Conjure In African American Society

Author : Jeffrey E. Anderson
Publisher : LSU Press
ISBN 13 : 0807135283
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conjure in African American Society written by Jeffrey E. Anderson and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From black sorcerers' client-based practices in the antebellum South to the postmodern revival of hoodoo and its tandem spiritual supply stores, the supernatural has long been a key component of the African American experience. What began as a mixture of African, European, and Native American influences within slave communities finds expression today in a multimillion dollar business. In Conjure in African American Society, Jeffrey E. Anderson unfolds a fascinating story as he traces the origins and evolution of conjuring practices across the centuries. Though some may see the study of conjure as a perpetuation of old stereotypes that depict blacks as bound to superstition, the truth, Anderson reveals, is far more complex. Drawing on folklore, fiction and nonfiction, music, art, and interviews, he explores various portrayals of the conjurer -- backward buffoon, rebel against authority, and symbol of racial pride. He also examines the actual work performed by conjurers, including the use of pharmacologically active herbs to treat illness, psychology to ease mental ailments, fear to bring about the death of enemies and acquittals at trials, and advice to encourage clients to succeed on their own. By critically examining the many influences that have shaped conjure over time, Anderson effectively redefines magic as a cultural power, one that has profoundly touched the arts, black Christianity, and American society overall.

Author : Yvonne P. Chireau
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520249887
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Black Magic written by Yvonne P. Chireau and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006-11-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black Magic looks at the origins, meaning, and uses of Conjure—the African American tradition of healing and harming that evolved from African, European, and American elements—from the slavery period to well into the twentieth century. Illuminating a world that is dimly understood by both scholars and the general public, Yvonne P. Chireau describes Conjure and other related traditions, such as Hoodoo and Rootworking, in a beautifully written, richly detailed history that presents the voices and experiences of African Americans and shows how magic has informed their culture. Focusing on the relationship between Conjure and Christianity, Chireau shows how these seemingly contradictory traditions have worked together in a complex and complementary fashion to provide spiritual empowerment for African Americans, both slave and free, living in white America. As she explores the role of Conjure for African Americans and looks at the transformations of Conjure over time, Chireau also rewrites the dichotomy between magic and religion. With its groundbreaking analysis of an often misunderstood tradition, this book adds an important perspective to our understanding of the myriad dimensions of human spirituality.

Author : Theophus H. Smith
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198023197
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conjuring Culture written by Theophus H. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-11-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a sophisticated new interdisciplinary interpretation of the formulation and evolution of African American religion and culture. Theophus Smith argues for the central importance of "conjure"--a magical means of transforming reality--in black spirituality and culture. Smith shows that the Bible, the sacred text of Western civilization, has in fact functioned as a magical formulary for African Americans. Going back to slave religion, and continuing in black folk practice and literature to the present day, the Bible has provided African Americans with ritual prescriptions for prophetically re-envisioning, and thereby transforming, their history and culture. In effect the Bible is a "conjure book" for prescribing cures and curses, and for invoking extraordinary and Divine powers to effect changes in the conditions of human existence--and to bring about justice and freedom. Biblical themes, symbols, and figures like Moses, the Exodus, the Promised Land, and the Suffering Servant, as deployed by African Americans, have crucially formed and reformed not only black culture, but American society as a whole. Smith examines not only the religious and political uses of conjure, but its influence on black aesthetics, in music, drama, folklore, and literature. The concept of conjure, he shows, is at the heart of an indigenous and still vital spirituality, with exciting implications for reformulating the next generation of black studies and black theology. Even more broadly, Smith proposes, "conjuring culture" can function as a new paradigm for understanding Western religious and cultural phenomena generally.

Author : Eddie S. Glaude (Jr.)
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195182898
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book African American Religion written by Eddie S. Glaude (Jr.) and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African American Religion offers a provocative historical and philosophical treatment of the religious life of African Americans. Glaude argues that the phrase, African American religion, is meaningful only insofar as it singles out the distinctive ways religion has been leveraged by African Americans to respond to different racial regimes in the United States. If it does not do this, he argues, then it is time we got rid of the phrase.

Author : Jeffrey E. Anderson
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313342229
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure written by Jeffrey E. Anderson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure are part of a mysterious world of African American spirituality that has long captured the popular imagination. These magical beliefs and practices have figured in literary works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Ishmael Reed, and they have been central to numerous films, such as The Skeleton Key. Written for students and general readers, this book is a convenient introduction to hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure. The volume begins by defining and classifying elements of these spiritual traditions. It then provides a wide range of examples and texts, which illustrate the richness of these beliefs and practices. It also examines the scholarly response to hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure, and it explores the presence of hoodoo, voodoo, and conjure in popular culture. The volume closes with a glossary and bibliography. Students in social studies classes will use this book to learn more about African American magical beliefs, while literature students will enjoy its exploration of primary sources and literary works.

Author : Jeffrey Anderson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780530004198
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Conjure in African-American Society written by Jeffrey Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-31 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: This recipient of the Melvin E. Bradford Prize from the St. George Tucker Society examines African American magical practices from colonial times to the rise of modern spiritual supply stores. Among the topics under investigation are the mixed African, European, and Native American origins of hoodoo; the adaptability of conjure to changing circumstances; the role of hoodoo doctors in black society; and the function of magic as an element of black culture. Dissertation Discovery Company and University of Florida are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Conjure in African-American Society" by Jeffrey Elton Anderson, was obtained from University of Florida and is being sold with permission from the author. A digital copy of this work may also be found in the university's institutional repository, IR@UF. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.

Author : Katrina Hazzard-Donald
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252094468
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mojo Workin' written by Katrina Hazzard-Donald and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2012-12-30 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reconsideration of Hoodoo belief and practice Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. She examines Hoodoo culture and history by tracing its emergence from African traditions to religious practices in the Americas. Working against conventional scholarship, Hazzard-Donald argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she calls "regional Hoodoo clusters" and that after the turn of the nineteenth century, Hoodoo took on a national rather than regional profile. The spread came about through the mechanism of the "African Religion Complex," eight distinct cultural characteristics familiar to all the African ethnic groups in the United States. The first interdisciplinary examination to incorporate a full glossary of Hoodoo culture, Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System lays out the movement of Hoodoo against a series of watershed changes in the American cultural landscape. Hazzard-Donald examines Hoodoo material culture, particularly the "High John the Conquer" root, which practitioners employ for a variety of spiritual uses. She also examines other facets of Hoodoo, including rituals of divination such as the "walking boy" and the "Ring Shout," a sacred dance of Hoodoo tradition that bears its corollaries today in the American Baptist churches. Throughout, Hazzard-Donald distinguishes between "Old tradition Black Belt Hoodoo" and commercially marketed forms that have been controlled, modified, and often fabricated by outsiders; this study focuses on the hidden system operating almost exclusively among African Americans in the Black spiritual underground.

Author : Charles Waddell Chesnutt
Publisher : IndyPublish.com
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Conjure Woman written by Charles Waddell Chesnutt and published by IndyPublish.com. This book was released on 1900 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Stephanie Rose Bird
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN 13 : 9780738702759
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones written by Stephanie Rose Bird and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the magical roots of "hoodoo" back to West Africa, the author provides a history of this nature-based healing tradition and offers practical advice on how to apply hoodoo magic to everyday life.

Author : Melissa L. Cooper
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469632691
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Making Gullah written by Melissa L. Cooper and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1920s and 1930s, anthropologists and folklorists became obsessed with uncovering connections between African Americans and their African roots. At the same time, popular print media and artistic productions tapped the new appeal of black folk life, highlighting African-styled voodoo as an essential element of black folk culture. A number of researchers converged on one site in particular, Sapelo Island, Georgia, to seek support for their theories about "African survivals," bringing with them a curious mix of both influences. The legacy of that body of research is the area's contemporary identification as a Gullah community. This wide-ranging history upends a long tradition of scrutinizing the Low Country blacks of Sapelo Island by refocusing the observational lens on those who studied them. Cooper uses a wide variety of sources to unmask the connections between the rise of the social sciences, the voodoo craze during the interwar years, the black studies movement, and black land loss and land struggles in coastal black communities in the Low Country. What emerges is a fascinating examination of Gullah people's heritage, and how it was reimagined and transformed to serve vastly divergent ends over the decades.