AbstractsSociology

The purpose of this work is to provide a way of understanding the culture of Rastafari and Reggae music as a form of resistance against the dominant culture. This work will show the Rastafarian function and operation of developing a psychology of Blackness and waging an ideological attack on social, economic, and political problems through reggae music. Cultural hegemony has become the problem out of which the Rastafarian perspective has emerged and evolved in response to critical issues experienced by Black people throughout the Diaspora. According to Clovis E. Semmes in his book titled Cultural Hegemony and African American Development, he says ???Cultural hegemony is defined as the intentional structural negation of one culture by another.??? The Rastafarians view Black issues in the sphere of race, economics, but most important to their philosophy in terms of the cultural process. The Rastafarians channel their voice through reggae music against the political and economic oppression people of African descent experience throughout the Diaspora. The Rastafarians perspective sees the dominant cultures negation of all other alternative cultures as the problem of racial and economic oppression and domination. The interchange of people???s position in the structure of the system based on race and class as a result of politics, economics and an individual???s cultural identity is one reason why people in Jamaica were initially encouraged at developing an African centered perspective of Rastafari for black people throughout the Diaspora. A variety of significant factors arise as a result of the development and evolution of the Rastafarian ideology. Rastafarians see culture as a crucial component to the Black individuals self-perception, functioning and operation, as well as capacity to make a contribution to any society they are in around the world. This paper will explore the ways the Rastafarian movement acts as a counter hegemonic group in response to cultural hegemony by dominant structures controlled by the powerful cultures in Jamaica around the globe.