ABSTRACT
Ripped from motherland and family, ethnically mixed to quell the potential of uprisings, and brutalized by regimes of hard labor, the heart - the spirit - of Africa did not stop beating in the New World. Rather, it survived and has re-emerged; changed by contacts with new cultures and environments, but still part of the continuum of African tradition: an African Re-Genesis. This is the first volume in its field to emphasize the interdisciplinary temporal and geographic comparative research of Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Linguistics to allow us to form unique perspectives on broader trends in the transformation and (re-) emergence of African Diaspora cultures. African Re-Genesis confirms that regardless of discipline, from continental Africa to Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Indian Ocean, all Diaspora research requires a relevance to modern communities and sensitivity to the interplay with contemporary cultural identities. Matters concerning race and cultural diversity, though ostensibly de-fused by the vocabulary of political correctness, remain contentious. Indeed, the topic of racial relations has become to the twenty-first century what sex was to the nineteenth century - something best not discussed in public, and better talked around than confronted directly. African Re-Genesis strikes at the nerve of urgency that the past, present and future globalization of African cultures, is a cornerstone of the entire human experience, and it thus deserves recognition as such.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|43 pages
Heritage and contemporary identities
chapter 2|11 pages
Contested monuments
chapter 5|12 pages
Historiographical issues in the African Diaspora experience in the New World
part II|70 pages
Historical and anthropological perspectives
chapter 7|8 pages
Putting flesh on the bones
chapter 8|20 pages
All the documents are destroyed!
chapter 9|16 pages
Identity and the mirage of ethnicity
chapter 11|10 pages
Constructing identity through Inter-Caribbean interactions
part III|114 pages
Archaeology and living communities
chapter 12|22 pages
The Cane River African Diaspora Archaeological Project
chapter 13|15 pages
East End maritime traders
chapter 14|16 pages
Hawking your wares
chapter 18|19 pages
Bantu elements in Palenque (Colombia)
chapter 19|12 pages
Medium vessels and the Longue Dureé
part IV|34 pages
Slavery in Africa