The New Ship of Zion explores the dynamic Diaspora dimensions of the African Hebrew Israelites, a spiritual movement of African Americans who have traced their roots to Zion. With the successful establishment of thriving model communities in Israel and Ghana they have built up a framework for repatriation to the motherland. The resulting constructions of ethnic and cultural identity are the subjects of this book. It also sheds light on the ideological concepts of other communities that travel the same waters as the New Ship of Zion, such as the Rastafarians.

This book retraces the African origins of African-American forms of worship. During a five-year period in the field, Pitts played the piano at and recorded numerous worship services in black Baptist churches throughout rural Texas. His historical comparisons and linguistic analyses of this material uncover striking parallels between "Afro-Baptist" services and the religious rituals of Western and Central Africa, as well as other African-derived rituals in the United States Sea Islands, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Pitts demonstrates that African and African-American worship share an underlying binary ritual frame: the somber melancholy of the first frame and the high emotion of the second frame. Pitts's revealing perspective on this often misunderstood aspect of African-American religion provides an investigative model for the study of diaspora cultural practices and the residual influence of their African sources.

New Jerusalem in Independence, Missouri, has become a rapidly growing city as Saints from around the world come to Zion to witness the dedication of the New Jerusalem Temple and the discovery and return of the Ten Lost Tribes. But the Coalition forces have regrouped and are planning another attack that will affect the entire world even as the Saints attempt to regain Salt Lake City from the evil leader Sherem.

The nature of Jewish identity and the controversies surrounding who can and cannot be described as a Jew are the focus of this collected work. Contributions range widely across time and geographical context, revealing interesting historical patterns.

This book explores the dynamic diaspora of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, a spiritual movement of African-Americans who have traced their roots to Biblical Israel. Perceiving themselves as a product of both the African and Jewish diasporas, they have left the Americas and journeyed to their Promised Land of Israel. The African Hebrew Israelites have successfully established a thriving model community in the desert town of Dimona, where the Brothers and Sisters live according to their principles of righteousness. Based on this example, the community has implemented yet another move, to Ghana, where they are building a framework for repatriation to the motherland. Black Hebrews addresses the topics of ethnic and cultural identity, transnational networks, the role of cyberspace, and the concept of home. It also sheds light on other Black Hebrew communities, as well as Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam, and compares them to the African Hebrew Israelites.

Anthropological Abstracts (AA) is a reference journal published once a year in print, but also under www.anthropology-online.de and announces - in English language - most publications in the field of cultural/social anthropology published in the German language area (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). Since many of these publications have been written in German, and most German publications are not included in the major English language abstracting services, Anthropological Abstracts offers a convenient source of information for anthropologists and social scientists in general who do not read German, to become aware of anthropological research and publications in German-speaking countries. Included are journal articles, monographs, anthologies, exhibition catalogs, yearbooks, etc. Most abstracts are authored by the editor, others are specified accordingly. This journal is edited by Ulrich Oberdiek since 1993 (formerly: Abstracts in German Anthropology; since 2002: Anthropological Abstract