Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions? Chapter 6 Key Issue 2 Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?

Origin of Universalizing Religions The three universalizing religions diffused from hearths, or places of origin that are associated with the lives of their founders. Christianity diffused through relocation diffusion, with missionaries carrying the teachings of Jesus around the Mediterranean world. Expansion diffusion was also important as pagans, followers of ancient polytheistic religions, were converted to Christianity. It diffused beyond the European realm during the age of colonialism beginning in the early 1500s. Islam diffused from its hearth at Mecca through military conquest across North Africa, Southern Europe, and other parts of Southwest Asia. Arab traders brought the religion to Sub-Saharan Africa and later Indonesia. Buddhism diffused from its hearth in northern India to the island of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) and eastward into East and Southeast Asia as a result of missionary activity and trade.

Lack of Diffusion of Ethnic Religions Universalizing religions have supplanted and mingled with ethnic religions in various parts of the world. In some parts of Africa that were colonized by Europeans, Christianity has replaced animistic religions. In other parts of the continent, the two have merged. In East Asia, especially Japan, Buddhism and Shintoism have merged. Since Roman times Jews have been forced to leave the eastern Mediterranean and disperse throughout the world, an action known as the diaspora (from the Greek word for dispersion). Many Jews have returned to the Middle East and today Israel is a Jewish state, although Judaism, unlike other ethnic religions, is practiced in many countries.

Holy Places Both universalizing and ethnic religions have holy places that are usually associated with the history of that religion. Adherents will make a religious journey or pilgrimage to holy places. Buddhist holy places or shrines mark the location of important events in Buddha’s life and are in northern India and southern Nepal. The holiest locations in Islam are associated with the life of Mohammed and include, in order of importance, Makkah (Mecca), Madinah (Medina), and Jerusalem. Holy places in ethnic religions are closely tied to physical geography. Universalizing and ethnic religions have a different understanding of the relationship between people and the environment. This is exemplified in their different attitudes towards cosmogony, the set of religious beliefs that concern the origin of the universe, and the calendar, which for ethnic religions is very much tied to physical geography.