Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.27
Vatican City.
Pope John Paul II
greeted pilgrims at a general audi-
ence in St. Peter's Square. Thousands
gathered each week to see the pope
and hear him greet visitors in mul-
tiple languages.
© Erin H. Fouberg.
rather than cremate, their dead, and in cities, the cem-
eteries are often crowded with tombstones. Outside of
European cities and in North America, Christian cem-
eteries can resemble large parks. These cemeteries often
refl ect class differences: some graves are marked by sim-
ple tombstones, whereas others are elaborate structures.
With rising land-use pressures and the associated costs of
burial, however, cremation is becoming increasingly com-
mon among Christians—particularly in North America
and western Europe.
Florida, where a large Spanish Catholic cluster has
emerged in metropolitan Miami.
More interesting than the simple regionalization
of religions in the United States is the variation in cul-
tural landscapes within regions. In a 2008 study, geog-
raphers Barney Warf and Mort Winsberg used data on
religious adherents by county in the United States to
discern what counties and regions of the country have
the most and the least religious diversity. Warf and
Winsberg defi ned religious diversity as having a vari-
ety of religions within a small spatial unit, in this case
a county. One way the authors mapped religious diver-
sity is presented in Figure 7.29, a map showing counties
with the least religious diversity in the darkest colors. In
counties with the darkest shading, one religion accounts
for 64 percent or more of all religious adherents in the
county. In comparing Figure 7.29 to Figure 7.28, we
can see that the Mormon region in Utah and southern
Idaho, the Southern Baptist region in the South, and the
Catholic region of the Northeast are some of the least
diverse regions in the country. In these regions, you can
expect to see the imprint of one major religion through-
out the cultural landscape. By contrast, religious regions
characterized by many lightly colored counties have a
rich religious mix.
The plain white churches of the South and
Lutheran Upper Midwest coincide with the Protestant
Church's pragmatic spending of church money—not on
art and architecture as the Catholic Church historically
did (Fig. 7.30). Conversely, many Catholic churches in
the United States, both in the Northeast and in Chicago,
as well as in other immigrant-magnet cities, were built
by immigrants who lived in ethnic neighborhoods.
Religious Landscapes in the United States
The United States, a predominantly Christian country,
demonstrates considerable diversity in its religious cul-
tural landscapes. In
The Cultural Geography of the United
States
, geographer Wilbur Zelinsky constructed a map
identifying religious regions in the country. Figure 7.28
presents a modifi ed version of Zelinsky's map. The reli-
gious regions on the map are familiar to anyone who has
even the most general impression of cultural differences
in the United States.
The New England region is strongly Catholic;
the South's leading denomination is Baptist; the Upper
Midwest has large numbers of Lutherans; and the
Southwest is predominantly Spanish Catholic. The
broad midland region extending from the Middle
Atlantic to the Mormon region (in the Western United
States) has a mixture of denominations in which no sin-
gle church dominates; this is also true of the West. As
Figure 7.28 shows, some regions represent local cluster-
ing, such as the French Catholic area centered in New
Orleans and the mixed denominations of Peninsular
