No cross, no crown: Identity formation, nigrescence, and social change among Jamaica's first- and second-generation Rastafarians.
Item
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Title
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No cross, no crown: Identity formation, nigrescence, and social change among Jamaica's first- and second-generation Rastafarians.
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Identifier
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AAI3025114
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identifier
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3025114
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Creator
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Price, Charles Reavis.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Setha Low
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Date
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2001
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | Psychology, Social | Black Studies | Religion, General
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Abstract
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This dissertation is a social and life history study of Black identity, religious conversion, and movement participation among first and second generation Rastafarians in Jamaica. The author approaches the topic by asking why and how do people become Rastafarians, a question hitherto unaddressed. It was determined that two broad factors influence individuals in changing their identity and becoming Rastafarians. One relates to specific experiences and general character dispositions. The other is the influence of antecedent ideas, events, and groups on Black consciousness, and how individuals draw upon these during identity transformation.;The study is framed by William Cross, Jr's, revised Nigrescence model. Chapter 1 reviews issues pertinent to identity, religious conversion, and social change. Chapter 2 discusses life history, research, and native anthropology issues. Chapters 3 and 4 are a social history of the development of Black identity and a Black moral economy, between the early 1700s and 1972. Slavery, indigenous religions such as Myalism, rebellions, Ethiopianism, faulty colonial policies, high expectations, and dashed hopes are key factors that contribute to the consolidation of Black identity and moral economy. Several watersheds in the development of Black identity and Black moral economy are explored in this context. Chapter 5 presents an overview of the development of the group identity of the Rastafari. Chapters 6 and 7 address Nigrescence and religious conversion experiences among the early Rastafari.;Twenty-seven life histories and field notes serve as the primary data. This research demonstrates that the revised Nigrescence model explains well the racial dimensions of why people become Rastafarians. Adding components from religious conversion theories enhanced the Nigrescence model's explanatory power in this specific case. Empirically, the study concludes that Rastafarian identity and ideology are not the products of poverty, relative deprivation, or cognitive dissonance. Their identity transformation is a result of concern with burning existential questions, specific encounters, and/or having a curious disposition. They draw from the ideas, symbols, and traditions already extant in their environment. A longstanding Black moral economy provides the context for individuals to resolve specific concerns in the quest for self-affirmation and community. The first and second generation Rastafarians became who they are for moral, religious, and humanistic reasons.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
