Crowded Streets

The maps and pictures and diagrams of the neighborhood surrounding Hull House make one thing very apparent, the streets were very crowded. House was built next to house, block after block, seemingly as far as the eye could see.

Not only were the streets crowded in terms of buildings they were also crowded in the sense that a magnitude of diverse people inhabited that area. From the ethnicity maps its apparent that the Hull House neighborhood was as ethnically diverse as you could see. Italians, Greeks, Russians, Persians, any nationality that you could think of was represented. For the most part the ethnicities were evenly spaced out. When looking at the maps you can see blocks of this ethnicity and that, but between these blocks there is no separation or buffer.

The most interesting diagrams for me were the ones that looked at the wage make up of the Hull House neighborhood. I would have thought that those with high wages would live far away from those with the lowest wages. Instead the wages seem to be very evenly spaced out. The color map shows a rainbow of colors on each block representing the different wage groups. This calls to mind a conversation I had with my older brother after he had been living in Costa Rica. He told me that big cities are different from big cities here because there seems to be no real separation of rich and poor. He told me that on any given street there would be expensive high rises and run down shanties. Possibly this fusion of rich and poor is the trait of a place that is still in its development stage.

Hull House

The question of the religious content in the social work of Hull house is a difficult question. Adams states in the beginning of her book that she grew up a Quaker and that her dad, who had a great influence on her, was the teacher of her Sunday school. With this nugget of information in mind, its hard not to see her social work as an outpouring of her religious upbringing and an exclamation of her spirituality.

While this conclusion is hard to overcome, upon closer examination Adams social work has little real religious connection. Adams in dealing with peoples from across the globe and of many faiths, had to try her best to remain neutral when it came to subject of religion. Hull House didn't provide church or Sunday school to its guests, but instead provided education and protection to the poor residents of Chicago.

Although helping the poor and downtrodden are very Christian characteristics, they are most certainly not unique to the religion. It might be better put that work done at Hull House showed characteristics thought of as good by any faith, or any person. Its a testament to Adams and all who helped at Hull House that strong religious sentiments were kept inside, and love and care and devotion were shown on the outside for all to see.

Legacy?

In ending our unit on the Rastafari, one question looms large in my mind; what is the legacy of the Rasta? After much thought, I feel like the answer is multifaceted. Of course the Rastas have left us with their symbols and music. Yet, beyond the reggae and dreadlock exterior of Rasta there lies the real legacy of the Rasta. That legacy is their legacy hope given to the poor and oppressed peoples of the world.

As Edmonds outlines in his book on Rastafari, the whole Rasta movement stemmed from a broken colonial system in Jamaica. The former slaves of the nation lived in destitute conditions, unable to break free from the chains of economic and social oppression. In this environment the Rasta came to exist as a force in opposition to the British system or Babylon to the Rasta. This opposition bred music and protest from the Rasta.

It is this spirit of protest that still resonates with the people of the world. Oppression and rebellion is ubiquitous around the globe, and for this reason the symbols of the Rasta are just as ubiquitous. Whether its the teenage American pot smoking rebel, or the downtrodden peoples of Africa, the Rasta philosophy provides an identity and hope. For this the Rasta must be admired, for where would the world be without "One Love" or Bob Marley's redemption songs?

Rasta Community

Ennis Barrinton Edmonds did his homework when he wrote the book Rastafari because the rasta community portrayed in the youtube video is exactly as he described the rasta to be. All the elements were there; the red, gold, and green colors, the dreads, the belief in repatriation, the use of the term ini, the belief in natural living, and the strong belief in the battle between good and evil. This being said, another element of Edmonds analyses about rasta holds true, and that's that rastas area heterogeneous group.

This group of Rasta woke up at 3am in order to start prayer, an act which was done three times a day. Nowhere, at least in this video, were there signs of "reasoning" sessions and smoking of the ganja. Instead of letting there dreads hang loose and free, these rasta kept them up in turbans.

As Edmonds points out, a trademark of the rasta is that there is no centrally unifying church, and as such it makes sense that this group of rasta from the video would have slightly different rituals than the average rasta. This being said, Edmonds book so far has produced an excellent and precise picture of the Rastafari system of beliefs.

Rasta Culture

The first chapter of the book Rastafari outlines Max Weber's theories of charisma and routinization in societies. Weber contends that a charismatic leader breaks the normal mould of a citizen and thus after a revolution the culture accepts the the leaders new ideas through a process of routinization. Edmond's in his Rastafari book takes a look at how this process worked of the Rastafari religion.

What interests me is that the process of routinization worked so well for the Rastafari culture that it has moved well beyond Jamaica and into mainstream secular culture in the United States. I don't just mean this in the sense that most people know about the Rastafari, but in the sense that Rastafari culture sells. Rasta colors, clothes, and music are all a huge commercial success.

To me this seems odd, I mean, how many non-Christians do you see that are wearing crosses or jesus shirts? I'd have to think not many. This commercial success brings many questions to mind that me, as a non-rastafari, can not answer. How do rastafari feel about this commercialization? Do they feel like some elements of their culture are being stolen? Do they like Bob Marley being the figure head of their religion instead of the man Rastafari? Its my hope that in reading further, some of these questions can be answered.

Queen Sheba

The story we read from the Keba Negast provides an interesting view of the ancient world. If you were to only read the story, and have no prior knowledge of scripture, you would think that Ethiopia was the most important nation in the ancient world. this prestige is set up by a couple of factors in the Keba Negast, the constant mention of riches and the exclusion of all other nations from the story except Ethiopia and Israel.

The story begins by explaining that the world is divided up into two halves, the northern half belongs to the emperor of Rom and the southern half that includes the southern part of Jerusalem is owned by the Ethiopian emperor. no other nations are mentioned in this sequence, thus Ethiopia stands out as one of the two most important nations on earth at this time.

The second feature of the story that denotes the status of Ethiopia is the constant mention of Ethiopia's riches. the author makes large lists about how many camels and merchants and other things the queen of sheba owns. This would seem to point out that God favors Ethiopia and thus the nations is abounding with riches.

together these facts point to the Ethno-centricity of the Ethiopian text, and provide ample reason for followers of the Ethiopian church to believe that they are some of God's chosen people on earth.

System of Symbols

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meremail/2296624039/

This image from Flickr.com struck me as a unique example of the system of symbols that are constructed by religious traditions.

Obviously this photo is not a pic from a religious ceremony, yet it is titled "Saturday Religion". This title and the highlighted yellow cricket wickets are testimony to the power of religious symbols. In the game of cricket there are three wickets that the bowler must knock down in order to bring his team up to bat...in the christian religion the number three has great significance. The number three represents the father, the son, and the holy spirit.

At first glance the fact that there are three cricket wickets seems like a coincidence, but the title reminds us of the connection. Not only is cricket the religion for these boys in that they play it "religiously", but the number three as a symbol has powerful religious meaning that spills into secular culture.

This photo may not have the plethora of symbols that Bridget's has on her blog at http://briheiking.blogspot.com/, but I feel like the photo and the title speak volumes about the power of religious symbols.