Religion and Geography

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• Religion and Geography
• IREL 204
• World Geography

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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, 19707)

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• 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.

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• 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).

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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.
•  

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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).
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• 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."

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Environmental Determinism

• Environmental Determinism was rejected by social
  sciences after the 1940s, still had many theories
  about how and why religions developed
• Why did the worlds 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 (191141) 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."

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• More ED
• Huntington (195118) 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.

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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).

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Diffusion

• Two basic types of diffusion -
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• 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.
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• 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.

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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.
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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.co
m/images/Religion.swf