Editing Rastafari (section)

==== Jamaica and the Americas ====
[[File:Jamaican Man.jpg|thumb|upright|A practitioner of Rastafari in Jamaica]]

Barrett described Rastafari as "the largest, most identifiable, indigenous movement in Jamaica."{{sfn|Barrett|1997|p=viii}} In the mid-1980s, there were approximately 70,000 members and sympathisers of Rastafari in Jamaica.{{sfn|Clarke|1986|p=16}} The majority were male, working-class, former Christians aged between 18 and 40.{{sfn|Clarke|1986|p=16}} In the 2011 Jamaican census, 29,026 individuals identified as Rastas.<ref name="state2007">{{cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90259.htm |title=Jamaica |publisher=[[Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor]] (US State Department)|date=September 14, 2007 |access-date=October 20, 2010}}</ref> Jamaica's Rastas were initially entirely from the Afro-Jamaican majority,{{sfn|Barrett|1997|p=2}} and although Afro-Jamaicans are still the majority, Rastafari has also gained members from the island's [[Chinese Jamaicans|Chinese]], [[Indo-Jamaicans|Indian]], Afro-Chinese, Afro-Jewish, [[mulatto]], and [[White Jamaican|white]] minorities.{{sfn|Barrett|1997|pp=2–3}} Until 1965, the vast majority were from the lower classes, although it has since attracted many middle-class members; by the 1980s, there were Jamaican Rastas working as lawyers and university professors.{{sfn|Barrett|1997|pp=2, 241}} Jamaica is often valorised by Rastas as the fountain-head of their faith, and many Rastas living elsewhere travel to the island on [[pilgrimage]].{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=87}}

Both through travel between the islands,{{sfn|Gjerset|1994|p=67}} and through reggae's popularity,{{sfnm|1a1=Gjerset|1y=1994|1p=67|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=81}} Rastafari spread across the eastern Caribbean during the 1970s. Here, its ideas complemented the anti-colonial and Afrocentric views prevalent in countries like Trinidad, Grenada, Dominica, and St Vincent.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=81}} In these countries, the early Rastas often engaged in cultural and political movements to a greater extent than their Jamaican counterparts had.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=82}} Various Rastas were involved in Grenada's 1979 [[New Jewel Movement]] and were given positions in the Grenadine government until it was overthrown and replaced following the [[United States invasion of Grenada|U.S. invasion of 1983]].{{sfnm|1a1=Campbell|1y=1980|1pp=50–51|2a1=Simpson|2y=1985|2p=291|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3p=82}} Although [[Fidel Castro]]'s Marxist–Leninist government generally discouraged foreign influences, Rastafari was introduced to Cuba alongside reggae in the 1970s.{{sfnm|1a1=Hansing|1y=2001|1p=734|2a1=Hansing|2y=2006|2p=65|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3pp=82–83}} Foreign Rastas studying in Cuba during the 1990s connected with its reggae scene and helped to further ground it in Rasta beliefs.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|pp=82–83}} In Cuba, most Rastas have been male and from the [[Afro-Cuban]] population.{{sfnm|1a1=Hansing|1y=2001|1p=736|2a1=Hansing|2y=2006|2p=69}}

Rastafari was introduced to the United States and Canada with the migration of Jamaicans to continental North America in the 1960s and 1970s.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=72}} American police were often suspicious of Rastas and regarded Rastafari as a criminal sub-culture.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=76}} Rastafari also attracted converts from within several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American communities]]{{sfn|Hansing|2001|p=733}} and picked up some support from white members of the [[hippie]] subculture, which was then in decline.{{sfn|Loadenthal|2013|p=12}} In Latin America, small communities of Rastas have also established in Brazil, Panama, and Nicaragua.{{sfn|Hansing|2006|p=64}}