, CASE STUDY / The Dalai Lama Versus the People s Republic of China

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, is as tens of thousands and forced another 100,000, including important to that as the Pope is to Roman Catholics. the Dalai Lama, to emigrate. Buddhist temples were closed Traditionally, the Dalai Lama—which translates as “oceanic and demolished, and religious artifacts and scriptures were teacher”—was not only the spiritual leader of Tibetan destroyed. but also the head of the government of Tibet. The photograph on Why did the Chinese try to dismantle the religious institu- page 204 shows the Dalai Lama’s former palace in Tibet’s capital tions of a poor, remote country? At issue was the fact that the Lhasa, situated in the Himalaya Mountains. presence of strong religious feelings among the Tibetan people China, which had ruled Tibet from 1720 until its inde- conflicted with the aims of the Chinese government. pendence in 1911, invaded the rugged, isolated country in The conflict between traditional Buddhism and the Chinese 1950, turned it into a province named Xizang in 1951, and government is one of many examples of the impact of religion. installed a Communist government in Tibet in 1953. After In the modern world of global economics and culture, local reli- crushing a rebellion in 1959, China executed or imprisoned gious continues to play a strong role in people’s lives. ■

Religion interests geographers because it is essential for under- and at the same time still speak the language of their local standing how humans occupy Earth. As always, human geogra- culture. phers start by asking “where?” and “why?” • Like language, migrants take their religion with them to The predominant religion varies among regions of the new locations, but although migrants typically learn the world, as well as among regions within North America. Geog- language of the new location, they retain their religion. raphers document the places where various are This chapter starts by describing the distribution of major located in the world and offer explanations for why some reli- religions, then in the second section explains why some reli- gions have widespread distributions and others are highly clus- gions have diffused widely and others have not. As a major tered in particular places. facet of culture, religion leaves a strong imprint on the physical To understand why some religions occupy more space than environment, discussed in the third section of the chapter. others, geographers must look at differences among practices Religion, like other cultural characteristics, can be a source of various . Geographers, though, are not theologians, so of pride and a means of identification with a distinct culture. they stay focused on those elements of religions that are geo- Unfortunately, intense identification with one religion can lead graphically significant. Geographers study spatial connections adherents into conflict with followers of other religions, dis- in religion: the distinctive place of origin of religions, the cussed in the fourth key issue of the chapter. extent of diffusion of religions from their places of origin, the processes by which religions diffused to other locations, and the religious practices and beliefs that lead some religions to have more widespread distributions. KEY ISSUE 1 Geographers find the tension in scale between globalization and local diversity especially acute in religion for a number of Where Are Religions reasons: • People care deeply about their religion and draw from reli- Distributed? gion their core values and beliefs, an essential element of the definition of culture. ■ Universalizing Religions • Some religions are actually designed to appeal to people ■ Ethnic Religions throughout the world, whereas other religions are designed to appeal primarily to people in geographically limited areas. Only a few religions can claim the adherence of large num- • are important in understanding not only bers of people. Each of these faiths has a distinctive distri- how people identify themselves, as was the case with lan- bution across Earth’s surface. ■ guage, but also the meaningful ways that they organize the landscape. Geographers distinguish two types of religions: universalizing • Most (though not all) religions require exclusive adher- and ethnic. A universalizing religion attempts to be global, to ence, so adopting a global religion usually requires turning appeal to all people, wherever they may live in the world, not away from a traditional local religion. In contrast, people just to those of one culture or location. An ethnic religion can learn a globally important language such as English appeals primarily to one group of people living in one place. 170 Chapter 6: Religion 171

This section examines the world’s three main universalizing reli- America, Europe, and Australia, and countries with a Christian gions and some representative ethnic religions. majority exist in Africa and Asia as well (Figure 6-1).

BRANCHES OF . Christianity has three Universalizing Religions major branches—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. According to Adherents.com, about 58 percent of the world’s According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Roman Catholics practice a universalizing religion, 26 percent an eth- comprise 51 percent of the world’s Christians, Protestants 24 nic religion, and 16 percent no religion. The three main univer- percent, and Orthodox 11 percent. In addition, 14 percent of salizing religions are Christianity, , and Buddhism. Christians belong to churches that do not consider themselves Each of the three is divided into branches, denominations, within one of these three branches. and . A branch is a large and fundamental division within Within Europe, Roman Catholicism is the dominant Christian a religion. A denomination is a division of a branch that unites branch in the southwest and east, in the northwest, a number of local congregations in a single legal and adminis- and in the east and southeast. The regions of Roman trative body. A is a relatively small group that has broken Catholic and Protestant majorities frequently have sharp bound- away from an established denomination. aries, even when they run through the middle of countries. For Statistics on the number of followers of religions, branches, example, the Netherlands and Switzerland have approximately and denominations can be controversial. No official count equal percentages of Roman Catholics and Protestants, but the of religious membership is taken in the United States and in Roman Catholic are concentrated in the south of many other countries. Most statistics in this chapter come from these countries and the Protestant populations in the north. Adherents.com, an organization not affiliated with any religion. The Orthodox branch of Christianity (often called Eastern Orthodox) is a collection of 14 self-governing churches in East- ern Europe and the Middle East. More than 40 percent of all Christianity Orthodox Christians belong to one of these 14—the Russian Christianity has more than 2 billion adherents, far more than Orthodox Church. Christianity came to Russia in the tenth cen- any other world religion, and has the most widespread distri- tury, and the Russian Orthodox Church was established in the bution. It is the predominant religion in North America, South sixteenth century.

20° 10° 0° 10°

Ar F ctic C ICELAND ircl Y e I

A N

W N L

R E A

60° D

O N 0 250 500 MILES

E N D

W

RUSSIA

0 250 500 KILOMETERS S

ESTONIA

LATVIA

DENMARK LITHUANIA North UNITED Sea RUSSIA IRELAND KINGDOM BELARUS

50° NETHERLANDS POLAND UKRAINE BELGIUM GERMANY CZECH REP. SLOVAKIA ATLANTIC LUXEMBOURG MOLDOVA

O C E A N AUSTRIA HUNGARY SWITZ. ROMANIA FRANCE SLOVENIA Black Sea CROATIA

BOSNIA & SERBIA CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE HERZEGOVINA BULGARIA I MONTENEGRO KOSOVO T A L MACEDONIA Protestant majority 40° L A Y G U ALBANIA Church of England majority T E R SPAIN C O

P E

Roman Catholic majority E

R

Orthodox majority G

Not Christian majority Mediterranean Sea 20° 30°

FIGURE 6-1 Branches of Christianity in Europe. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and Scandinavia, the majority adhere to a Protestant denomination. In Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Orthodoxy dominates. Roman Catholicism is dominant in Southern, Central, and Southwestern Europe. 172 The Cultural Landscape

Nine of the other 13 self-governing churches were established America, Roman Catholics are clustered in the southwestern in the nineteenth or twentieth century. The largest of these 9, the and northeastern United States and the Canadian province of Romanian Church, includes 20 percent of all Eastern Orthodox Québec (Figure 6-2). Christians. The Bulgarian, Greek, and Serbian Orthodox Protestant churches have approximately 82 million mem- churches have approximately 10 percent each. The other 5 bers, or about 28 percent of the U.S. population over age 5 recently established Orthodox churches—Albania, Cyprus, (Table 6-1). Baptist churches have the largest number of adher- Georgia, Poland, and Sinai—combined have about 2 percent of ents in the United States, about 37 million combined over age all Orthodox Christians. The remaining 4 of the 14 Eastern 5. Membership in some Protestant churches varies by region of Orthodox churches—Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and the United States. , for example, are highly clustered in Jerusalem—trace their origins to the earliest days of Christianity. the southeast, and Lutherans in the upper Midwest. Other They have a combined membership of about 3 percent of all Christian denominations are more evenly distributed around Orthodox Christians. the country.

CHRISTIANITY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. SMALLER BRANCHES OF CHRISTIANITY. Several The overwhelming percentage of people living in the Western other Christian churches developed independently of the three Hemisphere—nearly 90 percent—are Christian. About 5 percent main branches. Many of these Christian communities were belong to other religions, and the remaining 6 percent profess isolated from others at an early point in the development of adherence to no religion. Christianity, partly because of differences in doctrine and partly as A fairly sharp boundary exists within the Western Hemi- a result of Islamic control of intervening territory in Southwest sphere in the predominant branches of Christianity. Roman Asia and North Africa. Catholics comprise 93 percent of Christians in Latin America, Two small Christian churches survive in northeast Africa— compared with 40 percent in North America. Within North the Coptic Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Church. The

45°

40°

40°

35°

35°

ATLANTIC PACIFIC OCEAN

OCEAN 30°

30° 120°

22° 155°

0 200 MI.

0 200 KM.

0 200 400 MILES 25° 0 400 MILES

0 400 KILOMETERS 0 200 400 KILOMETERS

180° 160° 140° 95° 90° 85° 80° 75°

Baptist Christian Lutheran Methodist Other Catholic Latter-day Saints Mennonite Reformed

FIGURE 6-2 Distribution of Christians in the United States. The shaded areas are U.S. counties in which more than 50 percent of church membership is concentrated in either Roman Catholicism or one Protestant denomination. The distinctive distribution of religious groups within the United States results from patterns of migration, especially from Europe in the nineteenth century and from Latin America in recent years. Chapter 6: Religion 173

TABLE 6-1 RELIGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 30 million nonreligious or atheist 13 million a Methodist church 1 million Buddhists 8 million a United Methodist church 1 million 4 million an African Methodist Episcopal or Episcopal 3 million Zion church 1 million Muslims 11 million a Pentecostal church 6 million other faiths 6 million a Church of in Christ 161 million Christians 3 million one of the Assemblies of God churches 66 million Roman Catholics 2 million one of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the 3 million Orthodox world churches 2 million a church of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese 8 million a Lutheran church of America 5 million an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 1 million another Orthodox church 3 million one of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 82 million Protestants churches 37 million a Baptist church 4 million a Presbyterian Church U.S.A. 17 million a Southern Baptist church 2 million a Reformed church 8 million a National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., 1 million a United Church of Christ church 1 million another Reformed Church 4 million a National Baptist Convention of America 2 million an Episcopal church church 3 million one of the Churches of Christ 3 million a National Baptist Convention 1 million a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of America church 1 million a Seventh Day Adventist church 3 million a Progressive National Baptist Convention 10 million other Christians church 6 million a Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints 2 million an American Baptist Church, USA 1 million a Jehovah’s Witness church 3 million another Baptist church 3 million other Christians

Ethiopian Church, with perhaps 10 million adherents, split Saints, and a large percentage is clustered in Utah and sur- from the Egyptian Coptic Church in 1948, although it traces its rounding states. roots to the fourth century, when two shipwrecked Christians, who were taken as slaves, ultimately converted the Ethiopian Islam king to Christianity. Islam, the religion of 1.3 billion people, is the predominant The Armenian Church originated in Antioch, Syria, and was religion of the Middle East from North Africa to Central Asia important in diffusing Christianity to South and East Asia (Figure 6-3). Half of the world’s Muslims live in four countries between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. The church’s few outside the Middle East—Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and present-day adherents are concentrated in Lebanon and Arme- India. nia, as well as in northeastern Turkey and western Azerbaijan. The word Islam in Arabic means “submission to the will of Despite the small number of adherents, the Armenian Church, God,” and it has a similar root to the Arabic word for peace. like other small sects, plays a significant role in regional con- An adherent of the religion of Islam is known as a Muslim, flicts. For example, Armenian Christians have fought for the which in Arabic means “one who surrenders to God.” The independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, a portion of Azerbaijan, core of Islamic belief is represented by five pillars of : because Nagorno-Karabakh is predominantly Armenian, whereas the remainder of Azerbaijan is overwhelmingly Shiite 1. There is no god worthy of except the one God, Muslim (see Chapter 7). the source of all creation, and Muhammad is the messen- The Maronites are another example of a small Christian sect ger of God. that plays a disproportionately prominent role in political 2. Five times daily, a Muslim prays, facing the city of unrest. They are clustered in Lebanon, which has suffered Makkah (Mecca), as a direct link to God. through a long civil war fought among religious groups (see 3. A Muslim gives generously to charity as an act of purifica- Chapter 7). tion and growth. In the United States, members of The Church of Jesus 4. A Muslim fasts during the month of Ramadan as an act of Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) regard their church self-purification. as a branch of Christianity separate from other branches. 5. If physically and financially able, a Muslim makes a pil- About 3 percent of Americans are members of the Latter-day grimage to Makkah. 174 The Cultural Landscape

FIGURE 6-3 World distribution of religions. These are the religions of the world with the most adherents: 80° ARCTIC OCEAN • Christianity: 31 percent, especially in Europe and the Western Hemisphere 70° 70° • Islam: 22 percent, especially in northern Africa and Southwest and Southeast Asia 60° 60° • : 13 percent, virtually all in India • Buddhism: 6 percent, especially in East and South- east Asia 10% Nonreligious 50° 50° • Other ethnic religions: 13 percent, especially in Asia 2% Other 2% Sunni Muslim and Africa religions 2% Jewish • Nonreligious or atheist: 16 percent 25% 40° Catholic 30% 40° Other ATLANTIC Christian The small pie charts on the map show the overall 29% Protestant proportion of the world’s religions in each world OCEAN region. The large pie chart below shows the worldwide 30° 30° ANGLO-AMERICA percentage of people adhering to the various religions. 3% Nonreligious Tropic of Cancer 4% Other 160° religions 20° 20° PACIFIC 9% Protestant 84% OCEAN Catholic 10° 10° LATIN AMERICA

140° 130° 120° 110° 100° 90° Equator 40° 0°

10° 10° 10°

UNIVERSALIZING RELIGIONS

20° CHRISTIANITY ISLAM20 20° Roman Catholic Sunni Protestant Shiite 30° 30 30 30° Orthodox Buddhism Other

40° 40ETHNIC RELIGIONS 40 40°

Hinduism African

50° Judaism50 Mixed with50 50° universalizing

BRANCHES OF ISLAM. Islam is divided into two important branches: Sunni and Shiite (sometimes written Shia in English). RELIGIONS (Percentage of people practicing each) • Sunnis comprise 83 percent of Muslims and S are the largest branch in most Muslim coun- I G I O U R E L tries in the Middle East and Asia. The word O N N Sunni comes from the Arabic for “people CH RIS following the example of Muhammad.”

TI Orthodox E A

16 Roman Catholic N Shiites comprise 16 percent of Muslims,

T Other 15 Other Christian • H 7

Ethnic 8 Protestant clustered in a handful of countries. Nearly S

N 3 Chinese 6 30 percent of all Shiites live in Iran, 15 I 4 N C Traditional Hindu Sunni percent in Pakistan, and 10 percent in Muslim 13 O R 6 19 I Iraq. Shiites comprise nearly 90 percent of E 3 L G the population in Iran and more than half I I G M L IO L A E of the population in Azerbaijan, Iraq, and N Buddhist Shiite Muslim I S R S the less populous countries of Oman and

I N G Bahrain. The word Shiite comes from the U N I V E R S A L I Z Arabic word for “sectarian.” Chapter 6: Religion 175

ARCTIC OCEAN

Arctic Circle

12% 22% Protestant 2% Orthodox 4% Other Sunni Muslim Christian 5% 10% Buddhist Muslim 1% 1% 5% Other Other religions 38% 64% religions EAST Catholic 18% Non- religious ASIA 40° Chinese 40° EUROPE folk PACIFIC OCEAN 5% other 30° 98% religions 30° Sunni 22% 1% Shiite Muslim Muslim Catholic 4% 1% Other religions Nonreligious 5% Protestant SOUTHWEST ASIA ARABIAN 13% 20° SEA BAY OF Buddhist & NORTHERN AFRICA 51% 14% BENGAL Sunni 5% Other religions 2% 4% Muslim Orthodox Sikh Other 3% religions 2% SOUTHEAST 10° 41% Shiite Muslim ASIA Shiite Christian Muslim 40% Sunni 24% 6% Other religions Sunni Muslim 50° Muslim Equator 140° 21% 16% 65% 0° Catholic Animist CENTRAL ASIA Hindu

26% INDIAN OCEAN SOUTH ASIA Sunni 10° 10° Muslim 120° 140° 150° 160° 170° 24% CORAL SEA Protestant 6% Other 6% Christian Orthodox 2% 5% Other 20° 20° 20° Buddhist religions SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Tropic of Capricorn 26% Catholic 13% ATLANTIC OCEAN Nonreligious 30° 30° 30° 13% Other Christian 39% 2% Protestant Orthodox

40° 40° 40° 40° SOUTH PACIFIC

110° 120° 130° 140° 150° 160° 180° 50° 50° 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 MILES

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 KILOMETERS MODIFIED GOODE'S HOMOLOSINE EQUAL-AREA PROJECTION

ISLAM IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE. The Muslim the 1960s. After a pilgrimage to Makkah in 1963, Malcolm X con- population of North America and Europe has increased rapidly in verted to orthodox Islam and founded the Organization of Afro- recent years. Estimates of the number of Muslims in North American Unity. He was assassinated in 1965. After Muhammad’s America vary widely, from 1 million to 5 million, but in any event death, in 1975, his son Wallace D. Muhammad led the Black Mus- it has increased from only a few hundred thousand in 1990. lims closer to the principles of orthodox Islam, and the organiza- In Europe, Muslims account for 5 percent of the popula- tion’s name was changed to the American Muslim Mission. A tion. France has the largest Muslim population, about 4 mil- splinter group adopted the original name, of Islam, and lion, a legacy of immigration from predominantly Muslim continues to follow the separatist teachings of Elijah Muhammad. former colonies in North Africa. Germany has about 3 mil- lion Muslims, also a legacy of immigration, in Germany’s Buddhism case primarily from Turkey. In Southeast Europe, Albania, Buddhism, the third of the world’s major universalizing reli- Bosnia, and Serbia each have about 2 million Muslims. gions, has nearly 400 million adherents, who are mainly found Islam also has a presence in the United States through the in China and Southeast Asia (Figure 6-4). The foundation of Nation of Islam, also known as Black Muslims, founded in Detroit Buddhism is represented by these concepts, known as the Four in 1930 and led for more than 40 years by Elijah Muhammad, who Noble Truths: called himself “the messenger of Allah.” Black Muslims lived aus- terely and advocated a separate autonomous nation within the 1. All living beings must endure suffering. United States for their adherents. Tension between Muhammad 2. Suffering, which is caused by a desire to live, leads to rein- and a Black Muslim minister, Malcolm X, divided the sect during carnation (repeated rebirth in new bodies or forms of life). 176 The Cultural Landscape

An accurate count of Buddhists is especially difficult, because only a few people participate in Buddhist institutions. Religious functions are performed primarily by rather than by the general public. The number of Buddhists is also difficult to count because Buddhism, although a universalizing religion, dif- fers in significant respects from the Western concept of a formal religious system. Someone can be both a Buddhist and a believer in other , whereas Christianity and Islam both require exclusive adherence. Most Buddhists in China and Japan, in particular, believe at the same time in an ethnic religion. Other Universalizing Religions Sikhism and Bahá’í are the two universalizing religions other than Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism with the largest num- bers of adherents. There are an estimated 23 million Sikhs and 7 million Bahá’ís. All but 3 million Sikhs are clustered in the Pun- jab region of India; Bahá’ís are dispersed among many countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. Sikhism’s first guru (religious teacher or enlightener) was Nanak (1469–1538), who lived in a village near the city of Lahore, in present-day Pakistan. God was revealed to Guru Nanak as The One Supreme Being, or Creator, who rules the universe by divine will. Only God is perfect, but people have the capacity for contin- ual improvement and movement toward perfection by taking indi- vidual responsibility for their deeds and actions on Earth, such as heartfelt adoration, devotion, and surrender to the one God. Sikhism’s most important ceremony, introduced by the tenth guru, Gobind Singh (1666–1708), is the Amrit (or Baptism), in which Sikhs declare they will uphold the principles of the faith. Gobind Singh also introduced the practice of men wearing turbans on their heads and never cutting their beards or hair. Wearing a uniform gave Sikhs a disciplined outlook and a sense of unity of purpose. The Bahá’í religion is even more recent than Sikhism. It grew out of the Bábi faith, which was founded in Shíráz, Iran, in 1844 by Siyyid ‘Ali Muhammad, known as the Báb (Persian for “gate- FIGURE 6-4 Buddhism. Buddhist monks receive food from villagers to celebrate way”). Bahá’ís believe that one of the Báb’s disciples, Husayn ‘Ali the end of the three-month Buddhist Lent festival. Narathiwat province, Thailand. Nuri, known as Bahá’u’lláh (Arabic for “Glory of God”), was the prophet and messenger of God. Bahá’u’lláh’s function was to overcome the disunity of religions and establish a universal faith through abolition of racial, class, and religious prejudices. 3. The goal of all existence is to escape from suffering and the endless cycle of into Nirvana (a state of complete redemption), which is achieved through mental and moral self-purification. Ethnic Religions 4. Nirvana is attained through an Eightfold Path, which The ethnic religion with by far the largest number of followers is includes rightness of belief, resolve, speech, action, liveli- Hinduism. With 900 million adherents, Hinduism is the world’s hood, effort, thought, and . third-largest religion, behind Christianity and Islam. Ethnic reli- gions in Asia and Africa comprise most of the remainder. Like the other two universalizing religions, Buddhism split into more than one branch, as followers disagreed on interpreting statements by the founder, Siddhartha Gautama. Hinduism The three main branches are , , and Ethnic religions typically have much more clustered distribu- Tantrayana. tions than do universalizing religions. Hinduism is the world’s Mahayanists account for about 56 percent of Buddhists, third-largest religion, but 97 percent of Hindus are concen- primarily in China, Japan, and Korea. Theravadists comprise trated in one country, India, and most of the remainder can be about 38 percent of Buddhists, especially in Cambodia, Laos, found in India’s neighbor Nepal. Hindus comprise more than Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The remaining 6 percent 80 percent of the population of these two countries and a small are Tantrayanists, found primarily in Tibet and Mongolia. minority in every other country (Figure 6-5). Chapter 6: Religion 177

Other Ethnic Religions Several hundred million people practice ethnic religions in East Asia, especially in China and Japan. The coexistence of Buddhism with these ethnic religions in East Asia differs from the Western con- cept of exclusive religious belief. and Daoism (sometimes spelled ) are often distinguished as separate ethnic religions in China, but many Chinese consider themselves both Buddhists and either Confucian, Daoist, or some other Chinese ethnic religion. Buddhism does not compete for adher- ents with Confucianism, Daoism, and other ethnic religions in China because many Chinese accept the teachings of both universalizing and ethnic religions. Such commingling of diverse philoso- phies is not totally foreign to Americans. The tenets of Christianity or , the wisdom of the ancient Greek philoso- FIGURE 6-5 Hindus bathe in the Ganges River. The river attracts Hindu pilgrims from all over India because phers, and the ideals of the Declaration of they believe that the Ganges springs from the hair of Siva, one of the main . Hindus achieve purification Independence can all be held dear with- by bathing in the Ganges, and bodies of the dead are washed with water from it before being cremated. out doing grave injustice to the others.

CONFUCIANISM. Confucius (551–479 B.C.) was a philosopher and A rigid approach to theological matters is not central to teacher in the Chinese province of Lu. His sayings, which were Hinduism. Hindus believe that it is up to the individual to recorded by his students, emphasized the importance of the decide the best way to worship God. Various paths to reach ancient Chinese tradition of li, which can be translated roughly as God include the path of knowledge, the path of renunciation, “propriety” or “correct behavior.” Confucianism is an ethnic the path of devotion, and the path of action. You can pursue religion because of its especially strong rooting in traditional your own path and follow your own convictions, as long as values of special importance to Chinese people. Confucianism they are in harmony with your true nature. You are responsible prescribed a series of ethical principles for the orderly conduct of for your own actions and you alone suffer the consequences. daily life in China, such as following traditions, fulfilling Because people start from different backgrounds and experi- obligations, and treating others with sympathy and respect. These ences, the appropriate form of worship for any two individuals rules applied to China’s rulers as well as to their subjects. may not be the same. Hinduism does not have a central author- ity or a single holy book, so each individual selects suitable rit- DAOISM (TAOISM). Lao-Zi (604– 531? B.C., also spelled Lao uals. If one person practices Hinduism in a particular way, Tse), a contemporary of Confucius, organized Daoism. Although a other Hindus will not think that the individual has made a mis- government administrator by profession, Lao-Zi’s writings take or strayed from orthodox doctrine. emphasized the mystical and magical aspects of life rather than the The average Hindu has allegiance to a particular god or importance of public service, which Confucius had emphasized. concept within a broad range of possibilities. The manifesta- Daoists seek dao (or tao), which means the “way” or “path.” tion of God with the largest number of adherents—an esti- A virtuous person draws power (de or te) from being absorbed mated 70 percent—is , which the god in dao. Dao cannot be comprehended by reason and knowledge Vishnu, a loving god incarnated as Krishna. An estimated because not everything is knowable. Because the universe is 26 percent adhere to Sivaism, dedicated to Siva, a protective not ultimately subject to rational analysis, myths and legends and destructive god. is a form of worship dedicated develop to explain events. Only by avoidance of daily activities to the female consorts of Vishnu and Siva. Although these and and introspection can a person live in harmony with the princi- other deities and approaches are supported throughout India, ples that underlie and govern the universe. some geographic concentration exists: Siva and Shakti are Daoism split into many sects, some acting like secret soci- concentrated in the north; Shakti and Vishnu in the east; eties, and followers embraced elements of magic. The religion Vishnu in the west; and Siva, along with some Vishnu, in the was officially banned by the Communists after they took control south. However, holy places for Siva and Vishnu are dispersed of China in 1949, but it is still practiced in China, and it is legal throughout India. in Taiwan. 178 The Cultural Landscape

SHINTOISM. Since ancient times, Shintoism has been the ETHNIC AFRICAN RELIGIONS. Approximately 100 distinctive ethnic religion of Japan. Ancient Shintoists considered million Africans, 12 percent of the continent’s people, follow forces of nature to be divine, especially the Sun and Moon, as well traditional ethnic religions, sometimes called . as rivers, trees, rocks, mountains, and certain animals. The Animists believe that such inanimate objects as plants and religion was transmitted from one generation to the next orally stones, or such natural events as thunderstorms and until the fifth century A.D., when the introduction of Chinese earthquakes, are “animated,” or have discrete spirits and writing facilitated the recording of ancient and . conscious life. Relatively little is known about African Gradually, deceased emperors and other ancestors became more religions because few holy books or other written documents important deities for Shintoists than natural features. have come down from ancestors. Religious rituals are passed Under the reign of the Emperor Meiji (1868–1912), Shinto- from one generation to the next by word of mouth. African ism became the official , and the emperor was animist religions are apparently based on monotheistic regarded as divine. Shintoism therefore was as much a political concepts, although below the supreme god there is a cult as a religion, and in a cultural sense all Japanese were hierarchy of divinities. These divinities may be assistants to Shintoists. After defeating Japan in World War II, the victori- the supreme god or personifications of natural phenomena, ous Allies ordered Emperor Hirohito to renounce his divinity such as trees or rivers. in a speech to the , but he was allowed to As recently as 1980, some 200 million Africans—half the retain ceremonial powers. population of the region at the time—were classified as ani- Shintoism still thrives in Japan, although no longer as the mists. Some atlases and textbooks persist in classifying Africa official state religion. Prayers are recited to show reverence for as predominantly animist, even though the actual percentage is ancestors, and pilgrimages are made to shrines believed to small and declining. Followers of traditional African religions house deities. More than 80,000 shrines serve as places for now constitute a clear majority of the population only in neighbors to meet or for children to play. Botswana. The rapid decline in animists in Africa has been caused by increases in the numbers of Christians and Muslims. JUDAISM. Around one-third of the world’s 14 million Jews Africa is now 46 percent Christian—split about evenly among live in the United States, one-third in Israel, and one-third in Roman Catholic, Protestant, and other—and another 40 per- the rest of the world. Within the United States, Jews are heavily cent are Muslims. The growth in the two universalizing reli- concentrated in the large cities, especially in the New York gions at the expense of ethnic religions reflects fundamental metropolitan area. Jews constitute a majority in Israel, where geographical differences between the two types of religions, for the first time since the biblical era an independent state has discussed in the next key issue. had a Jewish majority. Judaism plays a more substantial role in Western civilization than its number of adherents would suggest because two of the three main universalizing religions—Christianity and Islam— KEY ISSUE 2 find some of their roots in Judaism. Jesus was born a Jew, and Muhammad traced his ancestry to Abraham. Why Do Religions Have Judaism is an ethnic religion based in the lands bordering the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, called Canaan in the Different Distributions? Bible, Palestine by the Romans, and the state of Israel since 1948. About 4,000 years ago Abraham, considered the patri- ■ Origin of Religions arch or father of Judaism, migrated from present-day Iraq to ■ Diffusion of Religions Canaan, along a route known as the Fertile Crescent (see dis- cussion of the Fertile Crescent in Chapter 8 and Figure 8-6). ■ Holy Places The Bible recounts the ancient history of the Jewish people. ■ The Calendar Fundamental to Judaism was belief in one all-powerful God. It was the first recorded religion to espouse , belief that We can identify several major geographical differences there is only one God. Judaism offered a sharp contrast to the between universalizing and ethnic religions. These differ- practiced by neighboring people, who worshipped a ences include the locations where the religions originated, collection of . Jews considered themselves the “chosen” peo- the processes by which they diffused from their place of ori- ple because God had selected them to live according to God’s eth- gin to other regions, the types of places that are considered ical and moral principles, such as the Ten Commandments. holy, the calendar dates identified as important holidays, The name Judaism derives from Judah, one of the patriarch and attitudes toward modifying the physical environment. ■ Jacob’s 12 sons; Israel is another biblical name for Jacob. Descendants of 10 of Jacob’s sons, plus 2 of his grandsons, con- stituted the 12 of Hebrews who emigrated from Egypt in the Exodus narrative. Each received a portion of Canaan. Judah Origin of Religions is one of the surviving tribes of the Hebrews; 10 of the tribes Universalizing religions have precise places of origin based on were considered lost after they were conquered and forced to events in the life of a man. Ethnic religions have unknown or migrate to Assyria in 721 B.C. unclear origins, not tied to single historical individuals.