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May 17, 2024
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HC 849 - RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITYOF THE BLACK DISAPORA3 credits
This s seminar is a study of the African religious heritage brought by African people who came to the Americas through the forced migrations of the Trans-African slave trade. It uses the history of religions method to explore how African the fundamental worldview of the [African] captives was. Using “Transformationalism” as discursive category the seminar posits that eventually, as a result of their environment, the Africans created a coherent faith/spirituality which preserved and revitalized the basic aspects of indigenous African religions and spirituality while blending them with Christianity, as well as other traditions native to the Americas. Historical developments, syncretism, “transreligiosity” (simultaneous participation), and cultural camouflage are some of the themes explored in this seminar. The religious traditions discussed include: Candomble: Afro-Brazillian Religious Culture; Cuban and Cuban-American Santeria; Haitian Vodou; Trinidadian Shango; the Rastafarian Movement of Jamaica; and the Black Church in the United States. In this seminar, we approach the study of religion as:
- a socio-cultural construction (something created and given meaning and importance through human agency and interaction)
- located within the broader social and historical contexts of society, in this case global community with an overwhelming economic basis
- a structure for organizing life on both macro (societal) and micro (individual) levels, in this case the religious dynamic in shaping the life of the African diaspora in the Caribbean basin, North and South America.
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