Rastafarianism

The twentieth anniversary edition of the classic study of the culture, religion, history, ideology, and influence of the Rastafarians of Jamaica. "Barrett offers the most comprehensive study to date of the Rastafarians." -Bulletin of the Center for the Study of World Religions "The most thorough, careful consideration of the Rasta phenomenon available to the general reader." - The Boston Phoenix

Stephen A. King is associate professor of speech communication at Delta State University.

Recent world events have demonstrated anew that a majority of modern states do not reflect single nations, rather they are ethnically heterogeneous in character and possess profound religious, linguistic, and cultural divisions. Ethnicity, Law, and Human Rights: The English Experience is the first in-depth analysis of the interaction between the cultural traditions of Britains ethnic minorities and English law. It explores the policies and principles which should govern the response of English law to ethnic diversity and tests them by reference to six detailed and illuminating case studies exploring specific issues of major cultural concern to a particular minority community, from animal welfare to cannabis consumption. The continuing global upsurge in novel assertions of ethnicity and the books many references to human rights law, as well as to other legal systems, make for a timely analysis set in a broad international context. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of civil liberties and human rights law, those interested in ethnic studies, and to race relations professionals.

In 1974, following a successful parliamentary election, Michael Manley and his People's National Party took Jamaica onto a self-proclaimed democratic socialist path. Although the project failed even prior to the subsequent electoral defeat of the PNP in 1980, this short-lived experiment has evoked considerable interest among development scholars. In this book, Nelson Keith and Novella Keith challenge current interpretations of Jamaican events and develop an alternative theoretical model: national popularism.Without dismissing the negative machinations by the U.S., internal mismanagement, and other problems, the authors argue that the events in question speak of the fragility of a national class alliance that coalesced temporarily, amidst a crisis, around a "new" politics. While incorporating radical impulses "from below" as well as socialist policies, the new politics was rooted in liberal democratic strains that had evolved historically in ways that could accommodate these impulses. The Manley project can thus be better understood as the "management" of peripheral capitalism rather than a budding socialism. In their rich historical analysis of race and class in Jamaica, the authors trace the emergence and demise of progressive "alternative paths to development" in the Third World. Author note: Nelson W. Keith is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for International Development at West Chester University.Novella Z. Keith is Research Professor, Institute for International Development at West Chester University.

In Dread Talk Velma Pollard describes the language of Rastafari, tracing its development as an expansion of Jamaican Creole while showing how it is distinct both from Creole and Standard English. She demonstrates that dread talk must be understood in terms of Jamaican social history, emphasizing its religious origins, its evolution as a language of social protest, and its spread around the world through the reggae music of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Jimmy Cliff.

Dread Talk examines the effects of Rastafarian language on Creole in other parts of the Carribean, its influence in Jamaican poetry, and its effects on standard Jamaican English. This revised edition includes a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred since the book first appeared and a new chapter, "Dread Talk in the Diaspora, " that discusses Rastafarian as used in the urban centers of North America and Europe.

Rock it Come Over describes the music and lore of slavery from the early sixteenth century through emancipation in 1838 to the mid twentieth century. Lewin explores the role of music in the lives of the slaves as a method of communication, as a form of resistance and subversion, as a repository of oral history and beliefs, and, ultimately, as a means of survival.

The work is based on decades of research into the music sung and played by the working people of Jamaica. Lewin relates the music to traditions that preserve an African way of life, such as Revivalism and its strong heritage of faith and worship. She has a special interest in the Kumina cult and describes in detail the life and beliefs of Kumina queen, Imogene 'Queenie' Kennedy.

Rock it Come Over is the most extensive study of Jamaican folk music yet published. It is also an examination of the roots of that music and a record of the folk heritage that is, in spite of many efforts, rapidly retreating before the pressures of life today.

In this collection of anthropological writings drawn from many different world areas, contemporary theoretical issues and conflicts in the anthropological study of religion are explored and illustrated.

Gatherings in Diaspora brings together the latest chapters in the long-running chronicle of religion and immigration in the American experience. Today, as in the past, people migrating to the United States bring their religions with them, and their religious identities often mean more to them away from home, in their diaspora, than they did before.

This book explores and analyzes the diverse religious communities of post-1965 diasporas: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Rastafarians, and practitioners of Vodou, from countries such as China, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Iran, Jamaica, Korea, and Mexico. The contributors explore how, to a greater or lesser extent, immigrants and their offspring adapt their religious institutions to American conditions, often interacting with religious communities already established. The religious institutions they build, adapt, remodel, and adopt become worlds unto themselves, congregations, where new relations are forged within the community -- between men and women, parents,and children recent arrival and those longer settled.