Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780199584529 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 144 str.

Kenyon C Ennis B. (Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Opis

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 centers and many outposts of the world. Most believers worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 1930-1974), as God incarnate. They often embrace the spiritual use of cannabis and reject western society, called Babylon. Believers proclaim Africa (also "Zion") as the original birthplace of mankind, and the call to repatriation to Africa is a key tenet. 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, its far-reaching influence on cultural and artistic production in the Caribbean and beyond, and its handling of gender issues.

O autorze

Ennis B. Edmonds is Assistant Professor of African-American Religions and American Religions at Kenyon College, Ohio. His areas of expertise are African Diaspora Religions, Religion in America, and Sociology of Religion. His research has focused primarily on Rastafari, leading to the recently published Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers (OUP, 2003).