Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control

Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control

Author: Stephen A. King

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2014-07-10

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1496800397

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Who changed Bob Marley’s famous peace-and-love anthem into “Come to Jamaica and feel all right?” When did the Rastafarian fighting white colonial power become the smiling Rastaman spreading beach towels for American tourists? Drawing on research in social movement theory and protest music, Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control traces the history and rise of reggae and the story of how an island nation commandeered the music to fashion an image and entice tourists. Visitors to Jamaica are often unaware that reggae was a revolutionary music rooted in the suffering of Jamaica’s poor. Rastafarians were once a target of police harassment and public condemnation. Now the music is a marketing tool, and the Rastafarians are no longer a “violent counterculture” but an important symbol of Jamaica’s new cultural heritage. This book attempts to explain how the Jamaican establishment’s strategies of social control influenced the evolutionary direction of both the music and the Rastafarian movement. From 1959 to 1971, Jamaica’s popular music became identified with the Rastafarians, a social movement that gave voice to the country’s poor black communities. In response to this challenge, the Jamaican government banned politically controversial reggae songs from the airwaves and jailed or deported Rastafarian leaders. Yet when reggae became internationally popular in the 1970s, divisions among Rastafarians grew wider, spawning a number of pseudo-Rastafarians who embraced only the external symbolism of this worldwide religion. Exploiting this opportunity, Jamaica’s new Prime Minister, Michael Manley, brought Rastafarian political imagery and themes into the mainstream. Eventually, reggae and Rastafari evolved into Jamaica’s chief cultural commodities and tourist attractions.


Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control

Reggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control

Author: Stephen A. King

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781578064892

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"Visitors to Jamaica are often unaware that reggae was a revolutionary music rooted in the suffering of Jamaica's poor. Rastafarians were once a target of police harassment and public condemnation. Now the music is a marketing tool, and the Rastafarians are no longer a "violent counterculture" but an important symbol of Jamaica's new cultural heritage.".


Dread Talk

Dread Talk

Author: Velma Pollard

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2000-05-15

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 077356828X

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Dread Talk examines the effects of Rastafarian language on Creole in other parts of the Carribean, its influence in Jamaican poetry, and its effects on standard Jamaican English. This revised edition includes a new introduction that outlines the changes that have occurred since the book first appeared and a new chapter, "Dread Talk in the Diaspora," that discusses Rastafarian as used in the urban centers of North America and Europe. Pollard provides a wealth of examples of Rastafarian language-use and definitions, explaining how the evolution of these forms derives from the philosophical position of the Rasta speakers: "The socio-political image which the Rastaman has had of himself in a society where lightness of skin, economic status, and social privileges have traditionally gone together must be included in any consideration of Rastafarian words " for the man making the words is a man looking up from under, a man pressed down economically and socially by the establishment."


RastafarI Women

RastafarI Women

Author: Obiagele Lake

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13:

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The subordination of Jamaican Rastafarian women represents a microcosm of women's subordination worldwide. Rastafari Women: Subordination in the Midst of Liberation Theology focuses on the Rastafarians who emerged in 1930 in response to the exploitation and disenfranchisement of African people in Jamaica. Rastafarian cultural ideology includes the belief in the divinity of Haile Selassie and that the salvation of people of African descent lies in their repatriation to Africa. Historically, Rastas have played a leading role in raising racial and anti-colonial consciousness in Jamaica. Yet at the same time, the subordination of women within their own ranks is a central aspect of their belief system. RastafarI Women is the product of years of empirical research and conversations with Rastafarian women whose voices are prominent in this work. They speak on such issues as women's codes of dress and their secondary relationship to men. This book is dauntless in its exposition of Christian religious texts and African traditional practices and the ways in which they constitute the basis for the containment of women. In Rastafari Women Lake analyzes the subordination of Rastafarian women within the larger context of sexism, colonialism, and racism in Jamaica making this book an invaluable resource for any whose work involves the intersection of sex, race, and class.


Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction

Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Ennis Barrington Edmonds

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-12-20

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0199584524

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Rastafari has grown into an international socio-religious movement, with adherents of Rastafari found in most of the major population centres and outposts of the world. This Very Short Introduction provides a brief account of this widespread but often poorly understood movement, looking at its history, central principles, and practices.


The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control

The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control

Author: John W. Bowers

Publisher: Waveland Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1478608110

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This compelling text is a careful examination of the rhetoric of dissent. The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control provides a framework for the study of agitation and responses to that agitation. The third edition offers a profile of past and current movements, such as the street theatre of Chicago in 1968 and the innovative and technological rhetorical techniques found in the "Battle in Seattle." The modus operandi of todays protests continues to evolve from that of the 1960s and 1970s. As smartphones and the Internet replace tie-dyed shirts and flower power, contemporary students and scholars alike will find this edition of The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control to be a helpful tool in studying the progression of social and protest movements.


The First Rasta

The First Rasta

Author: Stephen Davis

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1556524668

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Going far beyond the standard imagery of Rasta—ganja, reggae, and dreadlocks—this cultural history offers an uncensored vision of a movement with complex roots and the exceptional journey of a man who taught an enslaved people how to be proud and impose their culture on the world. In the 1920s Leonard Percival Howell and the First Rastas had a revelation concerning the divinity of Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia, that established the vision for the most popular mystical movement of the 20th century, Rastafarianism. Although jailed, ridiculed, and treated as insane, Howell, also known as the Gong, established a Rasta community of 4,500 members, the first agro-industrial enterprise devoted to producing marijuana. In the late 1950s the community was dispersed, disseminating Rasta teachings throughout the ghettos of the island. A young singer named Bob Marley adopted Howell's message, and through Marley's visions, reggae made its explosion in the music world.


The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music

The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music

Author: Jonathan C. Friedman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1136447296

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The major objective of this collection of 28 essays is to analyze the trends, musical formats, and rhetorical devices used in popular music to illuminate the human condition. By comparing and contrasting musical offerings in a number of countries and in different contexts from the 19th century until today, The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music aims to be a probing introduction to the history of social protest music, ideal for popular music studies and history and sociology of music courses.


Social Controversy and Public Address in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Social Controversy and Public Address in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Author: Richard J. Jensen

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2017-10-01

Total Pages: 668

ISBN-13: 1628953004

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The period between the 1960s and 1970s is easily one of the most controversial in American history. Examining the liberal movements of the era as well as those that opposed them, this volume offers analyses of the rhetoric of leaders, including those of the civil rights movement, the Chicano movement, the gay rights movement, second-wave feminism, and conservative resistance groups. It also features an introduction that summarizes much of the significant research done by communication scholars on dissent in the 1960s and 1970s. This time period is still a fertile area of study, and this book provides insights into the era that are both provocative and illuminating, making it an essential read for anyone looking to learn more about this time in America.


Religion

Religion

Author: Christian Smith

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-03-26

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0691191646

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A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.