Folk and Popular Culture

Chapters 4, 5 & 6 Outline (Review This For The Test!)
Chapter 4 (Folk and Popular Culture)
Key Issue 1: Where Are Folk and Popular Leisure Activities Distributed?

Culture is defined as a collection of social customs; customs are repetitive acts of groups. Repetitive acts of individuals are called habits. Chapter 4 focuses on two facets of material culture: (1) culture deriving from the necessities of daily life such as food, clothing and shelter, and (2) leisure activities such as the arts and recreation.

The chapter discusses the two major categories of material culture: folk and popular culture. Folk culture and popular culture differ in their patterns of origins, diffusion, and distribution. Folk culture is practiced by small homogenous groups living in isolated rural areas. Popular culture is found in large heterogeneous societies that share certain customs despite differences in other personal characteristics.

Origin Customs originate from hearths. Folk customs are often anonymous while popular customs originate in more developed countries as part of the market for recreational (leisure) and disposable income to purchase these material goods.

Diffusion Popular culture diffuses (usually hierarchically) through rapid electronic communications and transportation networks. Folk culture diffuses through relocation diffusion.

Distribution Popular culture is distributed widely across many countries, with little regard for physical factors. Folk cultures often (though not always) incorporate elements of the local environment. Groups with relatively little contact with others develop unique folk cultures. Himalayan religious art is used as an example of how isolated religious groups depict the same environment much differently in their art.

Folk Music The purpose of folk music is to tell stories or to disseminating information. Folk music typically originates from an anonymous hearth. As people migrate, folk music travels with them as part of the diffusion of folk culture.

Popular Music Popular music is deliberately written to be sold and performed. While some forms of popular music contain references to local places or events, the purpose of the music is still to appeal to a variety of people across Earth. As with other elements of popular culture, popular musicians have more connections with performers of similar styles, regardless of where in the world they happen to live, than they do with performers of different styles who happen to live in the same community.
In the past musicians clustered in particular communities according to their shared interest in specific styles. Because of the globalization of popular music, musicians are less tied to the culture of a particular place. Now musicians cluster in communities where other musicians reside regardless of the style of music they play. 

Origin and Diffusion of Popular Sports Soccer is an example of a popular folk custom that was popularized and then globalized. The hearth of soccer is believed to be in England in the eleventh century. In the 1800s, soccer transformed from a folk custom to a popular culture. Several English soccer clubs formed an association to standardize the rules and to organize professional leagues. Spectators started to pay to see first-class events. Soccer then diffused to other parts of Europe.
Soccer later diffused to other parts of the world by new communication systems such as the radio and TV.  Other sports are similar to soccer as elements of popular culture, though the distribution of each sport is different. If a sport becomes popular enough worldwide, it becomes part of the Olympics. For a sport to be to be included in the Olympics it must be widely played in at least 75 countries (50 countries for women sports) and on four continents.

Surviving Folk Sports Most other sports have diffused much less than soccer. Cricket, wushu, baseball, and lacrosse are examples of sports that never became very popular globally.

Key Issue 2: Where Are Folk and Popular Material Culture Distributed?

Folk Clothing Preferences People wear distinctive folk clothing for a variety of environmental and cultural reasons. Women who live in countries in Southwest Asia and Northern Europe are discouraged from wearing popular casual Western-style clothing because of religious reasons. On the other hand, some European countries prohibit women from wearing traditional clothing from Southwest Asia and North Africa because the leaders in government believe that those clothes make women seem like second class citizens.

Rapid Diffusion of Popular Clothing Styles Popular clothing habits have little regard for the climate or topography of an area. Because of the sufficient incomes, the social desirability of dressing for a particular job or social class, and rapid communications, popular clothing styles can change several times per year across the more developed world. Jeans are an example of how Western popular culture has diffused to other countries. Jeans retain local diversity because different regions of the world prefer a particular style of jeans.

Folk Food Customs and the Environment The local climate presents a major influence on what can and cannot be grown. The contribution of a location’s distinctive physical features to the way food tastes is known as terroir. Folk cultures have had to adapt their food preferences to conditions in their local environment and this has created distinctive local cuisines around the world. Folk cultures will also eat certain foods that are believed to enhance qualities that are considered desirable by their society.  

Food Taboos The development of food taboos are thought to be partly environmental and partly cultural. These taboos may help to protect endangered animals or to conserve scarce natural resources. Many religions have food taboos because they protected the environment of the religion’s hearth. Social values can also influence what people eat because people in similar climates and with similar levels of income consume different foods.

Popular Food Culture Popular foods and beverages display regional variation depending on what can be locally produced and other cultural influences. Wine serves as a global example, as it is globally popular but not as common in areas which cannot support grapes or where a large part of the population does not consume alcohol. The distinctive character of a wine derives from the vineyard’s unique combination of soil, climate, and other physical attributes.

Environmental Influences on Folk Housing Folk housing styles are another example of the influence of the physical environment, with housing design reflecting both cultural norms and environmental influences from the type of building material used to the shape of the house to more efficiently heat, cool,or shed water. Even in areas that share similar climates and available building materials, folk housing can vary because of minor differences in environmental features.

Sacred Spaces in Houses Some folk housing distinctive design may also derive primarily from religious values and other customary beliefs.  Houses in some folk cultures may have sacred walls or corners. Compass direction may play a big role in how the house was built and how the interior of the house is arranged.  

U.S. Folk Housing Older houses in the United States from the east coast toward the Mississippi River display a local folk-culture tradition. The distribution of U.S. folk housing styles reflected whatever style was prevailing at the place on the East Coast from which the people migrated from. New housing styles in the United States are increasingly based on popular notions of what a house should look like, which changes over the decades.

U.S. Popular Housing The degree of regional differences in housing types in the United States has diminished because rapid communication and transportation systems provide people throughout the country with knowledge of the different styles.  A variety of housing styles have come and gone in the United States since the end of World War II. 

Key Issue 3: Why Is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?

Diffusion of TV: Mid-Twentieth Century Popular culture is diffused faster and further than ever with the invention and diffusion of forms of electronic communication like television. Television allows images and messages about popular culture to spread instantaneously across the globe. Several decades ago, a large percentage of the world’s people did not have access to a television because of their lack of income, electricity, or service. Watching TV is now the most popular leisure activity in the world. The technology by which television is delivered is changing throughout the world. 

Diffusion of the Internet: Late Twentieth Century Internet service has diffused at a rapid pace throughout the world. It has diffused much faster than TV did. It is likely to diffuse even further in the years ahead. 

Diffusion of Social Media: Twenty-First Century People in the United States have dominated the use of social media during the early years. Social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube still enjoy their greatest popularity in the United States, but are quickly diffusing to other countries.

External Threat: Developed Countries Control the Media Since media outlets are largely Western (especially television programming), their content may present values or beliefs in conflict with those of a particular place receiving those broadcasts. Government may perceive this Western control as a threat to their national systems and attempt to restrict the programming available to the populace.

Internet Threat: Social Media In some places around the globe residents have sought out Western programming otherwise not available through the use of satellite dishes. Governments around the world are also trying to limit the Internet content in their countries. Social media has started to play an even more significant role in breaking the monopoly of government control over the diffusion of information.

Key Issue 4: Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges?

The Amish: Preserving Cultural Identity The Amish are an example of a group in the United States that shuns any mechanical or electrical power. The globalization of popular culture represents to many people in folk cultural societies a loss of traditional values. Many fear the loss of folk culture, especially because of the rising demand for possessions of a popular culture. For folk culture, increased connection with popular culture can make it difficult to maintain centuries-old practices. Folk societies are trying hard to maintain their unique culture in an age of globalization.

Marriage in India: Challenging Cultural Values The global diffusion of popular culture has challenged the subservience of women that is embedded in some folk cultures. This has been both a good thing and a bad thing for women in developing countries. The family of the bride in India is sometimes expected to provide the groom with a dowry. Some women in India have actually been killed because their family did not pay a large enough dowry to the groom.  
 
Landscape Pollution Although folk culture is not automatically mild in environmental impact, popular culture tends to ignore local environments because of its spatial extent, including the modification of the natural environment. Another impact of popular culture is the creation of uniform landscapes, which many consider unattractive compared to locally diverse landscapes. Uniformity in appearance of the landscape is promoted by structures like gas stations, supermarkets, fast-food restraints, and motels.  
Golf courses require large expanses of open, carefully managed grass. Some golf courses are designed partially in response to local physical conditions. Many courses have little regard for local conditions and usually dramatically alter the natural landscape of an area. Golf course remake the environment by creating of flattening hills, cutting grass, carting in or digging up sand for traps, and draining or expanding bodies of water to create hazards.

Resource Depletion Popular customs may also involve the overuse and depletion of scarce natural resources. The increased demand for meat is leading to a decrease in the total amount of grain available. Pollution often times results from popular cultural practices. Recycling consumer products is helping to alleviate all the unwanted by-products that usually end up in landfills or burned in incinerators.  

Chapter 5 (Languages)

Key Issue 1: Where Are Languages Distributed?

Language is an important element of culture that people value. The distribution of languages represents cultural diversity, with an estimated 7,000 languages spoken globally. Approximately 85 languages are spoken by at least 10 million people and 300 languages by between 1 million and 10 million people. Not all languages have a system of written communication or literacy tradition.

The official language of a country is used by the government for laws, reports, and public objects such as road signs, money, and stamps. Many countries have more than one official language and may require all public documents to be in all languages.  
A language belongs to a group of closely related languages, which belongs to a branch of more distantly related languages, which in turn belongs to a still more distantly related language family.

Sino-Tibetan Nearly half the world speaks an Indo-European language. Sino-Tibetan is the second-largest language family in the world as it includes Mandarin, the world’s single most-spoken language.  The writing style is much different than English because each symbol represents a word instead of a sound. Reading a book requires understanding several thousand of these symbols which are known as ideograms.

Other Asian Language Families Other sizable language families include Austronesian (Indonesia), Austro-Asiatic (Vietnam), Tai Kadal (Thailand and portions of China), Japanese, and Korean. These languages developed independently because the people that speak them live on islands or peninsulas which caused them to be somewhat isolated from each other. Japanese and Korean have some similarities with the Chinese languages. 

Languages of Southwestern and Central Asia Arabic and Hebrew are languages in the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Quran (Koran) was written in Arabic and the Judeo-Christian Bible was written in Hebrew, so these languages are very important around the world.              
Turkish is a language in the Altaic language family. Other countries that have languages that are part of the Altaic language family include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Uralic language family has some similarities to the Altaic language, but experts now believe that they have different origins.   

African Language Families More than 1,000 distinct languages exist in Africa, but most lack a written tradition. Minimal interaction for thousands of years among thousands of African cultural groups is responsible for all the different languages. The most popular African language family is the Niger-Congo because Swahili is spoken by many Africans as a second language. The Nilo-Saharen and Khosian language families are also notable.    

Key Issue 2: Why Is English Related to Other Languages?

Germanic Branch English is part of the West Germanic group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Other West Germanic group languages include Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Afrikaans, and German. The other important Germanic group is North Germanic. The North Germanic group includes four languages spoken in Scandinavia—Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic.   

Indo-Iranian Branch Is the branch of the Indo-European language family with the most speakers. The Indo-Iranian branch includes the Indic group which is the main language group in densely populated India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. These languages include Persian (sometimes called Farsi) in Iran, Pashto in eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan, and Kurdish. The most commonly used language in the Indic group is Hindi. The Iranian group (Iran and southwest Asia) is separate from the Indic group.

Balto-Slavic Branch Slavic was once a single language, but differences developed when a group of Slavs migrated from Asia to Eastern Europe. The Slavs were isolated from each other and the languages changed over time. The Balto-Slavic branch is further divided into East Slavic and Baltic language groups and these groups include the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages. These languages are used in former Soviet countries. 

The Balto-Slavic branch also is divided into the West and South Slavic language groups that cover an area in Eastern Europe from Poland to Macedonia. The West and South Slavic group includes Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian languages.
Romance Branch The Romance branch is composed of descendants of Latin and stretches from Portugal along the Mediterranean to Slovenia and a pocket in Romania and Moldova. Many Romance languages have multiple dialects, some of which may be variously considered languages in their own right. The four most widely used Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. 
                 
Origin and Diffusion of English Celtic was the original language spoken by people who inhabited the British Isles, but the Celts were pushed north by Germanic-speaking invaders. Modern English evolved primarily from the languages spoken by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. Later invasions of Vikings and Normans further transformed the language. The Normans were from France and actually changed England’s official language to French for 300 years. Remnants of French remain in the English language.   
English is not the most commonly spoken language but is the most widely spoken. Its present distribution is largely the result of the British colonial empire. English first diffused to North America and Ireland. English later diffused to South Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa. The United States has also helped diffuse English as well.

Origin and Diffusion of Romance Languages The Romance languages developed from Latin. The Romans helped diffuse Latin from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the Black Sea on the east and encompassed all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Most people in the provinces controlled by Rome learned Vulgar Latin, which was a form of Latin used in daily conversation instead of the strict dialect that was used for official documents. After the Roman Empire collapsed, communication among the former provinces declined that distinct languages began to evolve.

Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European Since all members of Indo-European language families are related, they must come from a common origin. Linguists generally accept that all the Indo-European languages descended from a single ancestral language, but disagree on where the language originated and the process by which it diffused. Two hypotheses of the language family’s origin are the Nomadic Warrior Thesis, where the language originated with and was spread by the Kurgans, a people of central Asia, or alternatively the language originated with agricultural people from Anatolia, in present-day Turkey.
Key Issue 3: Why Do Individual Languages Vary among Places?

Mutually understandable yet different through variations in vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation, dialects often form when groups are separated from one another. Every word that is not used nationally has some geographic extent within the country and therefore has usage boundaries. These word boundaries are known as isogloss.   

Dialects in the United States The English dialect spoken by the first colonists determined the future speech patterns for their communities because later immigrants adopted the language used in their new homes when they arrived. The original settlements by the early colonists can be broken down into three dialect regions: New England, Southeastern, and Midlands. The dialects from the Southeast and New England are easily recognizable. Dialects’ differences tend to be the greatest in rural areas because people living in rural areas have little interaction with people from other dialect regions.

A fourth major dialect has developed in the West. The standard pronunciation throughout the American West comes from the Midlands rather than the New England and the Southeastern regions of the United States. This pattern occurred because most western settlers came from the Midlands.     

Dialects in the United Kingdom A Standard Language is a form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communication. The dialect of English that is now considered the standard language in England is called British Received Pronunciation (BRP). BRP was used by upper-class residents in London, Cambridge, and Oxford. Since Cambridge and Oxford are university cities, the dictionaries printed in the eighteenth century used the BRP. 

Like the United States, strong regional differences persist in dialects in England, especially in rural areas. The dialects can be grouped into three main ones—Northern, Midland, and Southern. The Southern dialect can be broken into to two subdialects.

British and American English Dialects English in the United States and England evolved independently in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with little influence on one another. U.S. dialect differs from the English dialect of England in three significant ways—vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Romance Branch Dialects Francien French became France’s official language in the sixteenth century. Francien French was the standard form of the French language around Paris. Local dialects tended to disappear because of Paris’s longtime dominance over France’s political, economic, and social life. There still is a north and south dialect difference in France, though.
Spanish and Portuguese have achieved worldwide significance because of the colonial era. The Portuguese and Spanish language spoken in the Western Hemisphere differs somewhat from the European versions. In Latin America new words have been added to the Spanish and Portuguese languages that were originally words of the indigenous people of Latin America. 

Dialect or Language? Difficulties arise in determining whether two languages are distinct or whether they are two dialects of the same language. There are several languages in Italy that were considered dialects of Italian and are now being viewed as separate languages by some experts. There is a dialect of Portuguese and a dialect of Romanian that may also be viewed as separate languages in the future. Creolized languages have formed as a mixture of a Romance language and the native language of a colony.

Key Issue 4: Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

Multilingual States Multilingual states can present problems when speakers of different languages compete for control of resources of a state, as is the case for Belgium. Switzerland represents a country with several official languages with few problems between speakers through a high degree of local control. Nigeria has 527 distinct languages and the example of Nigeria illustrates what can happen when language diversity is packed into a relatively small region.

Isolated Languages The languages without a language family are called isolated languages. The Basque language is the only language that survives from the period before the arrival of European speakers. Icelandic is related to other languages in the North Germanic group, but it is significant because it has changed less than any other language in the Germanic Branch. There also has been a recently discovered language in India that does not fit into a language group.

Extinct and Revived Languages As speakers of certain languages adopt other languages or simply die out, many languages have become classified as extinct languages. The Gothic language of Northern and Eastern Europe and many Native Americans languages have become extinct. Hebrew is the rare case of an extinct language that is actually being revived. Hebrew is one of the two official languages in Israel.   

Preserving Endangered Languages: Celtic Two thousand years ago, Celtic languages were spoken in much of present-day Germany, France, Northern Italy, and the British Isles. Today Celtic languages survive only in remote parts of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Recent efforts have prevented the disappearance of Celtic even though it is a precarious struggle with the diffusion of alternative languages used by people with greater political and economic strength. Welsh, Irish, Breton, Scottish, and Cornish are languages in the Celtic language branch.      
  
Aboriginal and Maori in Australia and New Zealand Both Australia and New Zealand have English as a dominant language though languages that predate British settlement survive in both countries. Australia and New Zealand have taken measures to encourage new immigrants to speak or learn English. New Zealand has more policies than Australia to preserve aboriginal languages predating British colonization. On the other hand, New Zealand’s language requirement for immigrants is more stringent than Australia’s. 
  
English: An Example of a Lingua Franca English is a language of international communication, which is also known as a lingua franca. People in smaller countries need to learn English to fully participate in the global economy. Some speakers of other languages speak a pidgin language, which is a form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca. A pidgin language is used among speakers of two different languages.

Expansion Diffusion of English Lingua francas like English were once spread by migration and conquest, but now English is spreading through expansion diffusion. English is constantly changing from different cultural influences. Some African Americans speak Ebonics, which is a dialect of English that was originally used as a code not understood by the slaves white masters. Appalachian English is a dialect of the Appalachian region and is a source of regional pride but has long been regarded by other Americans as a sign of poor education.  

Diffusion to Other Languages English is diffusing into other languages, as is the case for Franglais, a mixture of French and English, and Spanglish, a mixture of Spanish and English. The mix of German and English words is called Denglish.

Spanish and French in the United States and Canada Spanish has become an increasingly important language in recent years because of the large scale immigration from Latin America. In some communities, public notices, government documents, and advertising are printed in Spanish. In a reaction against the increasing use of Spanish in the United States, 30 states have laws making English the official language.

French is one of Canada’s two official languages, along with English. Most French speakers in Canada live in Quebec, and French must be the predominate language on all commercial signs. Quebec has renamed towns, rivers, and mountains that originally had English names. Many immigrants who move to Quebec would prefer to use English rather than French as their lingua franca but are prohibited from doing so by the Quebec government.

English on the Internet English has been the most important language on the Internet. Many non-English speakers have had difficulties with the Internet because the United States created the English-language nomenclature for the Internet that the rest of the world has followed.  As more users from more countries gain Internet access, the balance is shifting so that English is no longer as important. Mandarin will probably replace English as the most-frequently used online language before 2020.

Chapter 6 (Religions)
             
Key Issue 1: Where Are Religions Distributed?

Introduction Geographers are concerned with the distribution of the world’s religions because of the potential for religious conflict and the different ways that religions use space. Religion is another core value of culture but unlike other cultural values, few religions allow for people to join more than one religion.

The Dalai Lama is the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet. He left Tibet over the conflict between the government of China and the people of Tibet, which China invaded. Many Tibetan Buddhists feel a greater allegiance to the Dalai Lama and pre-Chinese Tibet than the new government. The Chinese are trying to encourage immigration to Tibet from other parts of China by building new roads, hospitals, schools, and power plants.

A universalizing religion appeals to people in a broad range of locations. The three universalizing religions with the largest number of adherents are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Ethnic religions tend to be most appealing to a particular group of people in a particular place. The largest ethnic religion by far is Hinduism.

Universalizing religions can be divided into branches, denominations, and sects. Branches are fundamental divisions within a religion. A denomination is a division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative body. A sect is a relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination.

Christianity Christianity is the largest religion in the world with an estimated 2 billion adherents (followers). Important branches of Christianity are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox. Christians are concentrated in the Western Hemisphere, with Catholics in Latin America, French Canada, and the U.S. Northeast and West. In Western Europe Protestants are more common in northern countries, Catholics are more common in the south, and Eastern Orthodox adherents in far Eastern Europe from Russia to Greece.

Many smaller branches of Christianity are also followed. Many of these smaller branches were isolated from other at an early point in the development of Christianity. This was partly the result of Islamic control of intervening territories in Southwest Asia and Northern Africa. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a smaller branch of Christianity in the Western Hemisphere.

Islam Islam has two major branches, Sunni and Shiite. Shiites are concentrated in Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. Sunnis comprise 83 percent of all Muslims and are the largest branch in most Muslim countries in Southwest Asia and North Africa. A large population of Sunni Muslims also lives in Indonesia.

Muslim-adhering populations make up small but growing percentages of Europe and North America. France and Germany have the largest Muslim population in Europe. France has had a large number of immigrants from North Africa and Germany has had a large number of immigrants from Southwest Asia, South Asia, and North Africa migrated to the United States during the 1990s. The United States also has a small population of African Americans who have converted to Islam.

Buddhism Buddhists are concentrated in China and Southeast Asia. There are three main branches: Mahayana, Theravada, and Tantrayana. In contrast to Christianity and Islam, Buddhism does not require exclusive adherence, so Buddhists may also follow ethnic religions. It also makes it difficult to get an accurate count of the number of Buddhists in the world.

Other Universalizing Religions The fourth- and fifth-largest universalizing religions are Sikhism and Baha’i, which are relatively young religions. There are an estimated 23 million Sikhs in the world and the vast majority of them live in the Punjab region of India. There are 7 million adherents of the Baha’i faith and most of them are dispersed among many countries, primarily in Africa and Asia.

Hinduism Hinduism is an ethnic religion concentrated in India. Its 900 million adherents make it larger than Buddhism’s 400 million and third in the world after Christianity and Islam. Hindus decide on particular deities based on personal choice; holy places for worship are geographically concentrated for some deities.

Other Asian Ethnic Religions Chinese traditional religions combine several traditions. It is difficult to count the number of adherents. Confucianism is based on ethical norms of behavior in daily life, such as following traditions, fulfilling obligations, and treating others with respect. Taoism is another Chinese ethnic religion and emphasized the mystical and magical aspects of life rather than the importance of public service. Several hundred million people practice primal-indigenous religions in Asia and the South Pacific islands.  

Other Ethnic Religions Ethnic African religions commonly follow animistic beliefs in the spiritual properties of plants, stones, and physical phenomena. Approximately 12 percent of Africans are animists. The number of animists in Africa has greatly declined in the last 30 years because Christianity and Islam are on the rise in Africa. This illustrates the growth of two universalizing religions at the expense of ethnic religions.  

Judaism represents an exception to the usual distribution of ethnic religions, as its 14 million adherents are relatively widespread around the world. Judaism is significant because it was the first monotheistic religion. Judaism offered a sharp contrast to the polytheistic religions that worshiped multiple gods. Also Christianity and Islam find some of their roots in Judaism.    
       
Key Issue 2: Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?

Origin of Buddhism Buddhism originated in the experiences and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who was transformed into the Buddha. Siddhartha grew up in present-day Nepal and was the son of a very wealthy lord. He left his life of comfort and security at age 28 and spent the rest of his life preaching his views across India. Different branches formed over competing interpretations of the teachings of the Buddha.

Origin of Christianity Christianity originated with the teachings of Jesus, who was born in the city of Bethlehem in present day Israel and was raised as a Jew. Christian branches formed over the differences in which set of doctrines (rules made after the death of Jesus) to adhere to. Roman Catholics accept the teachings of the Bible as well as the interpretation of those teachings by church hierarchy, headed by the Pope. Orthodox Christians have rejected doctrines that the Roman Catholic Church has added since the eighth century. Protestants believe that individuals have primary responsibility for achieving personal salvation through direct communication with God.

Origin of Islam Muhammad was born in the city of Makkah in present day Saudi Arabia. At age 40 Muhammad received his first revelation from God. The Quran is a record of God’s words as revealed to the prophet Muhammad. By Muhammad’s death at age 63, the armies of Islam controlled most of present day Saudi Arabia. The two branches of Islam formed over a disagreement of which person had a more rightful claim to the succession of leadership from Muhammad. 

Origin of Other Universalizing Religions Sikhism and Baha’i were founded more recently than the three universalizing religions. Sikhism is based on the teachings of Guru Nanak and his successors. Baha’i originated in the teachings and writings of the Bab and Baha’u’llah.

Unknown Origin of Hinduism In contrast to the universalizing religions, Hinduism has unknown origins as the religion existed before any recorded history. The earliest Hindu religious documents are about 3,500 years old. The Aryan tribes from Central Asia invaded India about 1400 b.c. and brought their religion with them. Centuries of intermingling with the Dravidians already living in the area modified their religious beliefs.

Diffusion of Christianity Christianity originated in the eastern Mediterranean and spread by relocation diffusion through Christian missionaries. The most notable missionary was Paul of Tarsus, who traveled extensively through the Roman Empire. Many people at that time practiced pagan or polytheistic religions. Christianity later spread by hierarchical diffusion through military conquest and conversion of rulers. Roman emperors Constantine and Theodosius were instrumental in spreading Christianity in Europe and areas near the Mediterranean Sea. 

Migration and missionary activities continue to diffuse Christianity all over the world. Through permanent resettlement of Europeans, Christianity became the dominant religion in North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Certain regions of North America are predominantly Catholic while others are predominately Protestant. Utah and large areas of some of the states adjacent to Utah are predominantly Mormon. Christianity has further diffused to Africa, where it is now the most widely practiced religion.
Diffusion of Islam Within a century of Muhammad’s death, Muslim armies conquered areas in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Some of the territory that was conquered by Islamic armies was eventually lost and some of those areas started practicing another religion. As was the case with Christianity, Islam diffused well beyond its hearth. Indonesia, which is the world’s fourth most populous country, is predominately Muslim because Arab traders brought the religion there in the thirteenth century.

Diffusion of Buddhism Buddhism diffused through missionaries also but diffused rather slowly compared to Christianity and Islam. The hearth of Buddhism is in northeastern India. The person most responsible for the diffusion of Buddhism was Emperor Asoka of the Magadhan Empire. The Magadhan Empire controlled a large area of South Asia between the sixth b.c. and the eighth century a.d. and Asoka sent missionaries to territories not controlled by the empire. Merchants diffused Buddhism to China and the Chinese were quite receptive to it. It later diffused to other countries in East Asia, though it lost its original base of support in India.

Diffusion of Other Universalizing Religions Sikhism has remained relatively clustered in the Punjab region of Northern India. The Punjab region was divided in half by the British government in 1947. The western Punjab region is part of Pakistan and the eastern Punjab region is part of India. The Sikhs prefer to live in Hindu dominated India instead of Muslim dominated Pakistan. Baha’i diffused more widely.

Lack of Diffusion of Ethnic Religions Ethnic religions lack missionaries and so are more likely to lose adherents to universalizing religions.  Ethnic religions may blend with universalizing religions. In Africa traditional religious ideas are merged with Christianity. Desire for the merger of traditional practices with Christianity has led to the formation of several thousand churches in Africa not affiliated with established churches elsewhere in the world. In East Asia, Buddhism is the universalizing religion that has most mingled with ethnic religions. Ethnic religions may also be diffused through the migration of adherents.
The diffusion of Judaism represents an exception to the usual concentrated distribution of ethnic religions. Judaism is practiced in many countries, not just in its place of origin. Jews were forced to migrate from the Eastern Mediterranean after a.d. 70, mostly into Eastern Europe. They lived among other nationalities but retained their religious practices. Many of the Jews were persecuted and forced to live in neighborhoods, known as ghettos, that were exclusively inhabited by Jews. The distribution of Jews changed after the mass extermination of Jews by the Nazis in World War II, when survivors migrated to Israel.

Key Issue 3: Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Patterns?

Places of Worship in Universalizing Religions Christian churches were traditionally constructed to be the tallest building. Churches represent holy structures for many Christian branches and are built large because of the importance given to attendance at the services. Muslim mosques are not considered sacred in Islam but instead are important gathering places for worship. Buddhism features elaborate pagodas which contain relics of the Buddha’s body or clothing. Pagodas are typically tall, many-sided towers arranged in series of tiers, balconies, and slanting roofs. Pagodas are not designed for congregational worship. 

Sacred Places in Universalizing Religions Universalizing religions are more likely to consider places holy that are associated with key events in the founder’s life. This can be observed in the holy places of Buddhism and Islam, which trace the movements of the Buddha and Muhammad. There are eight places that are considered holy to Buddhists because they were important events in the Buddha’s life. The cities of Makkah and Madinah are sacred to Muslims.  Every healthy Muslim who has adequate financial resources is expected to undertake a pilgrimage to Makkah. 

The Landscape in Ethnic Religions Ethnic religious holy places are typically based on the physical environment of the hearth region of that religion. Hindu holy places are all located in India and many Indian Hindus undertake pilgrimages to visit these sites. The natural features most likely to rank among the holiest shrines in India are riverbanks and coastlines. Because Hinduism has no central authority, the relative importance of shrines is established by tradition, not by doctrine. Hindu temples are built to house shrines for particular gods rather than for congregational worship.  The temple does not need a large closed interior space filled with seats. Hindu temples only contain a small dimly lit room where a symbolic artifact or some other image of the god rests.

Cosmogony Cosmogony refers to a religion’s conception of the relationship between humans and nature. A variety of events in the physical environment are more likely to be incorporated into the principles of an ethnic religion. Religious interpretations of this relationship vary from treating the environment as something to be respected for its spiritual nature to something to be dominated for maximum human benefit. Most universalizing religions believe that humans should modify the natural environment. Muslims and Christians believe they can serve God by cultivating land, draining wetlands, clearing forests, building new settlements, and otherwise making productive use of natural features that God created.  
 
Disposing of the Dead Religions observe different practices in the disposal of their adherents’ remains. Christians, Muslims, and Jews all practice burial in dedicated cemeteries. Cemeteries are used as parks in Muslim countries, where the idea of using a cemetery as public open space faces less opposition than in Christian societies. Hindus favor cremation to burial. Hindus consider cremation an act of purification because it frees the body from the soul for departure to the afterworld. Other groups leave the body exposed for scavengers or dispose of the human remains at sea.

Religious Settlements and Place Names Some settlements were designed with religious principles in mind. The ultimate expression of this idea was the utopian settlement, but many communities feature designs giving religions a prominent role in the community, for instance in locating a church in the center of the town. Salt Lake City is an example of a utopian town and it has a regular grid pattern and church-related buildings situated at strategic points.  Another way religion is reflected in geography is through the names given to towns. The United States clearly illustrates the differences between place names selected by Roman Catholic and Protestant settlers.

The Calendar in Judaism Judaism bases their calendar on the agricultural calendar of the religion’s homeland in present day Israel. The agricultural holidays later gained importance because they also commemorated events in the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. The observation of the solstices is important to some ethnic religions, but Judaism uses the lunar calendar rather than the solar calendar.

The Calendar in Universalizing Religions In universalizing religions, the calendar tends to be more oriented to holidays celebrating events in the founder’s life. The Islamic and Baha’i calendars do not follow the more common Gregorian 12-month calendars. Christians observe the resurrection of Jesus on Easter and his birth on Christmas. Eastern Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar, so they actually celebrate Easter at a different day than Catholics and Protestants. Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death. Sikhs observe the birthdays and dates of death of the 10 Sikh gurus.       
Hierarchical Religions Universalizing religions may have hierarchical structures where leadership at a local level reports to a higher-order regional level until a final authority, governing the entire branch, is at the top of the hierarchy. The Mormons exercise strong organization of the landscape.  The territory occupied by Mormons is managed by the president and board of the Mormon Church. The Roman Catholic Church has organized much of Earth’s inhabited land into an administrative structure ultimately accountable to the Pope in Rome. The Catholic Church divides the world into parishes, which may be as small as only a few square kilometers and less than a thousand people or as large as several hundred square miles and 5,000 people. 

Locally Autonomous Religions Other religions give local autonomy to individual churches and only loosely coordinate their operations. Islam provides a lot of local autonomy because it does not have a formal religious hierarchy or formal territorial organization. Strong unity within the Islamic world is maintained by a relatively high degree of communication. Protestant Christian denominations vary in geographic structure from extremely autonomous to somewhat hierarchical.

Key Issue 4: Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise among Religious Groups?

Religion versus Social Change Various conflicts have occurred between religions and governments. Conservative religious adherents sometimes oppose social change, sometimes brought on by economic development. In Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed very strict laws inspired by Islamic values. The Taliban believed they had been called by Allah to purge Afghanistan of sin and make the country a pure Islamic state. The Taliban not only opposed Western values, but also destroyed very old Buddhist statues. Many developed countries in the world completely oppose the Hindu caste system in India. The caste system still exists to a certain extent in India but has been considerably relaxed in recent years.

Religion versus Communism Religions have conflicted with communist governments, which have either downplayed the role of religion in everyday life or worked actively against religions. The Soviet Union pursued antireligious programs because the government believed that religious doctrine was a potential threat to the success of the country. All church buildings and property were nationalized and could be used only with local government permission. The communist governments in Southeast Asia have vandalized Buddhist monuments.

Religious Wars in Ireland The most troublesome religious conflict in Western Europe is in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is 46 percent Protestant and 40 percent Catholic and is part of the United Kingdom. Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland have been victimized by discriminatory practices, such as exclusion from higher paying jobs and better schools. A small number of Roman Catholics joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a militant organization dedicated to achieving Irish unity by any means possible. Since 1968, more than 3,000 people have been killed in Northern Ireland—both Protestants and Catholics—in a continuing cycle of demonstrations and protests.

Religious Wars in the Middle East Fundamentalist interpretations of religious principles may increase the likelihood of conflict with other religions. In the Middle East a long history of religious wars is the result of overlapping histories of three religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The crusades were a series of wars fought against Muslims in the Middle East by Christians intent on reclaiming Jerusalem. The Muslim Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine/Israel for most of four centuries between 1516 and 1917. Upon the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, the United Kingdom took control of the region.  The present-day conflict in Palestine/Israel has its roots in ancient history but more recently with the creation of the state of Israel by the United Nations in 1947. There have been several wars in the region since 1948.

Conflicting Perspectives of the Holy Land Conflict today centers around the status of the West Bank of the Jordan River, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip, which are all territories under Israeli control but claimed by the Palestinians.  The Palestinians are Muslims that either formerly lived or are currently living in Israel or territories under Israeli control. Some Palestinians are willing to recognize the state of Israel in exchange for the all the territory taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Other Palestinians do not recognize the right of Israel to exist and want to continue fighting for control of the entire territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.  
                     
Jerusalem: Contested Geography Jerusalem feature sites holy to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Controlling Jerusalem represents a key geographic problem to peace in the region. The most sacred space in Jerusalem for Muslims was literally built on top of the most sacred space for Jews. Israel allows Muslims unlimited access to their holy structures in Jerusalem and some control over them. However, because the holy Muslim structures literally sit on top of the holy Jewish structures, the two sets of holy structures cannot be logically divided by a line on a map.