Synopsis of Nation Dance: Religion, Identity and Cultural Difference in the Caribbean

Dealing with the ongoing interplay of rich and diverse Caribbean cultural traditions from Cuba and Jamaica to Guyana and Surinam, the essays in this book address some of the major contemporary issues in the study of Caribbean religion and identity. The book is divided into three sections and moves from a focus on spirituality and healing, to theology in social and political context, then on to questions of identity and diaspora. The book begins with the voices of female practitioners and opens out into a broad, interdisciplinary examination of different aspects of Caribbean religion and culture. Afro-Caribbean religions, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity are all addressed, with specific reflections on Santer'a, Palo Monte, Vodou, Winti, Obeah, Kali Mai, Orisha work, Spiritual Baptist faith, Spiritualism, Rastafari, Confucianism, Congregationalism, Pentecostalism, Catholicism and liberation theology. Some essays are based on field work, archival research and textual or linguistic analysis while others are concerned with methodological or theoretical issues. Contributors include practitioners and scholars, some very established in the field, others with fresh, new approaches, all of whom come from the region or have done extensive fieldwork or research there. In these essays the poetic vitality of the practitioner's voice meets the attentive commitment of the postcolonial scholar in a dance of 'nations' across the waters.