RASTAFARI AS A RESOURCE FOR SOCIAL ETHICS IN SOUTH AFRICA

This article argues that Rastafarian values represent potential ethical resources for mediating social conflicts in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on Victor Turner's concept of liminality within a broader phenomenological perspective, Rastafari is viewed as a liminal consciousness in a la...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Johnson-Hill, Jack A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: ASRSA 1996
In: Journal for the study of religion
Year: 1996, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 3-39
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This article argues that Rastafarian values represent potential ethical resources for mediating social conflicts in post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on Victor Turner's concept of liminality within a broader phenomenological perspective, Rastafari is viewed as a liminal consciousness in a larger liminal sub-culture: as paradigmatic of the Afro-Jamaican lifeworld. This consciousness is described, with reference to Rasta poetry, as a redemptive ethic with three centres of value: a relational self (I-n-I), an integrated lifestyle (livity) and a prophetic social destiny (Ithiopia). The I-n-I concept is then utilized as an interpretive device to illuminate social ethical options between competing concepts of personal and social identity in the New South Africa.
ISSN:2413-3027
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion