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Anthropos 89.1994 
turgical movements is their stress on the “impor 
tance of the individual over society” (1992: 210). 
Living in a moral universe where each deed (and 
misdeed) bears some consequences, the members 
of these movements tend to blame their problems 
on themselves rather than on external causes. Both 
stress on the individual and his/her responsibilities 
and the use of spiritual and healing practices char 
acterize Revival Zion as a thaumaturgical move 
ment. In fact, the use of magico-religious practices 
leads members of thaumaturgical churches to be 
lieve that they have some degree of control over 
their fate (1992: 208). As a result of this world 
view, and of the confidence in their manipulative 
powers, thaumaturgical groups “come to accept or 
at least avoid openly challenging existing social 
relations” (210). 
If these traits classify Revival Zion as a thauma 
turgical movement, other elements seem to stress 
a similarity of Revivalism with conversionist reli 
gions. In fact, according to Baer and Singer (1992: 
165), conversionist churches are characterized by 
a strong feeling of “communitas” (in Turner’s 
sense; 1969) among its members. The intensity of 
their spiritual and emotional experience allows the 
members of conversionist groups to share, within 
the liminal borders of their ritual, a perception 
of reality and a worldview that strengthens their 
mutual solidarity. This description undoubtedly fits 
Revival Zion congregations, in that any Revival 
“band” is a communitas where solidarity relies 
on the common spiritual experience of the be 
lievers in a world that becomes ritually separate 
from ordinary reality. Hence, on the basis of Baer 
and Singer’s classification, Revival Zion can be 
defined as a thaumaturgical-conversionist “mixed 
type” religion. According to Baer and Singer, how 
ever, both thaumaturgical and conversionist doc 
trine are conducive to an accommodative approach 
to social and ideological issues in that they stress 
the importance of the individual and of a limited 
group, and focus their interest on a world that is 
moral and spiritual. 
It would not be correct, though, to affirm that 
Revival Zion presently lacks any protest element. 
In fact, we should distinguish between “protest” 
and “resistance,” that is between an active and 
a passive mode of opposition. Since the days of 
its beginning, Afro-Creole religion in Jamaica was 
felt as a way of resisting a world that was forcibly 
imposed on the Black masses; at times, this resis 
tance actually turned into a more active opposition. 
This happened, for example, when the numerous 
slave rebellions gained the support of Myalists and 
obeah-men (Stewart 1990: 137; Patterson 1969: 
192), and it became even more visible between 
1880 and 1920, with the Bedwardite movement 
of August Town. On that occasion, Bedward’s 
millenialism almost caused Revivalism (or at least 
a considerable stream of the movement) to turn to 
anti-White militancy. 
Nowadays, Revival represents not so much a 
protest as again a mode of cultural resistance. Ja 
maican society might be changing, though slowly, 
its traditional three-tiered class structure (based on 
a Black lower class, a Colored middle class, and 
a White upper class; Hoetink 1985: 73). But, in 
spite of a new, strong national awareness of Black 
Jamaicans, the privileges and the prestige of the 
White caste remain untouched, and wide sectors of 
Jamaican Black elite as well as of the middle class 
seem to have at least partly absorbed the values of 
the British colonizers. 
Like most low class Jamaicans, Revivalists are 
aware of the paradoxes of their society, where a 
largely Black majority is socially and culturally 
dominated by a tiny White elite. In this context, 
Revival Zion is the truly nativistic form of Chris 
tianity, the real alternative to religious (and cul 
tural) colonization. While tracing back the origin 
of their faith to a schism “between the Baptist 
church of the Whites and the Baptist church of 
the Blacks,” Revival Zion preachers still draw a 
line between themselves and all other Christian 
churches, of both European and North American 
origin. 
Presently, the doctrine of Revival Zion congre 
gations might not entail such a strong anti-White 
reaction as, say, that of Rastafarian ideology (Bar 
rett 1988: 28). Yet, simply by reasserting their 
identity and by carrying on their rituals, Jamaican 
Revivalists still resist both an oppressive social 
reality and cultural colonization. 
References Cited 
Alleyne, Mervyn 
1988 Roots of Jamaican Culture. London: Pluto Press. 
Austin, Diane J. 
1984 Urban Life in Kingston, Jamaica. The Culture and Class 
Ideology of Two Neighborhoods. New York: Gordon 
and Breach. 
Baer, Hans A., and Merrill Singer 
1992 African-American Religion in the Twentieth Century. 
Varieties of Protest and Accommodation. Knoxville: 
The University of Tennessee Press. 
Barrett, Leonard E. 
1988 The Rastafarians. Boston: Beacon Press.