Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-356) and index.

É a senzala : slavery, women, and embodied knowledge in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé / Rachel Elizabeth Harding -- "I smoothed the way; I opened doors" : women in the Yoruba-Orisha tradition of Trinidad / Tracey E. Hucks -- Joining the African diaspora : migration and diasporic religious culture among the Garifuna in Honduras and New York / Paul Christopher Johnson -- Women of the African diaspora within : the Masowe Apostles, an African-initiated church / Isabel Mukonyora -- "Power in the blood" : menstrual blood and women's power in an African instituted church / Deidre Helen Crumbley -- "The spirit of the Holy Ghost is a male spirit" : African American preaching women and the paradoxes of gender / Wallace Best -- "Make us a power" : African American Methodists debate the "woman question," 1870-1900 / Martha S. Jones -- "Only a woman would do" : Bible reading and African American women's organizing work / Anthea D. Butler -- Exploring the religious connection : Black women community workers, religious agency, and the force of faith / Cheryl Townsend Gilkes -- The arts of loving / Lisa Gail Collins -- "Truths that liberate the soul" : Eva Jessye and the politics of religious performance / Judith Weisenfeld -- Shopping with Sister Zubaydah : African American Sunni Muslim rituals of consumption and belonging / Carolyn Rouse -- "But it's Bible" : African American women and television preachers / Marla Frederick-McGlathery.