Abstract
By conducting ethnographically grounded life narrative research, we can learn how dominant and alternative political discourses and ideologies inform the personal experience and identity of people. The ethnographic life narrative methodology, in turn, shows the local specificity of identity formation. Price combines an ethnographic life narrative strategy with Black racial identity theory to explain how people learn and enact race, political discourse, and political/religious ideology as a part of their identity. The Rastafari of Jamaica and the life an elder Rastafari woman are employed to show that we can productively study identifications such as race and related concerns such as political ideology and political action through an ethnographic life narrative methodology. As Price demonstrates with Black racial identity theory, the methodology offers promise as means to rethinking and revising theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Chevannes, Barry. 1994. Rastafari: Roots and Ideology. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Cross Jr., William. 1971. “The Negro-to-Black Conversion Experience.” Black World 20: 13–27.
Cross Jr., William. 1978. “Black Families and Black Identity.” Western Journal of Black Studies 2 (2): 111.
Cross Jr., William. 1991. Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Cross Jr., William. 1995. “The Psychology of Nigrescence: Revising the Cross Model.” In The Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, edited by I. Ponterotto, J. Casas, L. Suzuki, and C. Alexander, 93–122. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cross Jr., William. 2001. “Encountering Nigrescence.” In Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, edited by J. Ponterotto, J. Casas, L. Suzuki, and C. Alexander, 2nd ed., 30–44. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cross Jr., William. 2012. “Enactment of Race and Other Social Identities during Everyday Transactions.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, edited by Charmaine Wijeyesinghe and Bailey Jackson, 2nd ed., 192–210. New York: New York University Press.
Edmonds, Ennis Barrington. 2003. Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gallegos, Placido, and Bernardo Ferdman. 2012. “Latina and Latino Ethnoracial Identity Orientations: A Dynamic and Developmental Perspective.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, edited by Charmaine Wijeyesinghe and Bailey Jackson, 2nd ed., 51–80. New York: New York University Press.
Hardiman, Rita. 2001. “Reflections on White Identity Development Theory.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: A Theoretical and Practical Anthology, edited by Charmaine Wijeyesinghe and Bailey Jackson III, 108–128. New York: New York University Press.
Hardiman, Rita, and Molly Keehn. 2012. “White Identity Development Revisited: Listening to White Students.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, edited by Charmaine Wijeyesinghe and Bailey Jackson, 2nd ed., 121–137. New York: New York University Press.
Helms, Janet, ed. 1990a. “Introduction: Review of Racial Identity Terminology.” In Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3–8. New York: Greenwood Press.
Helms, Janet. 1990b. “An Overview of Black Racial Identity Theory.” In Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice, 9–32. New York: Greenwood Press.
Helms, Janet. 1990c. “Toward a Model of White Identity Development.” In Black and White Racial Identity: Theory, Research, and Practice, 49–66. New York: Greenwood Press.
Holland, Dorothy, William Lachicotte, Deborah Skinner, and Carole Cain. 1998. Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Holland, Dorothy, Charles Price, and William H. Westermeyer. 2018. “Political Becoming in Movements: Lessons from the Environmental, Tea Party, and Rastafari Movements,” Chapter 10, this volume.
Jackson, Bailey. 2012. “Black Identity Development: Influences of Culture and Social Oppression.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, edited by C. Wijeyesinghe and B. Jackson, 2nd ed., 33–50. New York: New York University Press.
Mack, Douglas. 1999. From Babylon to Rastafari: Origins and History of the Rastafarian Movement. Chicago, IL: Research Associates School Times Publications.
McClure, Bud A. 2005. Putting a New Spin on Groups: The Science of Chaos, 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. 2015. Racial Formation in the United States, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Price, Charles. 2009. Becoming Rasta: The Origins of Rastafari Identity in Jamaica. New York: New York University Press.
Price, Charles. 2013. “‘History-in-Person’: The Cultural Production of Populism among Kentucky Small-Scale Family Farmers.” Social Identities 19 (2): 158–172.
Price, Charles. 2014. “The Cultural Production of a Black Messiah: Ethiopianism and the Rastafari.” Journal of Africana Religions 2 (3): 418–433.
Renn, Kristen. 2012. “Creating and Recreating Race: The Emergence of Racial Identity as a Critical Element in Psychological, Sociological, and Ecological Perspectives on Human Development.” In New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, edited by Charmaine Wijeyesinghe and Bailey Jackson, 2nd ed., 11–30. New York: New York University Press.
Sellers, Robert M., M.A. Smith, J.N. Shelton, S.A. Rowley, and T.M. Chavous. 1998. “Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity: A Reconceptualization of African American Racial Identity.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 2 (1): 18–39.
The Gleaner. May 5, 1921. “Bedward Tried Yesterday and Sent to Lunatic Asylum,” 6.
Vandiver, Beverly. 2001. “Psychological Nigrescence Revisited: Introduction and Overview.” Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development 29 (3): 165–173.
Whitehouse, Harvey, J. Jong, M. Buhrmester, Á. Gómez, B. Bastian, C. Kavanagh, M. Newson, M. Matthews, J. Lanman, R. McKay, and S. Gavrilets. 2017. “The Evolution of Extreme Cooperation via Shared Dysphoric Experiences.” Scientific Reports 7: 1–10.
Wijeyesinghe, Charmaine, and Bailey Jackson. 2012. New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development: Integrating Emerging Frameworks, 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press.
Worrell, Frank. 2012. “Forty Years of Cross’s Nigrescence Theory: From Stages to Profiles, from African Americans to All Americans.” In African American Identity: Racial and Cultural Dimensions of the Black Experience, edited by J. Sullivan and Ashraf Esmail, 3–28. New York: Lexington Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Price, C. (2018). An Ethnographic Life Narrative Strategy for Studying Race, Identity, and Acts of Political Significance: Black Racial Identity Theory and the Rastafari of Jamaica. In: Strauss, C., Friedman, J. (eds) Political Sentiments and Social Movements. Culture, Mind, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72341-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72341-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72340-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72341-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)