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An Ethos of Blackness
Rastafari Cosmology, Culture, and Consciousness
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An Ethos of Blackness
$5699
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is ideal for students and scholars of Afrocentric thought, Caribbean history, religious studies, and those interested in social movements resisting colonialism. It also appeals to readers seeking critical engagement with Black theology and cultural resistance.
This book is a groundbreaking account of Rastafari, demonstrating that it provides a normative conception of Blackness for people of African descent that resists Eurocentric and colonial ideas.
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Description
Rastafari is an Afrocentric social and religious movement that emerged among Afro-Jamaican communities in the 1930s and has many adherents in the Caribbean and worldwide today. This book is a groundbreaking account of Rastafari, demonstrating that it provides a normative conception of Blackness for people of African descent that resists Eurocentric and colonial ideas.
Vivaldi Jean-Marie examines Rastafari's core beliefs and practices, arguing that they constitute a distinctively Black system of norms and values—at once an ethos and a cosmology. He traces Rastafari's origins in enslaved people's strategies of resistance, Jamaican Revivalism, and Garveyism, showing how it incorporates ancestral religious traditions and emancipatory politics. An Ethos of Blackness draws out the significance of practices such as avoiding technological exploitation of natural artifacts and the belief in living in harmony with the natural order. Jean-Marie considers Rastafari's theology, exploring its reinterpretation of biblical scriptures and its foundations in the rejection of Christianity's Eurocentrism and racism. However, he insists, before Rastafari can fulfill its promise of liberation for people of African descent, it must confront its failure to include women and redress sexism.
Through rigorous and sensitive reflections on Rastafari culture and cosmology, this book offers deeply original insights into the Black theological imagination.
Series: Black Lives in the Diaspora: Past / Present / Future
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An Ethos of Blackness
Rastafari is an Afrocentric social and religious movement that emerged among Afro-Jamaican communities in the 1930s and has many adherents in the Caribbean and worldwide today. This book is a groundbreaking account of Rastafari, demonstrating that it provides a normative conception of Blackness for people of African descent that resists Eurocentric and colonial ideas. Vivaldi Jean-Marie examines Rastafari's core beliefs...Paperback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Praised for its historical depth and philosophical insight, this study is hailed as "an essential read" for understanding Rastafari’s emergence and complexities (Ethnic and Racial Studies). Lewis R. Gordon commends it as an extraordinary work that situates Rastafari within Jamaican struggles for freedom, offering virtuous critique and a must-read for those interested in liberation movements. Scholars appreciate its clarity and comprehensive treatment of Afrocentric thought related to Rastafari culture and cosmology.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780231209779
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 26 September 2023
Country: United States
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 248
About the Author
Vivaldi Jean-Marie teaches in the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University and is a professor of philosophy at the City University of New York. He is the author of Vodou Cosmology and the Haitian Revolution in the Enlightenment Ideals of Kant and Hegel (2018), Reflections on Jean Améry: Torture, Resentment, and Homelessness as the Mind’s Limits (2018), Kierkegaard: History and Eternal Happiness (2008), and Fanon: Collective Ethics and Humanism (2007).
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