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    Rastafari Subculture

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    Beatriz Trastoy
    Rastafari is a political and religious movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s based on the belief that Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, is the Messiah. Rastafarians are found primarily in Jamaica, Ethiopia, and other Caribbean islands. They meet weekly for "reasoning sessions" and interpret the Bible to establish a mystical connection with Jah. Rastafari is considered a subculture due to their shared living practices, customs, and values like studying scripture daily, avoiding meat, wearing bright colors, and using cannabis to connect with God.

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    Rastafari Subculture

    Uploaded by

    Beatriz Trastoy
    100 views8 pages
    Rastafari is a political and religious movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s based on the belief that Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, is the Messiah. Rastafarians are found primarily in Jamaica, Ethiopia, and other Caribbean islands. They meet weekly for "reasoning sessions" and interpret the Bible to establish a mystical connection with Jah. Rastafari is considered a subculture due to their shared living practices, customs, and values like studying scripture daily, avoiding meat, wearing bright colors, and using cannabis to connect with God.

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    Rastafari Subculture (1)

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    Rastafari is a political and religious movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s based on the belief that Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, is the Messiah. Rastafarians are found primarily in Jamaica, Ethiopia, and other Caribbean islands. They meet weekly for "reasoning sessions" and interpret the Bible to establish a mystical connection with Jah. Rastafari is considered a subculture due to their shared living practices, customs, and values like studying scripture daily, avoiding meat, wearing bright colors, and using cannabis to connect with God.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    100 views8 pages

    Rastafari Subculture

    Uploaded by

    Beatriz Trastoy
    Rastafari is a political and religious movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s based on the belief that Haile Selassie I, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, is the Messiah. Rastafarians are found primarily in Jamaica, Ethiopia, and other Caribbean islands. They meet weekly for "reasoning sessions" and interpret the Bible to establish a mystical connection with Jah. Rastafari is considered a subculture due to their shared living practices, customs, and values like studying scripture daily, avoiding meat, wearing bright colors, and using cannabis to connect with God.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The passage provides an overview of the Rastafari movement, including its origins in Jamaica in the 1930s and some of its key religious and cultural aspects.

    Rastafarians believe in Jah (God) and see racial oppression as part of God's challenges to black people. They also believe Ethiopia is their true homeland and hope to return there one day.

    Rastafarians can be found all over the world but are concentrated in places like Ethiopia, Jamaica and the Caribbean. They typically meet weekly in homes or community centers, which they call 'reasoning sessions'.

    Rastafari subculture

    What is Rastafari?
    It’s a political and religious movement that started in
    Jamaica in the 1930s. The main link that unites
    rastafaris is their strong religious belief. They think
    that Jah (God) is challenging black people through
    slavery, economic injustice and racial
    opression.These people wait for the day they can
    be free in their true homeplace, Africa, specifically,
    Ethiopia. The term Ras Tafari is taken from the
    Ethiopian emperor’s precoronation name.
    Where can we find them?

    Rastafaris are spread all over the world, but we can find the largest concentrations
    in Ethiopia, Jamaica and even some islands of the Caribbean. They tend to meet
    weekly, usually in a believer’s home or in a community centre. They call this
    meetings “reasoning sessions”
    Jamaican Rastas

    They are descendants of African slaves who were


    converted to Christianity in Jamaica by
    missionaries that used the text of the King James
    Version of the Bible. Rastas claim that this version
    is a corrupted vision of God’s actual word and
    think they can interpret biblical scriptures by
    establishing a mystical consciousness of oneself
    with Jah, named “I-and-I.” As a consequence
    Rastas only read certain passages of the Bible,
    for example, Leviticus.
    Why is it a subculture?
    Rastafarians are a subculture because they share their way of living, ideas,
    customs and values. Examples of this are:
    - Their number one priority is the figure of God (they revisit the Bible on
    a daily basis), but love is also a key value in this subculture.
    - It’s not allowed to eat meat, as it is considered to be immoral. They
    think that is the equivalent of turning your body into a cementery.
    - It’s crucial for Rastafaris to have some time in your day to study, as
    opposed of only following the doctrine.
    - Their love for reggae music
    - Dressing up with bright colours, like green, red, gold and black, that
    simbolyzes respectively nature, blood, royalty and africanness
    - Their hair is frequently styled in dreadlocks
    Religion, rituals and celebrations
    As I said before, Rastafarians are monotheists and
    only devote to Jah, which is an slightly different
    version of Yahvé. They see Jah as the Holy Trinity,
    who lives inside everyone. They practise their religion
    very actively doing singing of hymns and choirs,
    reading of psalms and chapters from the Holy Bible
    and reasoning, all accompanied by Nyahbingh music.
    Some significant dates in the Rastafarian subculture
    include: Ethipian Christmas, Groundation Day,
    Ethiopian Constitution Day, Ethiopian New Year.
    Some interesting facts about Rastas
    They consume drugs such as cannabis or ganja
    because they believe it is a way of connecting with God
    and meditating. They consider that it’s not a drug, as it
    hasn’t been made by a human hand.

    Rastas have also invented their own language, that


    includes words such as: Irie (as a synonym for
    something good), overstanding instead of
    understanding, downpression instead of opression and
    Zion ( the promised land, Ethiopia) among others.
    The rise of rastas

    Rastafarians had been persecuted since they


    became a subculture, often ending up in conflicts
    between white policemen and rastas. They were
    brutally repressed and often humiliated. However,
    around 1970, this subculture became really popular
    because the singer Bob Marley contributed to
    spread the rastafari movement all over the world
    thanks to his aclamated reggae music.
    Nevertheless, our society still mantains prejudices
    about it, such as thinking that only a black man can
    be a rastafari or that everybody who belongs to this
    subculture uses drugs or wears dreadlocks.

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