Distribution of Ethnic Religions

Ethnic religions typically have much more clustered distributions than do universalizing religions. Unlike universalizing religions, which typically diffuse from one culture to another, most of the adherents of the world’s leading ethnic religions have remained embedded in the culture where they originated. Adherents to an ethnic religion are typically a people with a shared history, language, and destiny. Rituals are performed to pray for favorable environmental conditions or to give thanks for past success.

Distribution of Hindus

The ethnic religion with by far the largest number of followers is Hinduism, which is the world’s third-largest religion, with 1.2 billion adherents. The average Hindu has allegiance to a particular god or concept within a broad range of possibilities. The manifestation of God with the largest number of adherents—an estimated 80 percent—is Vaishnavism, which worships the god Vishnu, a loving god incarnated as Krishna. The second-largest is Shaivism, dedicated to Shiva, a god who can be both protective and destructive

Hindu Temple

Sculpture of the gods Shiva and Parvati atop bulls, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India.

In contrast to the large universalizing religions, 97 percent of Hindus are concentrated in just one country (India), 2 percent are in Nepal, 1 percent are in Bangladesh, and small numbers are elsewhere. Hindus comprise more than 80 percent of the population of India and Nepal and 49 percent of the population of Mauritius, a small island country in the Indian Ocean with only 1.3 million total inhabitants

Pause & Reflect 6.1.5

What is the most-numerous universalizing religion in India?

Primal-Indigenous Ethnic Religions

Several hundred million people practice what Adherents.com has grouped into the category primal-indigenous religions. Most of these people reside in Southeast Asia or on South Pacific islands, especially in Vietnam and Laos

Followers of primal-indigenous religions believe that because God dwells within all things, everything in nature is spiritual. Narratives concerning nature are specific to the physical landscape where they are told.

Included in this group are Shamanism and Paganism. According to Shamans, invisible forces or spirits affect the lives of the living. “Pagan” used to refer to the practices of ancient peoples, such as the Greeks and Romans, who had multiple gods with human forms. The term is currently expanded to also include other beliefs that originated with religions that predate Christianity and Islam.

Chinese Traditional Ethnic Religions

Religions based in East Asia show the difficulty of classifying ethnic religions and counting adherents. Chinese traditional religions are syncretic, which means they combine several traditions. Adherents.com considers Chinese traditional religions to be a combination of Buddhism (a universalizing religion) and Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional Chinese practices. Most Chinese who consider themselves religious blend together the religious customs of these multiple traditions.

Confucianism

Confucius (551–479 B.C.E.) was a philosopher and teacher in the Chinese province of Lu. His sayings, which were recorded by his students, emphasized the importance of the ancient Chinese tradition of li, which can be translated roughly as “propriety” or “correct behavior.” Confucianism prescribed a series of ethical principles for the orderly conduct of daily life in China, such as following traditions, fulfilling obligations, and treating others with sympathy and respect. These rules applied to China’s rulers as well as to their subjects.

Taoism

Laozi (604–ca. 531 B.C.E., also spelled Lao-tzu) developed Taoism. Although a government administrator by profession, Laozi's writings emphasized the mystical and magical aspects of life rather than the importance of public service, which Confucius had emphasized. Tao, which means “the way” or “the path,” cannot be comprehended by reason and knowledge because not everything is knowable (Figure 6-18). It emphasizes the importance of studying nature to find one’s place in the world instead of striving to change the world.

Taoists pray during a birthday celebration for the Tao goddess Bixia Yuanjun (Lady of Mount Tai), Liutong, China.

African Traditional Folk Religions

Approximately 35 million Africans, 3 percent of the continent’s people, are estimated by Pew to follow folk religions, sometimes called animism. According to animism, elements of the natural world such as plants, stones, and events such as thunderstorms and earthquakes, are “animated,” or have discrete spirits and conscious life. Today Africa is 51 percent Christian—split about evenly among Roman Catholic, Protestant, and other—and 43 percent Muslim. This distribution is in sharp contrast with the past. In 1900, more than 70 percent of Africans followed traditional folk religions. As recently as 1980, nearly one-half of Africans—around 200 million people—were still classified as folk religionists. The growth in the two universalizing religions at the expense of ethnic religions reflects fundamental geographic differences between the two types of religions. Remaining folk religionists in Africa are clustered primarily in a belt that separates predominantly Muslim North Africa from what has become predominantly Christian sub-Saharan Africa

Distribution of African Traditional Religions