Three Eyes for the Journey African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience

by Stewart, Dianne M.

• ISBN13: 9780195154153
• ISBN10: 0195154150
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Studies of African-derived religious traditions have generally focused ontheir retention of African elements. This emphasis, says Dianne Stewart, slightsthe ways in which communities in the African diaspora have created and formednew religious meaning. In this fieldwork-based study Stewart shows that Africanpeople have been agents of their own religious, ritual, and theologicalformation. She examines the African-derived and African-centered traditions inhistorical and contemporary Jamaica: Myal, Obeah, Native Baptist, Revival/Zion,Kumina, and Rastafari, and draws on them to forge a new womanist liberationtheology for the Caribbean.

Author Biography

Dianne M. Stewart is Assistant Professor of Religion at Emory University

Table of Contents

Divination: Introduction	3	(12)
Libation: Four Centuries of Encounter and Transition	15	(54)
Incantation: European Attitudes toward Africanness in Jamaica	69	(22)
Offering: Trajectories of African-Jamaican Religiosity	91	(48)
Visitation: The Legacy of African-Derived Religions in Jamaica	139	(50)
Communion: Toward a Caribbean Theology of Collective Memory	189	(54)
Notes	243	(52)
Bibliography	295	(16)
Index	311