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."

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