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The Rastafari Reader

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The Rastafari Reader Down Babylon The Rastafari Reader Edited by NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL, WILLIAM DAVID SPENCER, and ADRIAN ANTHONY MCFARLANE CLINTON CHISHOLM, Consulting Editor t TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS W*M PHILADELPHIA Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Rastafari Phenomenon 1 NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL Part I. Ideology and the Cultural Context Dread "I" In-a-Babylon: Ideological Resistance and Cultural Revitalization 23 ENNIS B. EDMONDS 2. Rastas' Psychology of Blackness, Resistance, and Somebodiness 36 CLINTON HUTTON AND NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL 3. Rastafari and the Exorcism of the Ideology of Racism and Classism in Jamaica 55 BARRY CHEVANNES 4. Gender and Family Relations in Rastafari: A Personal Perspective 72 MAUREEN ROWE 5. Rastawoman as Rebel: Case Studies in Jamaica 89 IMANI M. TAFARI-AMA V 6. The Epistemological Significance of "I-an-I" as a Response to Quashie and Anancyism in Jamaican Culture 107 ADRIAN ANTHONY MCFARLANE Part II. Roots and Historical Impact 7. African Dimensions of the Jamaican Rastafarian Movement 125 NEIL J. SAVISHINSKY 8. Marcus Garvey and the Early Rastafarians: Continuity and Discontinuity 145 RUPERT LEWIS 9. Who Is Haile Selassie? His Imperial Majesty in Rasta Voices 159 ELEANOR WINT IN CONSULTATION WITH MEMBERS OF THE NYABINGHI ORDER VI CONTENTS 10. The Rasta-Selassie-Ethiopian Connections 166 , CLINTON CHISHOLM . Chanting Down Babylon Outernational: The Rise of Rastafari in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific 178 FRANK JAN VAN DIJK 12. Chanting Down Babylon in the Belly of the Beast: The Rastafarian Movement in the Metropolitan United States 199 RANDAL L. HEPNER 13. Personal Reflections on Rastafari in West Kingston in the Early 1950s 217 GEORGE EATON SIMPSON Part III. Back-o-Wall to Hollywood: The Rasta Revolution through the Arts 14. From Burru Drums to Reggae Ridims: The Evolution of Rasta Music 231 VERENA RECKORD 15. Bob Marley: Rasta Warrior 253 ROGER STEFFENS \ 16. Chanting Change around the World through Rasta Ridim and Art 266 WILLIAM DAVID SPENCER 17. Towering Babble and Glimpses of Zion: Recent Depictions of Rastafari in Cinema 284 KEVIN J. AYLMER Part IV. Religion: Livity, Hermeneutics, and Theology ; 18. Discourse on Rastafarian Reality 311 REX NETTLEFORD 19. Th.e Black Biblical Hermeneutics of Rastafari 326 NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL AND LEWIN WILLIAMS 2.0. The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari 349 ENNIS B. EDMONDS 21. The First Chant: Leonard Howell's The Promised Key 361 WITH COMMENTARY BY WILLIAM DAVID SPENCER 22. Rastafari's Messianic Ideology and Caribbean Theology of Liberation 390 NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL AND BURCHELL K. TAYLOR Appendix A. Emissaries of Rastafari: An Interview with Professor Leonard Barrett 415 INDIGO BETHEA, MICHAEL BRUNY, AND ADRIAN ANTHONY McFARLANE CONTENTS vii Appendix B. Who Is Who in the Rasta Academy: A Literature Review in Honor of Leonard Barrett 429 NATHANIEL SAMUEL MURRELL Glossary 443 About the Contributors 455 Index 459.
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