1. Chapter 6- The Cultural Landscape: Religion
Key Issues
*Where are religions distributed?
*Why do religions have different distributions?
*Why do religions organize space in distinctive patterns?
*Why do territorial conflicts arise among religious groups?

2. People draw from their religion their core values and beliefs
Geographic study of religion: highlighting the tension between scale, globalization, and local diversity
People draw from their religion their core values and beliefs
Some religions are designed to appeal to people throughout the world, whereas others appeal to people in geographically limited areas
Religious values are important in understanding how people identify themselves, as well as understanding how they organize their landscapes
Most, but not all, religions require exclusive adherence
Like language, migrants take their religion with them, and while they learn the language of the new environment, they retain their religion

3. KI 1- Where Are Religions Distributed?
Geographers distinguish two types of religions:
Universalizing religions: Seek to appeal to all people
Ethnic religions: Appeal to a smaller group of people living in one place

4. KI1-Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions: Seek to appeal to all people
58% of the world’s population practices a universalizing religion
Nearly 90% of the people living in the Western Hemisphere are Christian
5% belong to other religions
6% belong to no religion
Christianity
The largest world religion (about 2 billion adherents)
Many adherents in Europe, the Americas
Three major branches
Roman Catholicism (51 percent)
Protestant Christianity (24 percent)
Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox (11 percent)
Other, smaller branches of Christianity comprise 14 percent of all Christians

5. Distribution of Christians in the United States
Figure 6-2

6. KI1-Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions (continued)
Islam
The second-largest world religion (about 1.3 billion adherents)
Significant clusters in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
Half the world’s Muslims live in 4 countries outside the middle east: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India
Two significant branches
Sunnis (83 percent)
The word Sunni comes from the Arabic for “people following the example of Mohammad
Shias or Shiites (16 percent)
The word Shiite comes from the Arabic word for “sectarian”
Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars

7. KI1-Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions (continued)
Islam
Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars
1. There is no god worthy of worship except the one God, the source of all creation, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.
2. Five times daily, a Muslim prays, facing the city of Makkah (Mecca) as a direct link to God.
3. A Muslim gives generously to charity as an act of purification and growth.
4. A Muslim fasts during the month of Ramadan as an act of self-purification.
5. If physically and financially able, a Muslim makes a pilgrimage to Makkah.

8. KI1- Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions (continued)
Buddhism
About 400 million adherents (difficult to quantify)
Significant clusters in China, Southeast Asia
Three branches
Mahayana (China, Japan, Korea)
Theravada (Southeast Asia)
Tantrayana (Tibet, Mongolia)
The Four Noble Truths
1. All living beings must endure suffering.
2. Suffering, which caused by desire to live, leads to reincarnation
3. The goal of all existence is to escape from suffering and the endless cycle of reincarnation into Nirvana, which is achieved through mental and moral self purification
4. Nirvana is attained through an Eightfold Path, which includes rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and meditation.

9. KI1- Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions: Appeal to a smaller group of people; clustered distribution
Hinduism
The third-largest religion in the world (900 million adherents)
97 percent of Hindus are found in India, the rest in Nepal
Many paths to spirituality. You may chose which is best for you as long as you stay in harmony with your true nature.
Path of knowledge
Path of renunciation
Path of devotion
Path of action
Hinduism does not have a central authority or holy book
There are no set rituals; you select those that fit you and your station in life

10. KI1- Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions (continued)
Other ethnic religions
Confucianism (China)
Prescribed a series of ethical principles for the orderly conduct of daily life, such as following tradition: emphasized public service
Daoism (China)
Following the mystical and spiritual aspects of life, Daoists seek the “Way”, or Path.
Daoists believe not everything is knowable.
Shinto (Japan)
Acknowledge the divine in everything, including rocks ,trees, mountains and certain animals
Became a political cult under the reign of the Emperor Meiji ( ), when he declared himself divine

11. KI1- Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions (continued)
Other ethnic religions
Judaism (today: the United States, Israel)
1/3 of the population of Jews live in the U.S., 1/3 live in Israel, 1/3 the rest of the world
The first monotheistic religion: belief in one all powerful God
Migrated from present day Iraq, to Canaan, (present day Israel), 4,000 years ago
Offered a sharp contrast to Polytheism, practiced by all the neighboring people at the time of its inception
Jews consider themselves “chosen” or set apart by God to live according to his ethical and moral principles, “The Ten Commandments”
Two of the three main universalizing religions find their roots in Judaism
Ethnic African religions
Animism (belief inanimate objects in nature have spirits)
12% of the people in Africa follow traditional ethnic religions
Hard to classify due to a lack of written history or sacred texts
Botswana is the one place in Africa where the majority of the population adheres to animism today

12. Ethnic Religions
Judaism
Hinduism
Figure 6-5
Figure 6-4

13. Religions of the United States

14. KI 2- Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Origin of religions
Universalizing: precise origins, tied to a specific founder
Christianity
Founder: Jesus and his teachings
Roman Catholics accept the teachings of the Bible, as well as the interpretations of those teachings by the church hierarchy, headed by the Pope in Rome
Orthodoxy comprises the faith and practices of a collection of churches that arose in the eastern part of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century
Protestantism is generally thought to have begun when Martin Luther (a Roman Catholic priest) ushered in the Reformation by nailing his 95 thesis or arguments to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral on Oct. 31, 1517, demanding Reformation within the Church
Islam
Prophet of Islam: Muhammad
Two branches: Sunni and Shiite go back to the earliest days of the religion and reflect a disagreement over the line of succession after the death of the prophet
Buddhism
Founder: Siddhartha Gautama
Theravada, the oldest of the two largest branches, believes they are closest to Buddha’s original thinking
Mahayana, the other large branch, believes they can help more people because their approach is less demanding and more all encompassing

15. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Origin of religions
Ethnic: unclear or unknown origins, not tied to a specific founder
Hinduism
No clear founder
Earliest use of Hinduism = sixth century B.C.
Referred to people living in what is now India
Archaeological evidence dating from 2500 B.C.
Earliest surviving Hindu documents were written around 1500 B.C.E.
Aryan tribes invaded India from 1400 B.C.E. and brought with them the Indo European language and their religion

16. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Diffusion of religions
Universalizing religions:
The hearths where the 3 originated are based on key events in the lives of the three key individuals
All three were founded in Asia
Followers transmitted the message to people living elsewhere, thus defusing them across the globe
Christianity
Diffuses via relocation and expansion diffusion
Hearth was Palestine- Missionaries carried the religion along the Roman Empire’s protected sea routes and excellent roads
Islam
Diffuses to North Africa, South and Southeast Asia
Islam diffused through Muslim armies conquering countries throughout what is now the Middle East
Buddhism
Slow diffusion from the core
Emperor Asoka of the Magadham Empire became a Buddhist and helped and sent missionaries into other parts of Asia spreading the religion

17. Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Figure 6-6

18. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Limited diffusion of ethnic religions
Universal religions usually compete with ethnic religions
Ethnic religions lack missionaries dedicated to converting people
Examples of mingling:
Christianity with African ethnic religions
Some African ethnic religions that honor ancestors have merged with Christian religions creating thousands of hybrid religions
Buddhism with Confucianism in China and with Shinto in Japan
Japan has many people who claim both Shintoism and Buddhism. The nation is unable to accurately identify the numbers: it could be 4 million or 100 million
Ethnic religions can diffuse with migration: adapting and adopting universal religions
Judaism = exception
Historically Judaism has been practiced in may locations because of the Jewish Diaspora in A.D. 70
Jews retained separate religious practices from the people they lived among
Ghetto; City neighborhoods defined by law to be inhabited only by Jews.

19. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Holy places
In universalizing religions
Buddhist shrines
8 places holy to Buddhists, they signify important events in Buddha’s life
Holy places in Islam = associated with the life of Muhammad
A pilgrimage, or hajj is expected of every healthy Muslim who can afford it to visit the holy sites associated with the life of Muhammad
In ethnic religions
Ethnic religions are highly clustered because they are tied to the physical environment
Holy places in Hinduism = closely tied to the physical geography of India
Hindus believe they achieve purification by bathing in certain rivers in India
Cosmogony in ethnic religions
Ethnic religions acknowledge the relationship between humans and nature
Distinct principles that center around the origins of the universe and the laws that govern the universe

20. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Holy places in India for Hinduism
Figure 6-17

21. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
The calendar
In ethnic religions = celebration of the seasons
The Jewish calendar
Judaism is classified in part as an ethnic religion because the major holidays are based on events in the agricultural calendar of the Jewish Homeland
Agricultural holidays gained importance because they also coincided with events of the Exodus out of Slavery in Egypt
The solstice
Many ethnic religions find importance in the Winter and Summer Solstices
Winter Solstice is the shortest time of daylight/Summer Solstice, when the daylight is longest.
In universalizing religions = celebration of the founder’s life
Holy days celebrate important events throughout the year
Christian holy days have been incorporated into other, more ancient holy festivals

22. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Places of worship
Many types: Christian churches, Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, Buddhist and Shinto pagodas, Bahá’í houses of worship
Figure 6-19

23. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Sacred space
Disposing of the dead/honoring the dead
Important cultural moment; thought to be the original reason for early humans to settle in one place
Burial
Christians, Muslims, and Jews establish cemeteries
Other ways of disposing of the dead
Not all faiths bury their dead
Hindus generally practice cremation
Religious settlements
Buildings for worship and burial places are small-scale manifestations of religion on the landscape
In some cases the entire settlement reflects the religion of the people: Mormonism is an example
Religious place names
Migrating Roman Catholics have left their imprint on the landscape by assigning sacred names to settlements or toponyms

24. Religious Toponyms
Figure 6-21

25. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Administration of space
Hierarchical religions: have well defined geographical structures and organize territory into local administrative units
Latter-day Saints
Strong organizational structure:
Wards (app. 750 pop., Wards combined into stakes (5,000 pop.) Boundaries are redrawn with expanding populations
Roman Catholics:
Area and population vary according to historical factors and distribution of Roman Catholics across the Earth’s surface
The Pope
Archbishops: heads a province, reports to the Pope
Bishop: administrates a diocese (geographic organization), headquarters in the see, the largest city in the diocese
Priest: heads a parish, or local church, reports to the Bishop

26. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Administration of space (continued)
Locally autonomous religions
Islam
Has no religious hierarchy
No formal territorial organization
Mosque is for public ceremony
Individuals accountable for their own observances (i.e. prayer)
Protestant denominations
Very in geographic structure from extremely autonomous, to somewhat hierarchical
Somewhat hierarchical: Episcopalian, Lutheran, and most Methodist
Extremely autonomous: Baptist, United Church of Christ
Judaism and Hinduism have no centralized structure

27. Roman Catholic Hierarchy in the United States
Figure 6-22

28. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religions versus government policies
The 20th Century was a century of global conflict: Two World Wars, and the Cold War between supporters of democracy and communism
Religion versus social change
Taliban and Western values
Hinduism and social inequality
Caste system
Religion versus communism
Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam in the Soviet Union
Buddhism in Southeast Asia

29. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religion versus religion
Fundamentalism:
Literal interpretation and strict and intense adherence to basic principles of a religion, religious branch, denomination, or sect
Religious wars in Ireland
Northern Ireland: Protestant, closely aligned with the Church of England
Ireland: Independent nation, Catholic
Religious wars in the Middle East
Crusades (Christians in Muslim lands)
Jews and Muslims in Palestine

30. Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23

31. Two Perspectives on Palestine/Israel
Figure 6-26

32. Israel’s “Separation Fence”
Figure 6-27

33. The End.
Up next: Ethnicity