{"product_id":"archival-irruptions-constructing-religion-and-criminalizing-obeah-in-eighteenth-century-jamaica-9781478032403","title":"Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica","description":"In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word \u003ci\u003eObeah \u003c\/i\u003efirst appeared in British colonial law. In \u003ci\u003eArchival Irruptions\u003c\/i\u003e, Katharine Gerbner traces how British authorities in Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a practice that was variously seen as a healing method, an Africana religion, a science, and a form of witchcraft. Gerbner shows that in the years directly preceding its criminalization, for enslaved Africans and Maroons, Obeah was a prophetic practice tied to healing and death rites. Drawing on Moravian missionary archives, Gerbner theorizes these descriptions of African religious beliefs, rituals, and concepts as \"irruptions\" moments when Africana epistemologies break the narrative of a European-authored archival document. In these irruptions, we see European assertions of authority through the lens of Obeah. Moreover, we find that the modern category of religion is rooted in the histories of slavery, rebellion, and the criminalization of Black religious practices. Gerbner's search for archival irruptions not only creates an opportunity to write an alternative narration about Obeah; it provides a new methodology for all those conducting archival research.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKatharine Gerbner is Associate Professor of History and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eChristian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51661240140050,"sku":"9781478032403","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_519fe1bc-f833-4200-8dfd-03863b47f445.jpg?v=1760438635","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/archival-irruptions-constructing-religion-and-criminalizing-obeah-in-eighteenth-century-jamaica-9781478032403","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}