Africas of the Americas : beyond the search for origins in the study of Afro-Atlantic religions / / edited by Stephan Palmié.

• Superior document: Studies of religion in Africa : supplements to the journal of religions in Africa, v. 33
• TeilnehmendeR: Palmié, Stephan.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies on religion in Africa ; 33.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (396 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The anthropology and history of African American religious formations has long been dominated by approaches aiming to recover and authenticate the historical transatlantic continuities linking such traditions to identifiable African source cultures. While not denying such continuities, the contributors to this volume seek to transcend this research agenda by bracketing “Africa” and “African pasts” as objective givens, and asking instead what role notions of “Africanity” and “pastfulness” play in the social and ritual lives of historical and contemporary practitioners of Afro-Atlantic religious formations. The volume’s goal is to open up contextually salient claims to “African origins” to empirical scrutiny, and so contribute to a broadening of the terms of debate in Afro-Atlantic studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: On predications of Africanity / Stephan Palmié -- On leaving and joining Africanness through religion : the 'Black Caribs' across multiple diasporic horizons / Paul Christopher Johnson -- From Igbo Israeli to African Christian : the emergence of racial identity in Olaudah Equiano's Interesting narrative / James Sidbury -- Governing man-gods : spiritism and the struggle for progress in Republican Cuba / Reinaldo L. Román -- Divining the past : the linguistic reconstruction of 'African' roots in diasporic ritual registers and songs / Kristina Wirtz -- Ecué's Atlantic : an essay in methodology / Stephan Palmié -- Dona Preta's trek to Cachoeira / Brian Brazeal -- Transatlantic dialogue : Roger Bastide and the African American religions / Stefania Capone -- Peasants, migrants and the discovery of African traditions : ritual and social change in Lowland Haiti / Karen E. Richman -- African accents, speaking child spirits and the Brazilian popular imaginary : permutations of Africanness in Candomblé / Elina Hartikainen -- Free to be a slave : slavery as metaphor in the Afro-Atlantic religions / J. Lorand Matory.