Religion and Geography

IREL 204

World Geography

Defining Religion

Substantive Definition: (what it is): Culturally patterned interaction with culturally

postulated superhuman beings (Spiro, 1996: 96)

Functional Definition: (what it does): a system of beliefs and practices by means of

which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life’ (Yinger, 1970:7)

Religion is a culturally patterned interaction between people and culturally thought superhuman beings, where this interaction is understood as a system of beliefs and practices through which a group of people struggle with the ultimate problems of human life.

Geography studies religion in two main forms –

spatial – where and WHY there. In this

sense, geography looks at distribution and patterns of different religions, and processes of diffusion (spread) that produce those patterns and distributions

Human-environment interaction - In this case, geography studies how various religious practices and beliefs impact the cultural landscape (human environment).

Religious Typologies: (Types) Four types of religious classifications:

universal: Global; open to all; actively works to convert members – gain more followers (usually through missionary activity). Therefore, these religions are widely spread out in the world. Examples include Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

ethnic: Typically found in one specific region of the world; Limited association; membership is by birth or other cultural criterion; do not actively seek new members; grow by natural increase of population rather than proselytism. Typically related to a unique culture.

Examples include Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, and Judaism.

 

Typologies (contd)

tribal: Specific to a particular group or tribe of people, usually in a highly localized region. Typically animist (celebrating spirits in living and non-living things) pantheists (worshipping nature) , or ancestral worship . Tend to be small-scale, isolated.

Examples include the religions of each individual Native American group of people, and the local religions of people in isolated regions of Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia (aboriginal religions).

  secular: Approximately 1/6 of the global population

does not practice a religion, is indifferent to, or rejects religion entirely. This aspect of the world is viewed as "secular."

Environmental DeterminismEnvironmental Determinism was rejected by social sciences after the 1940s, still had many theories about how and why religions developed

Why did the world’s religions develop in a small area of South East, East Asia? How did the environment determine this development?

Some thoughts:

• Ellen Semple (1911): Middle East had nomadic desert dwellers – tracked movement of stars in the sky, gave a sense of order and progression; maybe there was a ‘single hand’ guiding this order, hence the rise of monotheism in the middle east.

• Semple (1911:41) also thought environment influenced religious views of the afterlife: "the Eskimo's hell is a place of darkness, storm and intense cold; the Jew's is a place of eternal fire. Buddha, born in the steaming Himalayan piedmont, fighting the lassitudes induced by heat and humidity, pictured his heaven as Nirvana, the cessation of all activity and individual life."

More ED:

Huntington (1951:18) believed "every religion is at least modified by its surroundings, especially those of its birthplace".

Like Semple, Huntington thought concepts of religious worship were determined by the environment

Examples: • Uncertain Rains in India made the Rain God very prominent • Egyptians worshipped the Nile River (same as India)

• Dryness of land, sheep-herding major occupation of Semitic peoples; gave rise to religious expression of the “good Shepherd” throughout the Bible, and as a metaphor for Christ himself later with Christianity.

Processes of Diffusion

Religion is like any idea, innovation, or concept that is spread among and between people (most of the time over large distances).

Diffusion follows two principles:

• Anything that is mobile requires a carrier.

• The rate at which things move often depends on things that make it easy or get in the way. So we have to understand both, the carriers (promoting diffusion) and the barriers (inhibit diffusion).

DiffusionTwo basic types of diffusion - 

expansion diffusion; an idea, innovation, concept, invention spreads by direct contact; the spread (diffusion) is expanded when one person who knows something transmits it to another person, and so on, etc. • Usually the idea, concept, innovation does the moving, NOT the people

relocation diffusion; the original group of people carrying the knowledge MOVE – as they move, they spread this knowledge over time and across space to new locations.

 • Examples:

•Migration (classic relocation diffusion). Migrants take their beliefs, cultural practices, worldviews WITH them as they move and travel over time and distance to new places.

• Missionaries.

Expansion diffusion further sub-divided -

contagious diffusion: diffusion through a population by direct contact. (contagious like disease spread). Contagious diffusion expands and spreads.

Remember the pond example with the concentric waves: ideas, concepts, beliefs, etc, are usually adopted first at the point of origin, the more distant places away from point of origin adopt after some time passes.

For religion, beliefs are transmitted and adopted through conversion in the daily contact between believers and non-believers

 hierarchical diffusion; idea, concept, innovation is adopted at the top of a society, and are transmitted vertically (from the top of the hierarchy downward).

Think of the way kings and tribal leaders became converted to new ideas, concepts, beliefs first, then the people in their kingdoms would follow Contagious expansion diffusion is the most common type of diffusion for religious beliefs. Usually this happens as people physically relocate and act as carriers, literally carrying their ideas to new locations.

Source regions and Religion

The major world religions originated in core regions in East and South East Asia.

First Hinduism, then Buddhism, then Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam

Here is a helpful map about the origins of religions from their source regions and their spread: http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf