Looking at the various sources of information on the ethnic and income level groupings of people in Chicago, I found myself very surprised at the high level of integration in the city.

I had always had an image of cities during this time period having very distinct ethnic areas. One neighborhood for the Italians. Another for the Greeks. Another for African-Americans and so on and so fourth.
This was not exactly the case in Chicago. While there do appear to be some patterns of groups living together, it looks for the most part like people of many different types of ethnicities and income levels lived in relatively close proximity to one another.

I still think that there would have been sort of an odd combination of cultural segregation and mixing. My impression of this time has led me to think that most of these groups did tend to stick together, but did encounter other groups very often. This created an interesting clash of cultures that had to learn how to coexist.

I think looking at this data has provided me with some interesting insight into the development of early American cites.

Motivations of Jane Addams

Discussing the general motivations of Jane Addams in a religious context is an interesting subject to take on. I think when discussing Jane Addams it is important to keep in mind that she was motivated by a multitude of things.

Firstly, Addams was motivated by her general experiences with impoverished people. She encountered great poverty both in London and Chicago. These two notable locations exposed many of the hardships that people had to face and served as a great motivator for her to create Hull House. Also, it is obvious that Addams' experience at the Seminary of Rockford influenced her decision to help the poor.

While these are things to keep in mind, it is still evident that Addams had some type of "spiritual motivation" in her work. I'm not saying that her motivations were overtly religious. I don't believe that they were. Instead I believe that from Addams' words it is obvious that she felt some type of "calling" to this work. She felt motivated to take care of the poor because it was the right thing to do. It is difficult to outright judge her religiously at this early point, but we can tell that Addams is serving a higher purpose.

Jamaica and Utah: Victims of Religious and Cultural Stereotypes

As we discussed the Rastafari religion, one theme that was emphasized was how the Rastafari culture has been fused with the colonial culture to form a unique Jamaican identity. While I do agree that this is true, I do not think that most people around the world view Jamaican culture in this way. Because of the rise of Rastafarianism, most people around the world associate Jamaica with Rastas even though most of the population is not of this religion.

This type of cultural stereotyping based on a religion is also seen in Utah with the Mormon religion. Although most of the people in Utah, and more specifically Salt Lake City, are not of the Mormon religion, the culture is often stereotyped. Although Mormonism does have a large presence in the area, as seen by the picture of the Mormon Cathedral in the center of Salt Lake City, it does not mean that it completely defines the people. Salt Lake City has many different types of people and religions that make up their culture, but this unusual concentration of Mormons has left them stereotyped.

These two highly different regions both show how a religion can come to stereotypically define a culture. This is something to keep in mind when studying religion and its impacts on people and places. This type of cultural stereotyping is an interesting effect of a growing, unusual religion.

Another Post on Mormonism and Rastafari by Nathan Goodson-Gregg

Rastafari in the Boboshanti Community

I found the video assigned this week to be both affirming and surprising. What I mean by affirming and surprising is that there were elements of this community that worked very closely with the image of Rastafari I constructed from our reading, while at the same time there were also elements that were very different from the image I had construced from our reading.

There were many things that I found to be consistent with the images from the reading and class discussion. The high use of symbols and typical Rastafari language could be seen and heard throughout the video. The symbols seen throughout include the traditional red, green, and yellow colors used by the Rastas, the high use of Biblical reference, and the Lion of Judah. Also, the Boboshanti are highly focused on Africa and more specifically Ethiopia, another aspect of Rastas that I would expect to see.

While there were many aspects of this video that I found consitent with my image of Rastafari, there were some things that I found that were quite different. The first thing that I noticed was as being significantly differnet was their clothing. Many of the Boboshanti appeared to be wearing a similar, traditional type of garb such as the one depicted in the picture with this post. With this outfit came the turban-like hat that most of these people wore. This was unusual to me because my image of Rastas was that they always proudly displayed dreadlocks, but here we see something quite different. More notably than their appearance, the Boboshanti seemed more ritualistic and organized than my previous image of Rastafari. Their structured ceremonies and concious religious movements all gave Rastafari a much more rigid and traditional appearance than I had previously been exposed to.

All of these elements made the Boboshanti a unique group of Rastas to observe because they both confirm and defy many conceptions of a misunderstood religion.

Bob Marley Interview: Rationalization and Justification for Rastafari

In this interview with Bob Marley, many different aspects of Rastafarian are highlighted. The most notable thing about this interview is that we can see the many different type of rationalization that take place around the beliefs and practices of a religion.

We first see Marley discuss the use of Marijuana, the most common practice associated with Rastafari. Here Marley justifies the use of Marijuana by claiming that it frees one's mind and begging the question "Why do governments keep Marijuana illegal?" Marley asserts that it is because "the herb" incites feelings of rebellion against materialism and war. Here we see how Marley has justified the use and explained the stigma behind Marijuana by using assumptions and rationalization.

The second and even more notable use of rationalization in this interview occurs in his discussion of the Emperor Halie Selassie I as being the Messiah. We see Marley claim that the Emperor is the "Rightful Ruler" because it is said in the bible and various other sources. He then claims that the reason he has not been accepted is because people want a white god, not a black god. Marley is using proof from post-biblical sources and assumed racism to explain the legitimacy of his religion and why it is not generally accepted.

Looking at this interview has given me some insight into the frame of the Rastafari religion. I hope to further understand this frame as class continues.

The Kebra Negast: Linking Ethiopia to Soloman

This past week our assigned reading for class was an excerpt of the Kebra Negast. This is the text that is considered to be the documented proof of Ethiopia's ties to Israel as well as proof the the holy Ark of the Covenant is located in modern-day Ethiopia. It is in this document that we see the consummation between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel, and the assertion that Israel's true line of kings was moved to Ethiopia as a result of this. It is with this document in mind that I realize how previous stories can be distorted or twisted in order to give a religious group identity.

While the Kebra Negast is more outright in it's distortion of text to grant identity, St. Augustine's On Christian Teaching prescribes many similar types of practices that take place in the Kebra Negast. While Augustine would never advocate artificially created stories borrowing from the Bible, he does at many times seem to advocate a sort of distortion of biblical text in order to grant justification of Christianity. Whether it is assuming that reference to Israel encompasses the entire Christian people or prescribing moral relativity as a way of understanding questionable parts of the bible, Augustine does tend to twist and distort the original meaning of the text in order to serve his purposes.

In the Kebra Negast, this distortion is much more pronounced. We see an entire tale that is woven into the Bible in order to grant the Ethiopians a unique cultural identity as the "true inheritors" of Israel. While some people may find this type of behavior difficult to understand, it makes sense of one notes that Ethiopia is a lone Christian nation surrounded by Islamic states. This type of strong connection serves to strengthen the wills of both Ethiopian Jews and Christians alike.

Image above is an artist's interpretation of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon meeting.

Islam in America: A Documentary

This past week I attended Professor Smith's documentary on Islam in America. The documentary mainly focused on the growth and integration of the Arab-American population around the Dearborn, MI area. Through this documentary, I was able to gain a more personal grasp of what the Arab-American population is trying to achieve in this country. I had always heard of the Dearborn are but never really had a chance to learn about it in-depth. This was a very worthwhile experience for me.