85 p., This thesis examines the practice of Obeah--an Afro-Caribbean system of healing, harming, and divination through the use of spiritual powers--within two slave communities in Berbice and Demerara (British Guiana). This study is based primarily on legal documents--including testimony from more than a dozen slaves--generated during the criminal trials of two men accused of practicing Obeah in 1819 and 1821-22. In contrast to most previous studies of Obeah, which have been based largely on descriptions provided by British observers, this project takes advantage of this complex, overlapping body of evidence to explore the social dynamics of Obeah as experienced by enslaved men and women themselves, including Obeah practitioners, their clients, and other witnesses. This study reveals that Obeah rituals could be extremely violent, that Obeah practitioners were feared as well as respected among their contemporaries, that the authority of Obeah practitioners was based on demonstrable success, and that slave communities in general were complex social worlds characterized by conflict and division as well as by support and unity--conclusions that combine to produce a fresh, humane vision of Afro-diasporan culture and community under slavery.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
270 p., Contents: 1. El arribo -- 2. De oficios, ocupaciones y formas de subsistencia -- 3. Los afroporteños propietarios -- 4. El proceso abolicionista -- 5. Las manifestaciones religiosas -- 6. Las cofradías religiosas -- Conclusiones.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Describes and analyzes the social/historical contexts and contemporary musical practices of Afro-Brazilian religion, selected Carnival traditions, Bahia’s black cultural renaissance, the traditions of rural migrants, and currents in new popular music.
Dantas,Beatriz Góis (Author) and Berg,Stephen (Translator)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
198 p., Compares the formation of religious traditions and ethnic identities in the Brazilian states of Sergipe and Bahia, revealing how they diverged from each other due to their different social and political contexts and needs.
Almeida,Adroaldo J. S. (Editor), Santos,Lyndon de A. (Editor), and Ferretti,Sérgio Figueiredo (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Language:
Portuguese
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
São Paulo, SP, Brasil: Paulinas: Edições ABHR
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Papers presented at the 8th Simpósio da Associação Brasileira de História das Religiões, held in São Luís (MA) on May 2-5, 2006 and Colóquio Centenário da Morte de Nina Rodrigues held May 2006., 191 p.
