BLS 366 - Religion and Music of the African Diaspora

Credits 3
Lecture
A comparative and interdisciplinary survey of African-derived religious and musical practices in the Americas, beginning with Haitian voodoo and ending with hip-hop. We will examine the historic conditions in which these cultural forms evolved, and discuss how popular attitudes towards African-derived music and religion - often associated with unruliness and loose morals - reflect larger national anxieties about race, class and sexuality. Throughout, we will pay close attention to how different social actors (colonial regimes, the police, anthropologists and practitioners) have constructed African-based religiosity and music as witchcraft, folklore, heritage and roots. Cross-listed with SOA 366

Graded