1. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography
Chapter 6: Religion
The Cultural Landscape:
An Introduction to Human Geography

2. The Geography of Religion
The Great Mosque, Mali
The Geography of Religion
Origins and Distributions of the Major Religions
Key Terms
Religious Ecology
Secularism, Fundamentalism, and Conflict
The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem
Hindu Statue (Ganesh)
Buddhist Monks

3. Religion A set of beliefs existence of a higher power, spirits or god
an explanation of the origins and purpose of humans and their role on earth
Which involves rituals, festivals, rites of passage and space (religious landscapes)

4. The Geography of Religion
Ethnic Religions Polytheism Universalizing Religions(proselytic) Monotheism

5. The Roots of Religion
Animism (Shamanism) - the belief that all objects, animals, and beings are “animated” or possess a spirit and a conscious life. Also called shamanism because of the prominence of a Shaman.
Such beliefs are common among hunter-gatherers.
10% of Africans follow such traditional ethnic religions.
These beliefs are losing ground to Christianity and Islam throughout Africa.
Nigerian Shaman

6. Native American Animism
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~ Chief Seattle
Bear Dance

7. Key Terms Monotheism: existence of only one god.
Polytheism: existence of many gods.
Cosmogony: A set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe.

8. Religious Divisions
Branch: A large and fundamental division within a religion.
Denomination: A division within a branch of a religion.
Sect: A relatively small denominational group that has broken away from an established church.

9. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Seek to appeal to all people
Ethnic religions
Appeal to a smaller group of people living in one place

10. World Distribution of Religions
Figure 6-3

11. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
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)
Eastern Orthodox (11 percent)
Other, smaller branches of Christianity comprise 14 percent of all Christians

12. How do Universalizing and Ethnic Religions Differ?
Has meaning in particular place only.
Unknown source.
Content focused on place and landscape of origin.
Followers highly clustered.
Holidays based on local climate and agricultural practice.
Universalizing
Appeal to people everywhere
Individual founder (prophet)
Message diffused widely (missionaries)
Followers distributed widely.
Holidays based on events in founder’s life.

13. Major World Religions Universalizing Religions
Christianity
Islam
Buddhism
Traced to actions and teaching of a man
Diffused from specific hearths by followers / missionaries

14. Christianity
2 billion adherents make it most practiced in the world.
Originated in Bethlehem (8-4 BC) and Jerusalem (AD 30) with Jesus Christ.
Spread by missionaries and the Roman Empire (Constantine A.D. 313).
It is the most practiced religion in Africa today.

15. Diffusion of Christianity

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

17. Islam Originated in Saudi Arabia (Mecca and Medina) around AD 600.
1 billion + adherents
Originated in Saudi Arabia (Mecca and Medina) around AD 600.
Spread originally by Muslim armies to N. Africa, and the Near East.
Sunni (83%) - throughout the Muslim world.
Shiite - Iran (40%), Pakistan (15%), Iraq (10%)

18. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Islam
The second-largest world religion (about 1.3 billion adherents)
Significant clusters in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars
Two significant branches
Sunnis (83 percent)
Shias or Shiites (16 percent)

19. Reading the Koran, Brunei
Islam
Prophet: Muhammad
Holy Text: Koran
Islamic Calender
Begins in AD 622 when Muhammad was commanded to Mecca from Medina (Hijra).
Lunar calendar makes Ramadan move through the seasons (30 year cycle - 19 years with 354 days and 11 with 355).
Five Pillars of Islam
There is one God and Muhammad is his messenger.
Prayer five times daily, facing Mecca.
The giving of alms(charity) to the poor.
Fasting during Ramadan for purification and submission.
If body and income allow, a Muslim must make a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca in his lifetime.
Reading the Koran, Brunei

20. Islam
Prophet: Muhammad
Holy Text: Koran

21. Diffusion of Islam
Islam is considered the fastest growing religion in America. Only a small part of this growth is from black Muslims and the Nation of Islam.

22. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Buddhism
About 400 million adherents (difficult to quantify)
Significant clusters in China, Southeast Asia
The Four Noble Truths
Three branches
Mahayana (China, Japan, Korea)
Theravada (Southeast Asia)
Tantrayana (Tibet, Mongolia)

23. Buddhism
300 million + adherents primarily in China and S.E. Asia
Originated near modern Nepal around 530 BC by prince Siddhartha Guatama.
Spread originally in India and Sri Lanka by Magadhan Empire (250 BC).
Indian traders brought it to China in 1st century AD.
By 6th century it had lost its hold on India, but was now in Korea and Japan.

24. Buddhism Four Noble Truths:
1. All living beings must endure suffering. 2. Suffering, which is caused by desires (for life), leads to reincarnation. 3. The goal of existence is an escape from suffering and the endless cycle of reincarnation by means of Nirvana. 4. Nirvana is achieved by the Eightfold Path, which includes rightness of understanding, mindfulness, speech, action, livelihood, effort, thought, and concentration.
Theravada - the older, more severe form which requires the renouncing of all worldly goods and desires.
Mahayana - focuses on Buddha’s teachings and compassion.
Karma - your past bad or good actions determine your progress toward Nirvana through reincarnation. You are your own God.

25. Buddhism
300 million + adherents primarily in China and S.E. Asia
Originated near modern Nepal around 530 BC by prince Siddhartha Guatama.
Spread originally in India and Sri Lanka by Magadhan Empire (250 BC).
Indian traders brought it to China in 1st century AD.
By 6th century it had lost its hold on India, but was now in Korea and Japan.

26. Major World Religions Ethnic Religions No specific founder
Hinduism
Judaism
all Animistic Religions
No specific founder
limited diffusion / no missionaries

27. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions
Hinduism
The third-largest religion in the world (900 million adherents)
97 percent of Hindus are found in India
Many paths to spirituality

28. Hinduism
900 million + adherents primarily in India
Hinduism is an ancient term for the complex and diverse set of religious beliefs practiced around the Indus River.
Reincarnation - endless cycles. Karma and Yoga.
Coastlines and river banks most sacred sites.
Vishnu and Shiva most common of hundreds of deities.

29. Dancing Shiva/Nataraj
Hinduism
Lord shiva
Ganesh
Dancing Shiva/Nataraj

30. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions
Other ethnic religions
Confucianism (China)
Daoism (China)
Shinto (Japan)
Judaism (today: the United States, Israel)
The first monotheistic religion
Ethnic African religions
Animism

31. Ethnic Religions
Buddhism
Hinduism
Figure 6-5
Figure 6-4

32. Religions of the United States

33. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Origin of religions
Universalizing: precise origins, tied to a specific founder
Christianity
Founder: Jesus
Islam
Prophet of Islam: Muhammad
Buddhism
Founder: Siddhartha Gautama

34. 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.
Archaeological evidence dating from 2500 B.C.

35. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Diffusion of religions
Universalizing religions
Christianity
Diffuses via relocation and expansion diffusion
Islam
Diffuses to North Africa, South and Southeast Asia
Buddhism
Slow diffusion from the core

36. Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Figure 6-6

37. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Limited diffusion of ethnic religions
Universal religions usually compete with ethnic religions
Examples of mingling:
Christianity with African ethnic religions
Buddhism with Confucianism in China and with Shinto in Japan
Ethnic religions can diffuse with migration
Judaism = exception

38. Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Figure 6-17

39. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
The calendar
In ethnic religions = celebration of the seasons
The Jewish calendar
The solstice
In universalizing religions = celebration of the founder’s life

40. 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

41. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Sacred space
Disposing of the dead
Burial
Other ways of disposing of the dead
Religious settlements
Religious place names

42. Religious Toponyms
Figure 6-21

43. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Administration of space
Hierarchical religions
Latter-day Saints
Roman Catholics
Locally autonomous religions
Islam
Protestant denominations

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

45. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religions versus government policies
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

46. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religion versus religion
Fundamentalism
Religious wars in Ireland
Religious wars in the Middle East
Crusades (Christians in Muslim lands)
Jews and Muslims in Palestine

47. Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23

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

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

50. The End.
Up next: Ethnicity