Geography Reference
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ences. Others believe that Judaism itself was the fi rst
monotheistic religion. Whichever the case, the eventual
diffusion of Christianity and Islam spread monotheistic
ideas throughout much of the world and marked a major
theological shift from the long dominance of polytheis-
tic and animist beliefs in most places. The transforma-
tion from polytheistic to monotheistic religions happened
quite rapidly in Subsaharan Africa. In 1900, neither reli-
gion had many followers in Subsaharan Africa, though
Islam had many followers in North Africa by 1900. By
2010, the number of Muslims in Subsaharan Africa had
grown from 11 million to 234 million, and the number of
Christians had grown from 7 million to 470 million.
By 500
Describe how religion and language affect and change each
other to shape cultures. Consider what happens to a soci-
ety's religion and language when a different religion or lan-
guage diffuses to the place.
WHERE DID THE MAJOR RELIGIONS
OF THE WORLD ORIGINATE, AND HOW
DO RELIGIONS DIFFUSE?
Despite the wide variety of religions found around
the world, they are commonly classifi ed into three catego-
ries based on their approaches to the concept of divinity.
Adherents of monotheistic religions worship a single
deity, a God or Allah. Believers in polytheistic religions
worship more than one deity, even thousands. Animistic
religions are centered on the belief that inanimate
objects, such as mountains, boulders, rivers, and trees,
possess spirits and should therefore be revered.
Throughout much of human history, virtually all
religions were either animistic, polytheistic, or both.
Somewhere around 3500 years ago, however, a mono-
theistic religion developed in Southwest Asia called
Zoroastrianism. (The Parsi we talked about at the begin-
ning of Chapter 4 are Zoroastrians who moved to India.)
Some believe that the monotheism of late Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam can be traced to Zoroastrian infl u-
(Before the Common Era), four major
hearths of religion and philosophy were developed in the
world (Fig. 7.5). The hearth of Greek philosophy is along the
northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. From a hearth in
South Asia, along the Indus River Valley, came Hinduism;
from a hearth on the eastern Mediterranean came Judaism;
and from a hearth on the Huang He River Valley in China
came Chinese philosophies. These early-established reli-
gions and philosophies profoundly impacted other religions,
as the arrows in Figure 7.5 demonstrate. Philosophies and
religions diffused from their hearths, affecting one another
and infl uencing the ways founders established newer reli-
gions. The two religions with the greatest number of adher-
ents in the world today, Christianity and Islam, were both
infl uenced by Judaism and Greek philosophy.
bce
The World Map of Religions Today
The map in Figure 7.6 provides a global overview of the
distribution of the world's major religions. Any map of
Figure 7.5
Hearths of Major World Religions. Adapted with permission from : Albert M. Craig, William
M. Graham, Donald Kagan, Stephen Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. The Heritage of World
Civilizations , 7th ed., New York: Prentice Hall, 2006.
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