Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Trade ReviewFor anyone wishing to understand the complexities of how Rastafari came about…this book is an essential read. * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
Vivaldi Jean-Marie's extraordinary study of Rastafari has the virtues of historically situating the movement while articulating its philosophical dimensions without fetish but with the virtue and respect of critique.
Rastafari Cosmology, Culture, and Consciousness is a must read not only for anyone interested in Rastafari and the complex history of Jamaican struggles for freedom that led to its emergence but also for all interested in the contradictions and humanity of communities struggling for liberation. -- Lewis R. Gordon, author of
Fear of Black ConsciousnessThis is a highly engaging work of intellectual history that illuminates the origins, originality and future of the Afrocentric thought of the Rastafarians of Jamaica. Moving deftly through earlier expressions of intellectual and cultural resistance—the Maroons, Myalism, Obeah, Revivalism, and Garveyism—Jean-Marie's account is both comprehensive and highly revealing. Written with great clarity, it is a must for scholars of Caribbean religious and philosophical thought. -- Paget Henry, author of
Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean PhilosophyAn Ethos of Blackness takes a unique approach to the social and religious history of Rastafari, showing how the practice identifies, advances, and meets the ideals of Blackness broadly while remaining rooted within Jamaican society. Jean-Marie reevaluates Rastafari in its development and practice within the framework of cosmology to explain its origin, evolution, and, to some extent, its future. -- Iyabo Osiapem, William & Mary
Table of ContentsPreface
1. Resistance to British Colonialism and the Rise of Two Forms of Subjectivity in “Yamaye”
2. The Genealogy of Rastafari Cosmology and Its Distinctive Ethos of Blackness
3. Rastafari Cosmology, Natural Artifacts, and the Ethos of Blackness
4. Rastafari’s Theology of Blackness: A Eurocentric God Cannot Love Africans and People of African Descent
5. Rastafari I-Talk and Black Consciousness
6. The Limit of Rastafari Cosmology: Gender Inequality and the Failure to Liberate Rasta Women
Notes
Bibliography
Index
