This paper explores Africa's engagements with the Diaspora in South America. It argues that the linkages have far deeper roots than is generally recognized by focusing on nineteenth-century demographic and cultural flows. The paper begins by offering broad conceptual notes on the complex connections between homelands and host lands in the Diaspora experience. This is followed by a brief survey of physical movements between South America and Africa in the nineteenth century. Finally, it looks at the cultural dimensions of this relationship, specifically focusing on religious developments and exchanges.
[Unedited] Considering a set of selected papers and texts from the 19th and 20th c., the ethnic discourses created around the Chilean genre (zama)cueca and its consequences are discussed. From a theoretical framework rooted in the idea of textual canon, the consolidation of the mestizo idea (or mixed race idea) over indigenous and black discourses describe, on the one hand, how these discourses connect concepts such authenticity and nationality, but on the other hand, how they exclude other narratives, promoting the imaginary of the Chilean culture through essentialist speculations., [unedited non–English abstract received by RILM] El presente ensayo ofrece una reflexión sobre los discursos creados en torno a la etnicidad del género (zama)cueca a través del análisis de una selección de textos escritos entre los siglos XIX y XX. A partir de un marco conceptual centrado en la idea de canon como texto con poder representativo, se analiza la consolidación de lo mestizo al interior de estos discursos y la forma en que éstos vincularon la danza con las ideas de autenticidad y nacionalidad, excluyendo otros relatos del canon y alimentando el imaginario cultural de lo chileno por medio de especulaciones de carácter esencialista.; [Unedited] The complexity of Cuba's history, politics, and cultural makeup is surpassed only by the religious intricacies that animate its contemporary landscape. Spanish Catholicism and West African Lucumi religions, as well as their syncretized offspring, have long dominated religious scholarship. However, there is an escalating force that has the possibility to change Cuba's spiritual scene in the coming decades. Protestantism, brought to the country by American missionaries after the Spanish-American war in 1898, has been increasing in popularity in recent years. Many contemporary Cuban Protestant denominations have embraced 21st-c. modernity by incorporating popular styles into church music, using technology to increase interaction during services, and allowing charismatic worship practices to enter the church. All of these changes have made Protestantism a magnet for new believers. This dissertation examines the culture of Cuban evangelical churches and takes specific notice of an emergent genre of music that is appearing in several denominations. Alabanza y adoración (praise and worship) music, though not novel to the United States, has taken on new meaning in the worship services of Havana's metropolitan congregations. This music is significant because it marks a shift from the traditionalism of hymnody to the progressivism multi-influenced praise and worship. Popular music styles of Cuba such as salsa and son along with the global sounds of praise and worship music from the United States and Latin America have been adopted to fit the needs of Cuban congregations. I explore the world of Havana's evangelical subculture through field data gathered from interviews and observation of church services. I consider what it means to be a 'Christian' in Cuba as well as what it means to be a member of an evangelical denomination, two sources of identity in tension with one another. The Iglesia Metodista Unida (United Methodist Church), Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostal Asambleas de Dios (Assemblies of God Pentecostal Evangelical Church), and the Fraternidad Bautista (Baptist Fraternity) are the main field sites that provide case studies for this dissertation. Additionally, I examine the layered experiences within the subculture, particularly those of youth and Afro-Cuban participants.
Examines differences in reports of spirituality among African Americans, Caribbean Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites using data from the National Survey of American Life. African Americans were most likely to endorse statements regarding the importance of spirituality in their lives and self-assessments of spirituality, followed by Caribbean Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites. African Americans and Caribbean Blacks had significantly higher levels of spirituality than did non-Hispanic Whites. However, there were no significant differences in spirituality between African Americans and Caribbean Blacks.
Writer Zora Neale Hurston notes the identity and culture of the Africans in the U.S., in which there is struggle in resisting with violence against the slave societies and racial discrimination to maintain the culture. Mentions the association of black ritual practices on Hurston's writings, "Mules and Men" and "Moses, Man of the Mountain," where slavery is considered as factor of spreading the folk arts.
West African powers in the Caribbean have often been studied as important cultural and religious formations. This article treats them as ontological formations by collapsing the modern opposition between reason/knowledge and power/force. The distinction between the "knowing" West anchored in a unified scientific reason and the "believing" Rest who trust in many cultures is therefore refused. With the above prerequisite in mind, a new approach to creolization, termed "tukontology," is deployed to reveal a Kuhnian type paradigm shift in the war-medicine of blacks on British West Indian plantations between 1645 and emancipation in 1838.
