Religion

Human Geography lists the world’s religions, their places of origin, along with their distribution and diffusion around the globe. It begins simply with their origin and explaining that ethnic religions are generally localized religions appealing to a group of people, Hinduism for example.

Universalizing religions on the other hand are those that spread out globally and are appealing to a majority of people such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. These are the major universalizing religions of the world. Christianity and Islam have had a long history of opposition with regard to which is correct and much bloodshed has resulted from this opposition. Universalizing religions are bent on getting their message out and converting those who are not familiar with or oppose their beliefs, to convert.

Each has had great success in amassing huge numbers of followers with Christianity having more than 2 billion adherents in a number of branches, denominations and sects. Christianity is predominantly found in North and South America, Europe and Australia. Islam is the preferred religion of 1.3 billion followers mainly in the Middle East from North Africa to Central Asia. Buddhism has nearly 400 million followers predominantly in China and Southeast Asia.

Anthropology is interested in religion because people act on the basis of their beliefs, and religion includes many strongly held beliefs. When anthropologists look at a culture’s religious beliefs a couple of things must be considered. First it must be understood what religion is. It is found in every culture and includes a belief in some form of the supernatural, includes the worship of a force or forces, and involves faith. Secondly, religion is not empirical because God is not empirical, meaning that it cannot be observed by at least one of the five senses. Anthropology will not try to prove or disprove the reality of any culture’s deity or deities, but rather take a humanistic approach and explain religion based on what is observed, to include why it exists and what its function is.

Some interesting ideas on the origins and functions of religion have been noted by anthropologists and sociologists. The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski found that religion can be a substitute for science when he observed the Trobriand Islanders using science to navigate the waters and when that failed they turned to their religion or magic to save them. French sociologist Emile Durkheim believed that religion bound people together socially and gave them a sense of belonging. Some other functions of religion are answers to the big questions about the world around us. How did we get here? What is our purpose in life? It also gives comfort in times of distress and also gives us something to look forward to after we die such as rewards in the next world. It also has helped with social control. Take a look at the 10 Commandments for example.

As religion is a very touchy topic, I believe that it is the duty of ethnographic anthropologists to remember that they must look at cultures from a holistic perspective -no judgments- and accurately document what they observe. Any preconceived notions or thoughts about a particular religion should be shed and a clean slate started to ensure that the information they publish is fact and not feeling. There is far too much ignorance in the world when it comes to religious beliefs. I am not only talking about the major Universalizing religions, but those that most believe are not really religions at all, especially the “New Age” religions. Since I have been studying anthropology, this has really weighed heavy on me. I am not a traditional religious person myself. I can see the good in all religions. I also see the bad, which includes intolerance of other religious beliefs. Ignorance not unintelligence is the culprit here. I have seriously considered working on something like this and should I decide later to do some ethnographic work, I would like to focus on this. The website religioustolerance.org lists information on about 40 different religions and is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about the various religions.

We were all born with free will and it would do the world some good if people could remember that.

References:
Contemporary Human Geography, Rubenstein, James M., Prentice Hall, Pearson, 2010
Dr. E. Steve Cassells, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, WY, Cultural Anthroplogy Class
http://www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm