Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity: An Introduction

Published by New York University Press 2003

Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity

An Introduction

Edited by: Craig R. Prentiss

Volume 2 in the series Religion, Race, and Ethnicity

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814768372.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first collection to distinguish religion's role in the creation of race and ethnic categories

Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity is the first collection devoted to demonstrating the role that religion and myth have played in the creation of the categories of “race” and “ethnicity.”

When scholars approach religion and race, they tend to focus on such issues as how African Americans have expressed Christianity, or how Japanese or Mexicans have lived “religiously.” This volume, meant specifically for those new to the field, brings together an ensemble of prominent scholars and illuminates instead the role religious myths have played in shaping those very social boundaries that we call “races” and “ethnicities.” It asks, what part did Christianity play in creating “Blackness”? To what extent was Japanese or Mexican identity itself the product of religious life?

The text, comprised of all original material, introduces readers to the social construction of race and ethnicity and the ways in which these concepts are shaped by religious narratives. It offers examples from both the U.S. and around the world, exploring these themes in the context of places as diverse as Bosnia, India, Japan, Mexico, Zimbabwe, and the Middle East. The volume helps make the case that any account of the social construction of race and ethnicity will be incomplete if it fails to consider the influence of religious traditions and myths.

Contributors include: Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Joel Martin, Jacob Neusner, Roberto S. Goizueta, Laurie Patton, and Michael A. Sells.

Author / Editor information

Prentiss Craig R. :

Craig R. Prentiss is Professor of Religious Studies at Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri.

Reviews

This book intends to speak to a general audience, and . . . it succeeds very well.

The essays in this volume make a significant contribution to the scholarship on the interrelationships among religion and race and ethnicity.

George E. Tink Tinker (Osage),Iliff School of Theology:
Addresses the social construction of race in a most useful way. Far too many American books on race treat race and racism as a simplistic bi-lateral Black versus White problem. This volume brings together scholars who address the concern in a much broader context from racism experienced by Native Americans and other Peoples of Color in North America to the dynamics of racialization in Africa, Japan, or Bosnia-Herzegovina. The authors give special attention to the religious factor in racialization processes, with attention, for instance, to Islam and Hindu contexts. This is an extremely insightful collection that will considerably broaden the discussion about race and ethnicity; it will prove useful in the classroom for years to come.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Craig R. Prentiss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. “A Servant of Servants Shall He Be” The Construction of Race in American Religious Mythologies Paul Harvey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter 2. Myth and African American Self-Identity Eddie S. Glaude Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
Chapter 3. Almost White The Ambivalent Promise of Christian Missions among the Cherokees Joel Martin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter 4. Indigenous Identity and Story The Telling of Our Part in the Sacred Homeland Nimachia Hernandez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Chapter 5. Jew and Judaist, Ethnic and Religious How They Mix in America Jacob Neusner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Chapter 6. Blackness in the Nation of Islam Aminah Beverly McCloud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Chapter 7. Theologizing Race The Construction of “Christian Identity” Douglas E. Cowan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Chapter 8. “Loathsome unto Thy People” The Latter-day Saints and Racial Categorization Craig R. Prentiss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
Chapter 9. Our Lady of Guadalupe The Heart of Mexican Identity Roberto S. Goizueta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Chapter 10. Myths, Shinto, and Matsuri in the Shaping of Japanese Cultural Identity John K. Nelson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
Chapter 11. Islam, Arabs, and Ethnicity Azzam Tamimi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Chapter 12. Cosmic Men and Fluid Exchanges Myths of Ārya, Varna, and Jāti in the Hindu Tradition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Chapter 13. Religious Myth and the Construction of Shona Identity Chirevo V. Kwenda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Chapter 14. Sacral Ruins in Bosnia-Herzegovina Mapping Ethnoreligious Nationalism Michael A. Sells Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 9780814768372