An ethos of Blackness : Rastafari cosmology, culture, and consciousness / Vivaldi Jean-Marie.

"An Ethos of Blackness: Rastafari Cosmology, Culture, and Consciousness provides a detailed elaboration of the norms, culture, practices, and epistemological boundaries of Rastafari in order to argue that it is advancing distinctive religious ideals of Black identity that provide a better theological foundation than colonial and postcolonial versions of Christianity for people of African descent. Emerging during the period between Jamaican Revivalism (beginning 1860s) and Garveyism (beginning 1914), Rastafari incorporated the Afrocentric religious traditions of the former and the political, social, and cultural ethos of the latter. Distinctive practices such as the avoidance of technological manipulation of the living force of natural goods, seen as isomorphic with the freedom from oppression of African diasporic peoples, and the use of I-talk to convey dimensions of Black consciousness define the Afrocentric spirituality of Rastafari. Nonetheless, before Rastafari can fulfill its promise of liberating all Africana peoples from oppression, Vivaldi Jean-Marie argues, it must confront and resolve its failure to include women and LGBTQ within its compass"-- Provided by publisher.