Religion and Society in Post-emancipation Jamaica

Religion and Society in Post-emancipation Jamaica PDF Author: Robert J. Stewart
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 9780870497490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
What role did religion or the agents of religion, both European and Afro-Jamaican, play in the conflicts that characterized the formation of a creole society in Jamaica after emancipation? Beginning from this question, Robert J. Stewart has produced the most comprehensive available treatment of the religious, social, and cultural history of nineteenth-century Jamaica. This remarkable volume explores the interaction of two Christianities, one European and the other African-based. It examines the organization, presence, politics, and mission philosophy of the major Christian denominations, as well as the creative responses of Afro-Jamaicans to evangelization. The ideological, theological, and racial assumptions embraced by the various denominations and missionaries prevented them from valuing Africanisms in the religious and cultural heritage of Afro-Jamaicans and, with Baptist exceptions, from identifying with the latter's aspirations and social problems. In consequence, Afro-Jamaican religion became a source of identity and resistance against European cultural hegemony in Jamaica. Drawing on rich troves of documents unavailable in the United States, Stewart develops major new accounts of the processes of syncretism and creolization. His grasp of European intellectual history and deft critiques of prior scholarship add to the importance of this work. An excellent raconteur, the author also presents a vivid portrait gallery of both missionaries and Afro-Jamaicans during this crucial period in the island's history.

Religion and Society in Post-emancipation Jamaica

Religion and Society in Post-emancipation Jamaica PDF Author: Robert J. Stewart
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 9780870497490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book

Book Description
What role did religion or the agents of religion, both European and Afro-Jamaican, play in the conflicts that characterized the formation of a creole society in Jamaica after emancipation? Beginning from this question, Robert J. Stewart has produced the most comprehensive available treatment of the religious, social, and cultural history of nineteenth-century Jamaica. This remarkable volume explores the interaction of two Christianities, one European and the other African-based. It examines the organization, presence, politics, and mission philosophy of the major Christian denominations, as well as the creative responses of Afro-Jamaicans to evangelization. The ideological, theological, and racial assumptions embraced by the various denominations and missionaries prevented them from valuing Africanisms in the religious and cultural heritage of Afro-Jamaicans and, with Baptist exceptions, from identifying with the latter's aspirations and social problems. In consequence, Afro-Jamaican religion became a source of identity and resistance against European cultural hegemony in Jamaica. Drawing on rich troves of documents unavailable in the United States, Stewart develops major new accounts of the processes of syncretism and creolization. His grasp of European intellectual history and deft critiques of prior scholarship add to the importance of this work. An excellent raconteur, the author also presents a vivid portrait gallery of both missionaries and Afro-Jamaicans during this crucial period in the island's history.

Contentious Liberties

Contentious Liberties PDF Author: Gale L. Kenny
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820340456
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The Oberlin College mission to Jamaica, begun in the 1830s, was an ambitious, and ultimately troubled, effort to use the example of emancipation in the British West Indies to advance the domestic agenda of American abolitionists. White Americans hoped to argue that American slaves, once freed, could be absorbed productively into the society that had previously enslaved them, but their “civilizing mission” did not go as anticipated. Gale L. Kenny's illuminating study examines the differing ideas of freedom held by white evangelical abolitionists and freed people in Jamaica and explores the consequences of their encounter for both American and Jamaican history. Kenny finds that white Americans—who went to Jamaica intending to assist with the transition from slavery to Christian practice and solid citizenship—were frustrated by liberated blacks' unwillingness to conform to Victorian norms of gender, family, and religion. In tracing the history of the thirty-year mission, Kenny makes creative use of available sources to unpack assumptions on both sides of this American-Jamaican interaction, showing how liberated slaves in many cases were able not just to resist the imposition of white mores but to redefine the terms of the encounter.

Community Formation

Community Formation PDF Author: Audley George Reid
Publisher: University Press of the West Indies
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Can community formation be used as a paradigm for "national purpose and discipline in the Jamaica of today"? Reid clearly states in his Introduction that it can, and he shows how the 'free villages' of post-emancipation Jamaica serve as models and historical examples for Jamaica at the close of the twentieth century. The villages exemplified community spirit, industry, discipline and social, political and economic cooperation. This is the first full-scale study of the settlement of 'free villages' in Jamaica after Emancipation, and of community patterns and community life during this important formative period in Jamaica that saw the crumbling of slave society, the collapse of an economy based on sugar and the emergence of a "new system of relations".

Art and Emancipation in Jamaica

Art and Emancipation in Jamaica PDF Author: T. J. Barringer
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
Coinciding with the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade, this multi-disciplinary volume chronicles the iconography of sugar, slavery, and the topography of Jamaica from the beginning of British rule in 1655 to the aftermath of emancipation in the 1840s. Focusing on the visual and material culture of slavery and emancipation in Jamaica, it offers new perspectives on art, music, and performance in Afro-Jamaican society and on the Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean. Central to the book is "Sketches of Character "(1837-38)--a remarkable series of lithographs by the Jewish Jamaican artist Isaac Mendes Belisario--the earliest visual representation of the masquerade form Jonkonnu. Innovative scholarship traces the West African roots of Jonkonnu through its evolution in Jamaica and continuing transformation today; offers a unique portrait of Jamaican culture at a pivotal historical moment; and provides a new model for interpreting the visual culture of empire.

Emancipation Still Comin'

Emancipation Still Comin' PDF Author: Kortright Davis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description


The Jamaica Reader

The Jamaica Reader PDF Author: Diana Paton
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478013095
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
From Miss Lou to Bob Marley and Usain Bolt to Kamala Harris, Jamaica has had an outsized reach in global mainstream culture. Yet many of its most important historical, cultural, and political events and aspects are largely unknown beyond the island. The Jamaica Reader presents a panoramic history of the country, from its precontact indigenous origins to the present. Combining more than one hundred classic and lesser-known texts that include journalism, lyrics, memoir, and poetry, the Reader showcases myriad voices from over the centuries: the earliest published black writer in the English-speaking world; contemporary dancehall artists; Marcus Garvey; and anonymous migrant workers. It illuminates the complexities of Jamaica's past, addressing topics such as resistance to slavery, the modern tourist industry, the realities of urban life, and the struggle to find a national identity following independence in 1962. Throughout, it sketches how its residents and visitors have experienced and shaped its place in the world. Providing an unparalleled look at Jamaica's history, culture, and politics, this volume is an ideal companion for anyone interested in learning about this magnetic and dynamic nation.

The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions

The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions PDF Author: Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190916966
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description
The Caribbean is a microcosm of the world. In this very small geographic space one encounters global religions as well as religious practices that are indigenous to the region. This volume provides an overview of Caribbean religions, one that respects the diversity of the religious traditions and the national particularity of the region. It addresses the prominent religious traditions in the Caribbean, with a focus on multiple geographic settings, and examines a cross-section of themes that impact the region broadly and the academic study of Caribbean religion.

Jamaica Genesis

Jamaica Genesis PDF Author: Diane J. Austin-Broos
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226924815
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
How has Pentecostalism, a decidedly American form of Christian revivalism, managed to achieve such phenomenal religious ascendancy in a former British colony among people of predominately African descent? According to Diane J. Austin-Broos, Pentecostalism has flourished because it successfully mediates between two historically central yet often oppositional themes in Jamaican religious life—the characteristically African striving for personal freedom and happiness, and the Protestant struggle for atonement and salvation through rigorous ethical piety. With its emphasis on the individual experience of grace and on the ritual efficacy of spiritual healing, and with its vibrantly expressive worship, Jamaican Pentecostalism has become a powerful and compelling vehicle for the negotiation of such fundamental issues as gender, sexuality, race, and class. Jamaica Genesis is a work of signal importance to all those concerned not simply with Caribbean studies but with the ongoing transformation of religion andculture.

The Cultural Politics of Obeah

The Cultural Politics of Obeah PDF Author: Diana Paton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
A study of the importance of debates about obeah, and state suppression of it, for Caribbean struggles about freedom and citizenship.

The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions

The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions PDF Author: Patrick Taylor
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252094336
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions is the definitive reference for Caribbean religious phenomena from a Caribbean perspective. Generously illustrated, this landmark project combines the breadth of a comparative approach to religion with the depth of understanding of Caribbean spirituality as an ever-changing and varied historical phenomenon. Organized alphabetically, entries examine how Caribbean religious experiences have been shaped by and have responded to the processes of colonialism and the challenges of the postcolonial world. Systematically organized by theme and area, the encyclopedia considers religious traditions such as Vodou, Rastafari, Sunni Islam, Sanatan Dharma, Judaism, and the Roman Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist churches. Detailed subentries present topics such as religious rituals, beliefs, practices, specific historical developments, geographical differences, and gender roles within major traditions. Also included are entries that address the religious dimensions of geographical territories that make up the Caribbean. Representing the culmination of more than a decade of work by the associates of the Caribbean Religions Project, The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions will foster a greater understanding of the role of religion in Caribbean life and society, in the Caribbean diaspora, and in wider national and transnational spaces.