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First-person accounts that show the expanding demographics of African-descended religions In this focused portrayal of global dispersal and spiritual sojourning, Martin Tsang draws together first-person accounts of the evolving Afro-Atlantic religious landscape. Spirited Diasporas offers a glimpse into the frequently misunderstood religions of Afro-Cuban Lucumí, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomblé, adding to the growing research on the transnational yet personal nature of African diasporic religions. In these accounts, practitioners from many origins illustrate the work and commitment they undertook to learn and become initiated in these traditions. They reveal in the process a variety of experiences that are not often documented. Their perspectives also show the expanding contemporary demographics of African-descended religions, many of whose members identify as LGBTQIA+ or are part of other minoritized populations, and they counter inaccurate and often racialized portrayals of these religions as being antimodern and geographically limited. Through the voices of the professionals, scholars, and activists gathered here, readers will appreciate the purpose and belonging to be found in the far-reaching communities of these Latin American and Caribbean spiritualities. As the seekers in these stories discover and come home to their new religious families, Spirited Diasporas displays the relevance and generative power of these traditions. Contributors: Morgan M. Page | Michael Atwood Mason | Eugenia Rainey | Alex Bettencourt | Solimar Otero | Yoshiaki Koshikawa | Belia Mayeno Saavedra | Sue Kucklick-Arencibia | Ivor Miller | Terri-Dawn González | Dr. Martin A. Tsang | Giovanna Capponi | Philippe Charlier
"An excellent case study of a little-studied and poorly known community experiencing the processes of identity formation and culture change."--Brent R. Weisman, University of South Florida This is the first full-length ethnography of a unique community within the African diaspora. Rosalyn Howard traces the history of the isolated "Red Bays" community of the Bahamas, from their escape from the plantations of the American South through their utilization of social memory in the construction of new identity and community. Some of the many African slaves escaping from southern plantations traveled to Florida and joined the Seminole Indians, intermarried, and came to call themselves Black Seminoles. In 1821, pursued and harassed by European Americans through the First Seminole War, approximately 200 members of this group fled to Andros Island, where they remained essentially isolated for nearly 150 years. Drawing on archival and secondary sources in the United States and the Bahamas as well as interviews with members of the present-day Black Seminole community on Andros Island, Howard reconstructs the story of the Red Bays people. She chronicles their struggles as they adapt to a new environment and forge a new identity in this insular community and analyzes the former slaves' relationship with their Native American companions. Black Seminoles in contemporary Red Bays number approximately 290, the majority of whom are descended directly from the original settlers. As part of her research, Howard lived for a year in this small community, recording its oral history and analyzing the ways in which that history informed the evolving identity of the people. Her treatment dispels the air of mystery surrounding the Black Seminoles of Andros and provides a foundation for further anthropological and historical investigations.
The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and transformation of social relationships and political and economic power. Among other topics, the essays examine the dynamics of religious and racial identity among Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals; the significance of cloth coverings in Islamic practice in northern Nigeria; the ethics of socially engaged hip-hop lyrics by Black Muslim artists in Britain; ritual dance performances among Mama Tchamba devotees in Togo; and how Ifá practitioners from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United States join together in a shared spiritual ethnicity. From possession and spirit-induced trembling to dance, the contributors outline how embodied religious practices are central to expressing and shaping interiority and spiritual lives, national and ethnic belonging, ways of knowing and techniques of healing, and sexual and gender politics. In this way, the body is a crucial site of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent. Contributors. Rachel Cantave, Youssef Carter, N. Fadeke Castor, Yolanda Covington-Ward, Casey Golomski, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Nathanael J. Homewood, Jeanette S. Jouili, Bertin M. Louis Jr., Camee Maddox-Wingfield, Aaron Montoya, Jacob K. Olupona, Elisha P. Renne
"An incisive, nuanced, and multidimensional case study. Martes challenges and revises accepted notions of ethnic solidarity, and emphasizes how much more diversity exists among the Brazilian newcomers than typically has been recognized."--Marilyn Halter, Boston University "Provides a rich and detailed account of the varied motivations and experiences of Brazilian emigrants to the United States. Martes explores a number of topics, including economic strategies unique to the Brazilian community, the roles of Catholic and evangelical Protestant churches in the lives of Brazilian immigrants, and issues of ethnic and racial identity in the United States, where categories of 'race' are conceptualized quite differently than in Brazil."--Cassandra White, Georgia State University Ana Cristina Martes presents a sociodemographic profile of Brazilian immigrants in Boston and addresses the major challenges they face in their efforts to navigate complicated economic relationships in the U.S. Using an ethnographic approach, Martes unpacks the complex intragroup dynamics of this population with particular emphasis on work life, the role of the church, and the always churning issues of racial and ethnic identity formation. Originally published in Portuguese as Brasileiros Nos Estados Unidos, and heavily revised by the author for the English edition, New Immigrants, New Land offers an incisive, nuanced, and multidimensional case study of Brazilians in Massachusetts and the second largest Brazilian immigrant population in the United States.
"Contributes new perspectives on historical black identity formation and contemporary activism in Cuba."--Choice "Provides invaluable insight into the histories and lives of Cubans who trace their origins to the Anglo-Caribbean."--Robert Whitney, author of State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920-1940 "Adds a missing piece to the existing literature about the renewal of black activism in Cuba, all the while showing the links and fractures between pre- and post-1959 society."--Devyn Spence Benson, Davidson College In the early twentieth century, laborers from the British West Indies immigrated to Cuba, attracted by employment opportunities. The Anglo-Caribbean communities flourished, but after 1959, many of their cultural institutions were dismantled: the revolution dictated that in the name of unity there would be no hyphenated Cubans. This book turns an ethnographic lens on their descendants who--during the Special Period in the 1990s--moved to "rescue their roots" by revitalizing their ethnic associations and reestablishing ties outside the island. Based on Andrea J. Queeley's fieldwork in Santiago and Guantánamo, Rescuing Our Roots looks at local and regional identity formations as well as racial politics in revolutionary Cuba. Queeley argues that, as the island experienced a resurgence in racism due in part to the emergence of the dual economy and the reliance on tourism, Anglo-Caribbean Cubans revitalized their communities and sought transnational connections not just in the hope of material support but also to challenge the association between blackness, inferiority, and immorality. Their desire for social mobility, political engagement, and a better economic situation operated alongside the fight for black respectability. Unlike most studies of black Cubans, which focus on Afro-Cuban religion or popular culture, Queeley's penetrating investigation offers a view of strategies and modes of black belonging that transcend ideological, temporal, and spatial boundaries. A volume in the series Contemporary Cuba, edited by John M. Kirk
Immigration is a topic that is as important among anthropologists as it is the general public. Almost every culture has experienced adaptation and assimilation when immigrating to a new country and culture; usually leaving for what is perceived as a "better life". Not only does this diaspora change the country of adoption, but also the country of origin. Many large nations in the world have absorbed, and continue to absorb, large numbers of immigrants. The foreseeable future will see a continuation of large-scale immigration, as many countries experience civil war and secessionist pressures. Currently, there is no reference work that describes the impact upon the immigrants and the immigrant societies relevant to the world's cultures and provides an overview of important topics in the world's diasporas. The encyclopedia consists of two volumes covering three main sections: Diaspora Overviews covers over 20 ethnic groups that have experienced voluntary or forced immigration. These essays discuss the history behind the social, economic, and political reasons for leaving the original countries, and the cultures in the new places; Topics discusses the impact and assimilation that the immigrant cultures experience in their adopted cultures, including the arts they bring, the struggles they face, and some of the cities that are in the forefront of receiving immigrant cultures; Diaspora Communities include over 60 portraits of specific diaspora communities. Each portrait follows a standard outline to facilitate comparisons. The Encyclopedia of Diasporas can be used both to gain a general understanding of immigration and immigrants, and to find out about particular cultures, topics and communities. It will prove of great value to researchers and students, curriculum developers, teachers, and government officials. It brings together the disciplines of anthropology, social studies, political studies, international studies, and immigrant and immigration studies.
This study bridges economic and social history, and forces a reassessment of four early modern historiographies: Dutch, French, Jewish, and Atlantic. The trade along the North Sea and Atlantic coasts of Europe has been given relatively little attention in comparison with trans-oceanic and Baltic commerce. Wine and brandy were among the key commodities shipped from south-western to northern Europe, so new evidence on the alcohol trade enables us to properly recognize the impact of this sector on the economies of France, the Dutch Republic, and the Atlantic world. Transnational in scope, this book underscores the importance of the interconnecting personal networks of Dutch, Sephardic Jewish, and New Christian merchants along the shores of Europe.
Kevin Dawson considers how enslaved Africans carried aquatic skills—swimming, diving, boat making, even surfing—to the Americas. Undercurrents of Power not only chronicles the experiences of enslaved maritime workers, but also traverses the waters of the Atlantic repeatedly to trace and untangle cultural and social traditions.
Africa and its Historical and Contemporary Diasporas edited by Tunde Adeleke and Arno Sonderegger is an interdisciplinary study of the changing and complex nature of the Africa-Black Diaspora relationship. The contributors highlight the problems and challenges of this relationship and provide strategies for developing a more functional and mutually beneficial engagement in a radically changing global environment. This book presents new methodological approaches and research to study the many dimensions and complexities of Africa and its Diasporas. Collectively, this book addresses three vital themes. First, it foregrounds new and emerging forces reshaping the Africa-Black Diaspora nexus. Second, it highlights new and interdisciplinary approaches to “Diaspora” and “Pan-Africanism” (culture, religion, ideology, literature, philosophy, and epistemology). Third, it examines factors infusing the transformation in, and challenges of, African Diaspora and Pan-Africanist collaborations, and possible strategies of strengthening the relationship.
"Creatively drawing on documentary sources and oral histories, Tinker offers invaluable insights into the social, political, and economic forces that have helped shape the history of West Indian migrations to the Bahamas--a country that has often been overlooked in Caribbean migration studies."--Frederick H. Smith, author of Caribbean Rum Although the Bahamas is geographically part of the West Indies, its population has consistently rejected attempts to link Bahamian national identity to the histories of its poorer Caribbean neighbors. The result of this attitude has been that the impact of Barbadians, Guyanese, Haitians, Jamaicans, and Turks and Caicos islanders living in the Bahamas has remained virtually unstudied. In this timely volume, Keith Tinker explores the flow of peoples to and from the Bahamas and assesses the impact of various migrant groups on the character of the islands' society and identity. He analyzes the phenomenon of "West Indian elitism" and reveals an intriguing picture of how immigrants--both documented and undocumented--have shaped the Bahamas from the pre-Columbian period to the present. The result is the most complete and comprehensive study of migration to the Bahamas, a work that reminds us that Caribbean migration is about more than just the people who leave the islands for the continents of North America and Europe.