In The Ganja Complex Ansley Hamid skillfully welds together two decades of ethnographic research on marijuana in the Caribbean and the United States. Hamid juxtaposes an in-depth study of the spread of Rastafari in the 1970s with an examination of the rise of an international marijuana economy. This revisionist work departs radically from previous scholarship by identifying Rastafari, not as a messianic or millenarian cult, but as a participant in the essential functions of a community's overall economic life. It demonstrates how Rastafari has revitalized third-world economies using indigenous resources, capital, and talent, and documents the internationalization of the 5000-year-old Asian pattern of marijuana use--centered about worship of the Hindu god Shiva--that is the 'ganja complex.'
| Acknowledgments | p. vii |
| Preface | p. ix |
| Introduction: Use-Complexes and the Ganja Complex | p. xxix |
| Reviving the Ganja Complex: The Crisis of Caribbean African Youth in San Fernando, Trinidad, during the 1960s | p. 1 |
| How the Ganja Complex Was Diffused | p. 25 |
| Economic and Social-Organizational Underpinnings of the Ganja Complex | p. 45 |
| Religion and Ritual in the Ganja Complex | p. 75 |
| The Ganja Complex, Rastafari, Public Opinion, and Law Enforcement | p. 93 |
| The Ganja Complex in Brooklyn: The Rise and Fall of the Marijuana Complex and the Advent of Cocaine | p. 115 |
| The Ganja Complex versus Other Marijuana Use-Complexes: Ganja versus Madi-juana | p. 149 |
| The Informal Economy | p. 161 |
| U.S.-Caribbean Drug Connections | p. 175 |
| Glossary | p. 187 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780739103609
ISBN-10: 0739103601
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 256
Published: 1st April 2002
Dimensions (cm): 23.8 x 16.0
x 2.1
Weight (kg): 0.553