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Topic: Ethnic Religions

Explore the clustered distributions of ethnic religions like Hinduism, Animism, and Judaism, and their impact on cultures worldwide. Learn about unique practices and beliefs of ethnic religious communities across the globe.

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Topic: Ethnic Religions

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  1. Topic: Ethnic Religions • Aim: In what ways are ethnic religions distributed throughout the world? • Do Now: How did we differentiation ethnic from universalizing religions?

  2. Ethnic Religions • Often remain within the culture where they originated. • Have relatively more clustered distributions than do universalizing religions. • Ethnic religion with largest number of followers is Hinduism (900 million adherents)

  3. Hinduism: • The four sacred texts are ancient hymns called the Vedas, but few Hindus historically could read. • Coastlines and river banks most sacred sites. • Many, many festivals, often surrounding harvest or spring or the birth of Gods. • Brahman is the divine creator but is manifested in literally hundreds of gods, of which Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu are most common.

  4. The women of a typical family in India spend days sorting grains of wheat for their families' own consumption while balancing the duties of motherhood and wife.

  5. This photo was taken during the 2007 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. This was during the sadhus' procession to the Sangam to bathe on Mauni Amavasya, the new moon for the saints. It was very early in the morning, and there was a thick fog that added an even greater sense of magic and mystery to this ritual.

  6. The hands of a woman in Jaipur are covered with mehndi patterns painted with henna. Trendy in recent years, the lacework decorations are part of a 5,000-year-old tradition of creating designs to ward off evil or declare one’s happiness.

  7. Women in bright saris crowd together as they walk in a bridal procession in Mandawa, Rajasthan. Rajasthan is the largest state in India—a land of extremes—encompassing steamy forests, dry plains, and the snowy Himalaya.

  8. Other Ethnic Religious

  9. Ethnic Religions • A combination of Buddhism (a universalizing religion) with Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional Chinese practices is practiced in East Asia and Southeast Asia. • Blending or combining of several traditions is known as syncretism. • Animism is an ethnic religion whose followers believe that inanimate objects or natural events, such as natural disasters, have spirits and conscious life. • 100 million Africans adhere to animism.

  10. Ethnic African Religions (Animism): • Approx. 12% of all Africans (about 100 million people) follow traditional African animist religions. Believe that inanimate objects or naturally occurring phenomena (storms, earthquakes, etc) are ‘animated’ and have a spirit and consciousness. • Increase in Islam & Christianity in Africa has caused decline in Animism. Growth of universalizing religions at expense of ethnic religions reflects fundamental geographic differences

  11. DISTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS The percentage of animists in sub-Saharan Africa has declined from more than 70 percent in 1900 to around 12 percent in 2010. As recently as 1980, some 200 million Africans—half the population of the region at the time—were classified as animists. Followers of traditional African religions now constitute a clear majority of the population only in Botswana. The rapid decline in animists in Africa has been caused by increases in the numbers of Christians and Muslims.

  12. Judaism: First recorded religion to espouse monotheism, belief that there is only one God. • Contrasts polytheism- the worship of a collection of gods. Distribution • 2/5 live in the United States • 2/5 live in Israel. • Christianity and Islam find some of their roots in Judaism. • Two of Three Universalizing religions (Christianity and Islam) have it’s roots in Judaism • Concentrated in lands bordering eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea

  13. Judaism: • 1st monotheistic religion. Name derives from Judah, on of the patriarch Jacob’s 12 sons • Considered the chosen people of God • Descendents of 10 of Jacob’s sons plus 2 of his grandsons became the 12 tribes of Hebrews who emigrated from Egypt in the book of Exodus

  14. Other Ethnic Religions: • Confucianism: Chinese philosopher, wrote the Analects, concerned with stabilizing of society through ethical principles and orderly conduct. Stressed respect for elders • Daoism (Taoism): founded by Lao-Zi. Daoists seek the ‘way’ or ‘path’. Myths and legends develop to explain events. Daoists believe in introspection to live in harmony with nature and the universe

  15. Shintoism: • Distinctive ethnic religion of Japan. • Nature and ancestral worship • Shinto became the official religion under the Emperor Meiji (1868-1912), and the emperor thought to be divine. • After WWII, Emperor Hirohito forced to renounce his divinity • No longer state religion.

  16. Diffusion of Religions • Ethnic Religions • Most have limited, if any, diffusion. • Lack missionaries • Diffusion to new places is possible, if adherents migrate for economic gains and are not forced to adopt a strongly entrenched universalizing religion. • Judaism’s diffusion is unlike other ethnic religions because it is practiced well beyond its place of origin. • Other nationalities have historically persecuted Jews living in their midst because of their retention of Judaism.

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