and eukaryotic mitochondrial 50S ribosomes  Ribosomes in chloroplasts, however, are different: Antibiotic resistance in chloroplast ribosomal proteins is a trait that has to be introduced as a marker, with genetic engineering 

Common properties
The various ribosomes share a core structure, which is quite similar despite the large differences in size  Much of the RNA is highly organized into various tertiary structural motifs, for example pseudoknots that exhibit coaxial stacking  The extra RNA in the larger ribosomes is in several long continuous insertions, such that they form loops out of the core structure without disrupting or changing it  All of the catalytic activity of the ribosome is carried out by the RNA; the proteins reside on the surface and seem to stabilize the structure 

High-resolution structure
The general molecular structure of the ribosome has been known since the early 1970s  In the early 2000s, the structure has been achieved at high resolutions, of the order of a few ångströms 
The first papers giving the structure of the ribosome at atomic resolution were published almost simultaneously in late 2000  The 50S (large prokaryotic) subunit was determined from the archaeon Haloarcula marismortui and the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, and the structure of the 30S subunit was determined from Thermus thermophilus  These structural studies were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009  In May 2001 these coordinates were used to reconstruct the entire T  thermophilus 70S particle at 5 5 Å resolution Two papers were published in November 2005 with structures of the Escherichia coli 70S ribosome  The structures of a vacant ribosome were determined at 3 5 Å resolution using X-ray crystallography  Then, two weeks later, a structure based on cryo-electron microscopy was published, which depicts the ribosome at 11–15 Å resolution in the act of passing a newly synthesized protein strand into the protein-conducting channel 
The first atomic structures of the ribosome complexed with tRNA and mRNA molecules were solved by using X-ray crystallography by two groups independently, at 2 8 Å and at 3 7 Å  These structures allow one to see the details of interactions of the Thermus thermophilus ribosome with mRNA and with tRNAs bound at classical ribosomal sites  Interactions of the ribosome with long mRNAs containing Shine-Dalgarno sequences were visualized soon after that at 4 5–5 5 Å resolution In 2011, the first complete atomic structure of the eukaryotic 80S ribosome from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae   was obtained by crystallography  The model reveals the architecture of eukaryote-specific elements and their interaction with the universally conserved core  At the same time, the complete model of a eukaryotic 40S ribosomal structure in Tetrahymena thermophila was published and described the structure of the 40S subunit, as well as much about the 40S subunit's interaction with eIF1 during translation initiation  Similarly, the eukaryotic 60S subunit structure was also determined from Tetrahymena thermophila in complex with eIF6 

Function
Ribosomes are minute particles consisting of RNA and associated proteins that function to synthesize proteins  Proteins are needed for many cellular functions such as repairing damage or directing chemical processes  Ribosomes can be found floating within the cytoplasm or attached to the endoplasmic reticulum  Their main function is to convert genetic code into an amino acid sequence and to build protein polymers from amino acid monomers 
Ribosomes act as catalysts in two extremely important biological processes called peptidyl transfer and peptidyl hydrolysis  The "PT center is responsible for producing protein bonds during protein elongation" In summary, ribosomes have two main functions: Decoding the message, and the formation of peptide bonds  These two functions reside in the ribosomal subunits  Each subunit is made of one or more rRNAs and many r-proteins  The small subunit (30S in bacteria and archaea, 40S in eukaryotes) has the decoding function, whereas the large subunit (50S in bacteria and archaea, 60S in eukaryotes) catalyzes the formation of peptide bonds, referred to as the peptidyl-transferase activity  The bacterial (and archaeal) small subunit contains the 16S rRNA and 21 r-proteins (Escherichia coli), whereas the eukaryotic small subunit contains the 18S rRNA and 32 r-proteins (Saccharomyces cerevisiae; although the numbers vary between species)  The bacterial large subunit contains the 5S and 23S rRNAs and 34 r-proteins (E  coli), with the eukaryotic large subunit containing the 5S, 5 8S, and 25S / 28S rRNAs and 46 r-proteins (S  cerevisiae; again, the exact numbers vary between species) 

Translation
Ribosomes are the workplaces of protein biosynthesis, the process of translating mRNA into protein  The mRNA comprises a series of codons which are decoded by the ribosome so as to make the protein  Using the mRNA as a template, the ribosome traverses each codon (3 nucleotides) of the mRNA, pairing it with the appropriate amino acid provided by an aminoacyl-tRNA  Aminoacyl-tRNA contains a complementary anticodon on one end and the appropriate amino acid on the other  For fast and accurate recognition of the appropriate tRNA, the ribosome utilizes large conformational changes (conformational proofreading)  The small ribosomal subunit, typically bound to an aminoacyl-tRNA containing the first amino acid methionine, binds to an AUG codon on the mRNA and recruits the large ribosomal subunit  The ribosome contains three RNA binding sites, designated A, P, and E  The A-site binds an aminoacyl-tRNA or termination release factors; the P-site binds a peptidyl-tRNA (a tRNA bound to the poly-peptide chain); and the E-site (exit) binds a free tRNA  Protein synthesis begins at a start codon AUG near the 5' end of the mRNA  mRNA binds to the P site of the ribosome first  The ribosome recognizes the start codon by using the Shine-Dalgarno sequence of the mRNA in prokaryotes and Kozak box in eukaryotes 
Although catalysis of the peptide bond involves the C2 hydroxyl of RNA's P-site adenosine in a proton shuttle mechanism, other steps in protein synthesis (such as translocation) are caused by changes in protein conformations  Since their catalytic core is made of RNA, ribosomes are classified as "ribozymes," and it is thought that they might be remnants of the RNA world 
In Figure 5, both ribosomal subunits (small and large) assemble at the start codon (towards the 5' end of the mRNA)  The ribosome uses tRNA that matches the current codon (triplet) on the mRNA to append an amino acid to the polypeptide chain  This is done for each triplet on the mRNA, while the ribosome moves towards the 3' end of the mRNA  Usually in bacterial cells, several ribosomes are working parallel on a single mRNA, forming what is called a polyribosome or polysome 

Cotranslational folding
The ribosome is known to actively participate in the protein folding  The structures obtained in this way are usually identical to the ones obtained during protein chemical refolding; however, the pathways leading to the final product may be different  In some cases, the ribosome is crucial in obtaining the functional protein form  For example, one of the possible mechanisms of folding of the deeply knotted proteins relies on the ribosome pushing the chain through the attached loop 

Addition of translation-independent amino acids
Presence of a ribosome quality control protein Rqc2 is associated with mRNA-independent protein elongation  This elongation is a result of ribosomal addition (via tRNAs brought by Rqc2) of CAT tails: ribosomes extend the C-terminus of a stalled protein with random, translation-independent sequences of alanines and threonines 

Ribosome locations
Ribosomes are classified as being either "free" or "membrane-bound" 

Free and membrane-bound ribosomes differ only in their spatial distribution; they are identical in structure  Whether the ribosome exists in a free or membrane-bound state depends on the presence of an ER-targeting signal sequence on the protein being synthesized, so an individual ribosome might be membrane-bound when it is making one protein, but free in the cytosol when it makes another protein 
Ribosomes are sometimes referred to as organelles, but the use of the term organelle is often restricted to describing sub-cellular components that include a phospholipid membrane, which ribosomes, being entirely particulate, do not  For this reason, ribosomes may sometimes be described as "non-membranous organelles" 

Free ribosomes
Free ribosomes can move about anywhere in the cytosol, but are excluded from the cell nucleus and other organelles  Proteins that are formed from free ribosomes are released into the cytosol and used within the cell  Since the cytosol contains high concentrations of glutathione and is, therefore, a reducing environment, proteins containing disulfide bonds, which are formed from oxidized cysteine residues, cannot be produced within it 

Membrane-bound ribosomes
When a ribosome begins to synthesize proteins that are needed in some organelles, the ribosome making this protein can become "membrane-bound"  In eukaryotic cells this happens in a region of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) called the "rough ER"  The newly produced polypeptide chains are inserted directly into the ER by the ribosome undertaking vectorial synthesis and are then transported to their destinations, through the secretory pathway  Bound ribosomes usually produce proteins that are used within the plasma membrane or are expelled from the cell via exocytosis 

Biogenesis
In bacterial cells, ribosomes are synthesized in the cytoplasm through the transcription of multiple ribosome gene operons  In eukaryotes, the process takes place both in the cell cytoplasm and in the nucleolus, which is a region within the cell nucleus  The assembly process involves the coordinated function of over 200 proteins in the synthesis and processing of the four rRNAs, as well as assembly of those rRNAs with the ribosomal proteins 

Origin
The ribosome may have first originated as a protoribosome, possibly containing a peptidyl transferase centre (PTC), in an RNA world, appearing as a self-replicating complex that only later evolved the ability to synthesize proteins when amino acids began to appear  Studies suggest that ancient ribosomes constructed solely of rRNA could have developed the ability to synthesize peptide bonds  In addition, evidence strongly points to ancient ribosomes as self-replicating complexes, where the rRNA in the ribosomes had informational, structural, and catalytic purposes because it could have coded for tRNAs and proteins needed for ribosomal self-replication  Hypothetical cellular organisms with self-replicating RNA but without DNA are called ribocytes (or ribocells) As amino acids gradually appeared in the RNA world under prebiotic conditions, their interactions with catalytic RNA would increase both the range and efficiency of function of catalytic RNA molecules  Thus, the driving force for the evolution of the ribosome from an ancient self-replicating machine into its current form as a translational machine may have been the selective pressure to incorporate proteins into the ribosome's self-replicating mechanisms, so as to increase its capacity for self-replication 

Heterogeneous ribosomes
Ribosomes are compositionally heterogeneous between species and even within the same cell, as evidenced by the existence of cytoplasmic and mitochondria ribosomes within the same eukaryotic cells  Certain researchers have suggested that heterogeneity in the composition of ribosomal proteins in mammals is important for gene regulation, i e , the specialized ribosome hypothesis  However, this hypothesis is controversial and the topic of ongoing research Heterogeneity in ribosome composition was first proposed to be involved in translational control of protein synthesis by Vince Mauro and Gerald Edelman  They proposed the ribosome filter hypothesis to explain the regulatory functions of ribosomes  Evidence has suggested that specialized ribosomes specific to different cell populations may affect how genes are translated  Some ribosomal proteins exchange from the assembled complex with cytosolic copies suggesting that the structure of the in vivo ribosome can be modified without synthesizing an entire new ribosome 
Certain ribosomal proteins are absolutely critical for cellular life while others are not  In budding yeast, 14/78 ribosomal proteins are non-essential for growth, while in humans this depends on the cell of study  Other forms of heterogeneity include post-translational modifications to ribosomal proteins such as acetylation, methylation, and phosphorylation  Arabidopsis, Viral internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs) may mediate translations by compositionally distinct ribosomes  For example, 40S ribosomal units without eS25 in yeast and mammalian cells are unable to recruit the CrPV IGR IRES Heterogeneity of ribosomal RNA modifications plays a significant role in structural maintenance and/or function and most mRNA modifications are found in highly conserved regions  The most common rRNA modifications are pseudouridylation and 2’-O methylation of ribose 

See also



ground_truth: Ribosomes