Mythical Pasts: Ethiopianism as a Revitalization Movement :: essays papers

Mythical Pasts Ethiopianism as a Revitalization MovementThroughout history, identification with Ethiopian inheritance has been a familiar belief to the Jamaicans who have suffered under slavery, colonialism and social oppression. This concept of Ethiopianism includes the appreciation of Ethiopias past civilization as well as its profound role in the Bible and world history. It has long been manifested in Jamaican culture as a means to identify with a glorious, righteous, and perhaps the earliest of all(prenominal) human civilization. Anthropologist Anthony F.C. Wallace has focused much of his interrogation on the phenomena of Revitalization Movements throughout social history. He has recognized that such(prenominal) movements are characterized by a uniform process and can be defined as a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture (Wallace 265). Considering the centuries of dread(a) struggle amongst Jamaican society, fro m the inhumane conditions of slavery to modern neocolonialism on the island, it seems bare as to why the revitalization of the Ethiopian homeland would be redeem in the culture and even accelerated at heart the Rastafarian Movement. expectant leaders and the circumstances of the times have allowed Ethiopianism to flourish amongst the oppressed quite a little of Jamaica and gain popular recognition through the lyrics of reggae music. There is no interrogative that this identification with historical Ethiopia has served as a Revitalization Movement for Rastafarians within Jamaican culture and society.It would be impossible to understand the Rastafarian alliance to Ethiopianism without first exploring at least a brief history of this ancient civilization. This historical root in a thriving civilization is especially important to discover as Blacks have unjustifiably been regarded as tempestuous throughout the centuries. I hope that the following will prove that today, Africans all over the world are descendents of what was once a very highly developed civilization in what is now Ethiopia. However, white populations have try throughout history to deny this fact. European scholars of the nineteenth century claimed that those who intermeshed the area in ancient times were not Negroes but Hamites this hear was made in hope of scientifically proving that whites are the origin and backside of all civilization (Barrett 70). African descendents have suffered for centuries due to this de-negrification of Blacks and those confusing racial classifications assigned by Whites. The fact that the Ethiopian civilization was indeed a Black one is strongly supported with a quick sagacity into ancient Hebrew language.