In the dawn of the new African Millennium, the Rastafari movement has achieved unheralded growth and visibility since its inception more than eighty years ago. Moving beyond a pure spiritual movement, its aesthetic component has influenced cultures of the Caribbean, the United States, and others across the globe. Locating the Rastafari movement at a literal and figurative crossroad, Barnett sets out to consider the possible paths the movement will chart. Rastafari in the New Millennium covers a wide range of perspectives, focusing not only on the movement’s nuanced and complex religious ideology but also on its political philosophy, cosmology, and unique epistemology. Barry Chevannes’s essay addresses the concerns of death and repatriation, highlighting the transformative challenges these issues pose to Rastafari. Essays by Ian Boxill, Edward Te Kohu Douglas, Erin C. MacLeod, and Janet L. DeCosmo, among others, offer rich accounts of the globalization of Rastafari from New Zealand to Ethiopia, from Brazil to Nigeria. Drawing on new research and global developments, the contributors, many of whom are leading scholars in the field, reinvigorate the critical dialogue on the current state and future direction of the Rastafari movement.

"Rastafari practitioners have continually resisted social sciences definition of what outsiders called a millenarian movement. They maintained against these efforts of categorization that Rastafari as a lived and living philosophy combines ancient roots with ever emerging routes. These historical, dynamic and creative dimensions challenge any homogenizing attempts to freeze the 'movement' in time and space. African origins are as important as Diasporean experiences for Rastafari in the manifold struggles to downstroy slavery and oppression. But the strong universal appeal towards the realization of equal rights and justice implodes analytical and practical limitations of a Black Atlantic culture. This volume brings together contributions from well-known Rastafari practitioners and social scientists as a counter to the unilateral politics of outside definition, identification, and misrepresentation. They discuss Rastafari as an experimental philosophy; its historical and contemporary global culture dimensions and its contribution to issues such as decolonization, reparation and repatriation. "

In 2000, Hamid (anthropology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York) made additions and revisions to his 1980s doctoral dissertation for Columbia University. He examines the plant cannabis, or marijuana, its 5,000-year-use as a magical herb, its use specifically among Caribbeans at home and in New York City and the economics of that use, and social science perspectives on claims made about it by both supporters and opponents. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The Rastafarian religion of Jamaica came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was given international exposure through the music of one of its main exponents - Bob Marley. Music, and Reggae music in particular, was the centrepiece of Rasta creativity but Rastafarianism gave rise to a whole new cultural movement of which visual art was one of the many components. 'Official' recognition of Rasta art may be traced to the year 1980 when the National Gallery of Jamaica installed a new section dedicated to 'intuitive' artists, that is, untrained artists who were previously described as primitive or naïve. The works of Rastafarians were prominent among these intuitive including those of Albert Artwell, Ras Dizzy, Ras Daniel Hartman and Leonard Daley, to name a few. Beyond that however, little recognition has been given to Rastafarian art as a particular genre within Jamaica, and the only known attempt to document and survey the art and handicraft of Rastafarians was in the form of an exhibition catalogue prepared for an exhibition in Germany in 1980 and later updated for a second exhibition in Germany. Decades after that first catalogue was produced, comes its first English translation - Rastafarian Art by Wolfgang Bender, an ethnomusicologist and ector of the African Music Archives in the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. The works presented in this volume are meant to introduce a selection of Rastafarian artists from Jamaica. The collection is accompanied by photographs that depict everyday life among Rastas and scenes from the environment in which the artists live. In addition, there are interviews with a number of the artists, a chronology of events in the development of the Rastafarian movement and Rastafarian art, and an index of the artists and their works.

Although the religions of the Caribbean have been a subject of popular media, there have been few ethnographic publications. This text is a much-needed and long overdue addition to Caribbean studies and the exploration of ideas, beliefs, and religious practices of Caribbean folk in diaspora and at home. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research in a variety of contexts and settings, the contributors to this volume explore the relationship between religious and social life. Whether practiced at home or abroad, the contributors contend that the religions of Caribbean folk are dynamic and creative endeavors that have mediated the ongoing and open-ended relation between local and global, historical and contemporary change.

Rastafari Preliminary Notes on the H.I.M. Haile Selassie I [Amharic] Bible: An Introduction to the Book of the Seven Seals by Ras Iadonis Tafari & the Lion of Judah Society. A brief introductory presentation of THE REVISED AMHARIC BIBLE OF H.I.M. HAILE SELASSIE I and its relevance to the Rastafarian movement, Ethiopian biblical and pre-Masoretic Hebrew studies. This Book discusses Judeo-Christianity in Ethiopia, the Bible, the Queen of Sheba, the Black Hebrews, the Lion of Judah, the monk named Abu Rumi and the history of translations prior to the Emperor's Bible; reveals and explain why the H.I.M. Haile Selassie I Amharic Bible is the Holy Writ for the Ethiopian-Hebrews, faithful Black Jews and Elect Rastafari in the New Ethiopian Millennium, the New Age... ***This edition has been published in the 50th Anniversary, or Jubilee Year of the very first printing and publication of the Emperor Haile Sellassie I's Revised Amharic Bible, the Imperial Authorized Version of the Ethiopian Holy Bible.

Drawing on literary, musical, and visual representations of and by Rastafari, Darren J. N. Middleton provides an introduction to Rasta through the arts, broadly conceived. The religious underpinnings of the Rasta movement are often overshadowed by Rasta’s association with reggae music, dub, and performance poetry. Rastafari and the Arts: An Introduction takes a fresh view of Rasta, considering the relationship between the artistic and religious dimensions of the movement in depth. Middleton’s analysis complements current introductions to Afro-Caribbean religions and offers an engaging example of the role of popular culture in illuminating the beliefs and practices of emerging religions. Recognizing that outsiders as well as insiders have shaped the Rasta movement since its modest beginnings in Jamaica, Middleton includes interviews with members of both groups, including: Ejay Khan, Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, Geoffrey Philp, Asante Amen, Reggae Rajahs, Benjamin Zephaniah, Monica Haim, Blakk Rasta, Rocky Dawuni, and Marvin D. Sterling.

Anyone familiar with the Rastafari movement and its connection with the Bible is struck by the prevalence of messianic I-locution found in both. As the phenomenon is important in the canonical Testaments, more so within the New Testament, this study seeks to investigate its significance in certain epistolary pieces (Romans 7:14-25 ; 15:14-33), the bio-Narratives and the Apocalypse in their historical and cultural milieu. The next stage of the investigation then compares the findings of the aforementioned New Testament books with corresponding statements of the Rasta community, in order to determine their relevance for the ongoing Anglophone theological enterprise. In sum, this study seeks to bring into critical dialogue the permutative messianic 'I' of the New Testament with the self-understanding of Rastafari.

From its obscure beginnings in Jamaica in the early 1930s, Rastafari has grown into an international socio-religious movement. It is estimated that 700,000 to 1 million people worldwide have embraced Rastafari, and adherents of the movement can be found in most of the major population centres and many outposts of the world. Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction provides an account of this widespread but often poorly understood movement. Ennis B. Edmonds looks at the essential history of Rastafari, including its principles and practices and its internal character and configuration. He examines its global spread, and its far-reaching influence on cultural and artistic production in the Caribbean and beyond. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This volume focuses on the various phenomena of religious encounters in a transcultural society where religion or religious traditions play a significant role in a multi-cultural concept. Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society is divided into three parts: Islamic encounters with regional religions, East Asian religious encounters, and alternative religious encounters. This book evokes the fact that religious encounters exist in every transcultural society even though they often remain hidden behind socio-cultural issues. The situation can be changed, but one culture cannot harmoniously and always contain two or multi-beliefs. The issue of religious encounters mostly arises in the transnational process of religious globalization.