Geography of Religion
Lecture Outline
Introduction
Religion can be defined as a set of beliefs and practices through which people seek mental and physical harmony with the powers of the universe, through which they attempt to influence and accommodate the awesome forces of nature, life and death
Or…
Put more simply
Religion is a means by which many people make sense of their world and cope with life’s issues.
Can be wonderful and can be a source of great conflict.
Two Kinds of Religion
Proselytic
-- go out and seek new members
generally want to convert the 
entire world
Christianity, Islam
Ethnic
-do not seek converts, must be born into these religions
many tribal religions, Hinduism, Judaism
World Religious Regions (fig)
World Religions – Pie Chart
Christianity
-World’s largest faith in area and adherents
Eastern Christians
-Includes Greek and Eastern Orthodox
Western Christians
-Catholics
-Protestants
Other Christians
-Coptics, Maronites, Nestorians
-The Armenian Church
American Christianity
Bible Belt Baptists
Mormon West
Catholic Borderlands
Lutheran Upper Midwest
Mixed Midwest
American Religion Regions (fig)
Divergence or Convergence?
The American West and religious proliferation.  Why?
Some suggest a homogenization of American religion.
Roger Stump (book) suggests an increasing regionalization of American religion.

If you moved to Minnesota, your neighbors are likely to be:
A.  Baptists
B.  Catholics
C.  Lutherans
D.  Mormons
And…they’d be more like the other Minnesota Christians in terms of their beliefs than they would Hank Hill from Texas.
Islam (fig)
Islam
Monotheistic
Mostly across Northern Africa, Southwest Asia and into Southeast Asia
Shares many commonalties with Judaism and Christianity
Muhammad is the main prophet
The Koran is the Holy Text of Islam
Five Pillars
Ramadan
Daily prayer (five times)
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Statement of Faith
Alms giving
Two Major Sects
1. Shiite
-smaller in number of the two groups
-dominate in Iran and southern Iraq
-strong fundamentalist movement during the 1980s

2. Sunni
-Covers much of the Arabic speaking 
Muslim world
-Also includes Indonesia
-Orthodox
Mosque in Eastern Europe (fig)
US Muslims
1.5 to 7 million American Muslims 
(hard to count obviously)
Racially and ethnically diverse 
American Black Muslims
Immigrants (new and old)
Mostly urban

Judaism
Also monotheistic, parent faith of Christianity and Islam (?)
Suffered a diaspora, therefore has many regional subgroups.
Sephardim in the Mediterranean lands
Ashkenazim in Europe (now US)
1/3 of Jews worldwide killed during holocaust
14 million Jews.  Half in USA
Hinduism
Polytheistic and Ethnic (today)
about 750 million adherents
tied to the caste system
believe in reincarnation
many local forms
Bathing in the Ganges (fig)
Hindu Temple in Malibu
Hindu Temple in Malibu
Sikhism
Sikhs  -Adi Granth
-attempt at reconciling Islam and Hinduism
-in the Punjab and Southern California
-19 million or so, 500,000 in the US.
Buddhism
Broke away from Hinduism 2500 years ago
founded by Prince Siddhartha (Buddha)
Widespread in Asia
Many composite faiths as conversion spread
Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism
Lamaism is popular in Tibet and Mongolia
500 million adherents?
2 to 6 million in the United States, behind perhaps only Christianity and Judaism?
Mostly West Coast.
Los Angeles Temple
Wat Thai Of Los Angeles, originally known as "Theravada Buddhist Center", is the largest Thai Theravada Buddhist Temple in the United States. 
8225 Coldwater 
Canyon Ave 
North Hollywood
Monk at the feet of Buddha (fig)
Four Noble Truths
Life is full of suffering
Desire is the cause of suffering
Elimination of suffering requires the quelling of desire
An eight-fold path can lead one to the quelling of desire
Nirvana -a state of peace and calm reached by few is attained by those able to successfully navigate the path. 
Animism
Thousands of versions
100 million adherents
Most popular in Sub-Saharan Africa
Umbanda in Brazil, Santeria in Cuba
Omnipresent God, often found in nature
Don’t underestimate the potential complexity and subtlety of animist faiths
Animism in Africa (fig)
Gris Gris
Ethnocentric
Americans
Frequently we fail to take seriously the religious beliefs of others, making them into caricatures of reality.
This Totem Pole is part of a tacky-tourist attraction in Tennessee
Secularization
A faith?  1 billion secularists worldwide
Europeans are most secular (American are not even close)
Why? _ Government and Modernization of cultures
Christian or Secular?
Religious Diffusion
Religions can spread by a variety of plans and actions
How has much of the world’s religious map been shaped?
What is the primary manner in which Christianity spread into the US?
What about other American religions?
Religious Diffusion (map)
Religious Ecology
Religion, like other cultural elements help people cope with their environment.
Environmental factors loom large in the basic nature of many religions.
Different religions treat “mother nature” differently.
Ahisma (figure)
Jains, Sikhs and Hindus
Nature and Religions
Christmas Trees
Earthquakes and God’s wrath?
Tornados and threat preparations.
Christmas
The Environment and  Religion
Is it coincidence that the World’s major monotheistic faiths all were born in the desert?
Few polytheistic nomads
All early adherents were nomadic herders
Semple- out in the open and the sky is dominant.
Cont.
Social organization of nomads lends itself to patriarchal, hierarchy.
most of the female deities are in farming societies
most of the nomads lived on the edge of established farming cultures, and may have innovated in response to these groups.
Poll Results
-72 % of Spanish American Catholics feel people subject to nature
-55% of Mormons think humans are in harmony with nature
-48% of Texas Protestants think humans control nature and can overcome natural hazards
Link with politics? Perception of E.P.A.?
Cultural Integration in Religion
Religion affects a great number of other components of culture, including agriculture, economy, family sociology, politics, etc.
Religion and Economy
Food and beverage taboos are common
viticulture, pork, alcohol, drugs, fish
Proscriptions for making loans
Payday lending?  Usury Law?
Gambling, Prostitution, etc.

Why the ban on pork among “Big 3”
Trichinosis, pigs are dirty, nomadic sour grapes.
God and Pork
Texas and Beer (fig)
Is beer evil?
Ben Franklin’s quote?
What role has alcohol played in religions?
Religion and Political Geography 
More common than one generally thinks
Nationalism-Religion intertwined
India-Pakistan / Ireland
Yugoslavia / Cyprus/ Chad
State Churches
Theocracy
In the United States
Religion informs many people’s political beliefs
Mormonism and Utah- 
Solid South
Catholics (Massachusetts vs. New Mexico)
Episcopalians
Sacred Spaces
Areas and sites that inspire sublime devotion, loyalty or fear
Pilgrimage sites, Churches, ritualized spaces, cemeteries can all be sacred.
Some are ancient, some are otherwise mundane
Any in the US?
Sacred Space?
Religious Landscapes
Religious Structures
Roman Catholic 
Amish
Bathtub Mary’s
Square Puritan Church
Cemeteries
Which group tends to build the most elaborate churches because they have more traditionally believed in their church as the “house of God”
A.  Baptists			B.  Catholics
C.  Mormons			D.  Presbyterians
Burying the Dead in South Louisiana
Religious Place Names
Many towns, cities and landscape features bear witness to the religious beliefs of the people who named them.
Can you think of any?
Religious Toponymy-Canada (map)
Axis Mundi (fig)
Axis Mundi ? (fig)