how did geography affect religious events in china

However, the other world religions can be easily separated from ethnicity. However, until the Enlightenment, this distinction was rarely made. Thus, China grew independently with lesser external influence on its cultural growth. This allowed China to develop independently without any outside influences. Due to the vast differences of landcover throughout China, there are also many other contrasting climates. Gerrymandering History, Types & Examples | What is Gerrymandering? Accordingly, an understanding of regional geography is absolutely essential for a proper understanding of the geographical and meteorological motifs that have developed there and remained relevant and compelling in Levantine culture for the past few thousand years. 1 God in ___ persons.a. Geography may be part of the answer. , saved through our faith in God.b. I feel like its a lifeline. Geography 101: Human & Cultural Geography, The Geography of Languages, Religions, and Material Culture, Material Culture in Sociology: Definition, Studies & Examples, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Adam De Gree, Christine Serva, Lesley Chapel, How Geography and Culture Affect Religion, Introduction to Human & Cultural Geography, Language & Language Regions: Definitions & Dialects, The World's Major Languages: Development & Diffusion, The World's Major Written Languages: Letters & Symbols, What are Emoticons? When we study Elijah, St. George, and al-Khir as regional religious figures, however, and study their Biblical and Qurnic texts in the context of contemporaneous religious, political, and geographical influences, their linkages and associations in text, image, and popular practice become much clearer, and their shared agricultural motifs do not appear at all peculiar. A geographer of religion attempts to understand how religious beliefs and practices affect people of a certain society and region. Regis University Georgic Cults and Saints of the Levant. In, Knott, Kim. By Erica Ferg The most obvious change in political institutions was that the old feudal structure was replaced by systems of incipient bureaucracy under monarchy. The Han are the largest group in China, while the Zhuang is the largest minority group. They represent moments-in-time; each text, image, or site functions like a small window into history. Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Indus Valley civilizations all developed near each other and could trade and influence one another. Today, religious beliefs continue shaping the decisions and practices of people in East Asia, including a growing number of Christians throughout the region. China, Chinese (Pinyin) Zhonghua or (Wade-Giles romanization) Chung-hua, also spelled (Pinyin) Zhongguo or (Wade-Giles romanization) Chung-kuo, officially Peoples Republic of China or Chinese (Pinyin) Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo or (Wade-Giles romanization) Chung-hua Jen-min Kung-ho-kuo, country of East Asia. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Geography, Space and the Sacred. In The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed., 476491. A more contemporary approach to the study of the intersections of geography and religion not only highlights the role of religion in affecting landscape changes and in assigning sacred meanings to specific places, but also acknowledges how in turn, religious ideology and practice at specific spaces are guided and transformed by their location. This influence exists in a religious culture for as long as geography can be said to be the most influential factor impacting everyday life. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. 2010. What are the effects of geography on language development? Each had its own contribution to the region. The geography of religion also takes account of the relationship between religion and ethnicity. 168 lessons The climatological weather patterns of the wider Mediterranean Sea region govern seasonal wind flows, as well as precipitation. Despite similar characteristics between Baal-Hadad, Elijah, St. George, and al-Khir, and the fact that, for at least the past 800 years, local agricultural communities of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Alawites, and others have venerated and often conjoined these figures, outside of the Eastern Mediterranean, the linkages between these figures previously were unable to be seen. The largest desert in east Asia is the Gobi Desert. ), Qin (221-206 B.C.E. Understanding the interaction between a natural environment and various human and cultural patterns is an essential aspect of geography. 4 How does geography affect society culture and trade? Expert Answers. West Asia is the subcontinent that connects Asia to the Mediterranean and Europe. Geography does not only affect particular religions system, such as the world's major faiths, are located but it can affect how specific beliefs are practiced and attitude. The lush plains of the east and west became populated areas of India. Assistant Professor, Religious Studies There were advantages and disadvantages to these natural barriers. China, which has the largest population of any country in the world, is composed of diverse ethnic and linguistic groups. Religion is a driving force in the lives of billions of people around the world. The South Sea is south of Taiwan along the southeast coast of China. Time Geography Overview & Examples | What is Time Geography? Northeast China experiences short summers and cold, drawn out winters. Create your account. In 1969, Hassan S. Haddad wrote a brief article titled Georgic Cults and Saints of the Levant, wherein he noted the similarities of Elijah, St. George, and al-Khir among agricultural communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Levant (Haddad 1969, 21-39). Adam has taught history, government, and economics to students in grades 6-12 for five years. The Splintered Divine: A Study of Itar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East, Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 5. 1: 144. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Identifying the common geographical and cultural environment for these figures explains as well why these figures are not shared in the same way outside of the Levant. There are just too many topics cover! Geography of Religion methods allow us the opportunity more clearly to understand both of these phenomena. Map Showing the Location of the Seas off the Eastern Coast of China. Among the major countries of the world, China is surpassed in area by only Russia and Canada, and it is almost as large as the whole of Europe. It explores the ways in which religion, its symbols, rites, beliefs and hopes have shaped the world in which we live. Geographers look at physical, cultural, and legal characteristics to better understand how religion impacts society. Yes. In the Indian subcontinent, the fertile land and ample water resources led to the development of complex agricultural societies, which in turn led to the development of polytheistic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category. In Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam, 2754. Also known as: Chung-hua, Chung-hua Jen-min Kung-ho-kuo, Chung-kuo, Peoples Republic of China, Zhongguo, Zhonghua, Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo, Emeritus Professor of Chinese, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 2: 121168. These religions emphasized the importance of living in harmony with nature and the cycles of life, which was well suited to the agricultural way of life. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Hainan Province is the southern most province and the smallest in China. Many of these features, like different mountain ranges and deserts, created natural barriers to keep ancient China isolated and protected. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". She is an instructional designer, educator, and writer. China, the largest of all Asian countries, occupies nearly the entire East Asian landmass and covers approximately one-fourteenth of the land area of Earth, making it almost as large as the whole of Europe. The Gobi Desert runs across the northern border of China and the southern border of Mongolia. Advertisement Expert-Verified Answer 273 people found it helpful Sildonia Answer INDIA The lush plains of the east and west became populated areas of India. In the past, it was common for entire peoples to convert as a whole when their leaders converted. That suggests that we in religious studies need better to recognize regional specificity even for global religions and that we need to recognize the existence of regionally specific relationships between religious traditions. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. In his article, Haddad was the first to make the provocative but unsubstantiated claim that the cults of these georgic saints is a continuation, with variations, of the cults of the Baals of ancient Syria (Haddad 1969, 22), referring to the millennia-long regionally dominant figure of the Syro-Canaanite storm-god, Baal-Hadad, as well as to Baals regional syncretic manifestations. Faith connects and gives meaning to everything, uniting people around shared values. Instead, the three main rivers in the Levant the Orontes, the Litani, and the Jordan as well as smaller regional rivers and hundreds of far smaller, seasonal tributaries, together with a few surface lakes and the regional aquifers, have provided the water resources necessary for life in the Levant. DepartmentBldg Tucson, AZ 85721 TEL 520-621-6897 FAX 520-626-9014. 4d. Religious beliefs and ideas, symbols and practice, are naturally affected by the social and geographical conditions in which the theology is elaborated (Hinnels 2010, 13). | 11 To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. By having faith,we can grow our relationship in God,not only that,we can also get closer to God,not only by lacking faith,but also having faith.d. The geography in a certain region might be a feature of the landscape that impedes movement of human populations. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. These religions emphasized the importance of living a simple and spiritual life, which was well suited to the harsh living conditions of the desert. Geography can influence the shaping of culture, religion, politics, and the economy of a country or a region. There are several different regions of the desert, ranging from having very cold climates to very hot climates, but there is a severe lack of water throughout the whole desert. The attempt to convert people through the use of violence has made a regular appearance throughout history. Its climate ranges from extremely dry, desertlike conditions in the northwest to tropical monsoon in the southeast, and China has the greatest contrast in temperature between its northern and southern borders of any country in the world. Similar phenomena and characteristics neither appear in the mythological or cosmogonic stories of warmer-weather locations, like the Levant, nor would they have resonated with the same effect among people there. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Indeed, many non-Western people today do not recognize a difference between religion and culture. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Most Americans polled in 2022 expect to see a civil war within their lifetimes. Although China's diverse geography prevented trade and expansion, it also served as protection by keeping out invaders. China is located in East Asia and at the West is the Pacific Ocean. Like other early civilizations, Ancient China developed along rivers: the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. This event is described in the Poetic Edda, an anonymous collection of Old Norse poetry that comes from the 13th-century Icelandic Codex Regius and represents our earliest-extant source of Norse mythology. God.c. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Even in less extreme faiths, people may lose friendships and strain relationships with family members should they renounce their beliefs. The Yellow Sea lies along the eastern coast of China between China and the Korean Peninsula, and it also extends into the Western Pacific Ocean. Al-Khir and Elijah are associated as well, especially in Islamic religious texts, and al-Khir and St. George share iconographical representation (mounted on horseback or standing, vanquishing a dragon, snake, or human foe underfoot). News and Interpretations on the Bible and Ancient Near East History. With its mountain ranges jutting upward next to the sea and just inland of a narrow band of coastal plains, the mountainous topography of the region governs which areas of the Levant attract rainfall the windward sides of the mountains and which areas are perennially dry the leeward sides of the mountains, which descend into dry plains and plateaus to the east. We need faith because we lack faith.c. However, unlike in Mesopotamia, with the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, or in Egypt, with the Nile River, the Levant lacks similarly large and annually flooding rivers that can be used as water resources and for largescale irrigation. Asad, Talal. Specifically, it was Asia Minor(or Anatolia), which is now modern-day Turkey, became the landbridge between Europe and Asia. In some areas of China, especially in the southwest, many different ethnic groups are geographically intermixed, including Buyi, Miao, Dong, Tibetans, Mongolians, and others. Agricultural concerns, foremost among them water, droughts, and crop yields, shaped the contours of agrarian religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2008. To that end, and as compared with a traditional world religions paradigm, theories associated with the field of Geography of Religion represent a more-promising approach for understanding the ways in which locality and temporality inform religious phenomena. Indeed, increasing secularism in the West has been accompanied by rising social tensions. And these motifs extend even further back in time. A traveler can reach populations of people in whichever direction he decides to go to, whether he was on foot or on the back of an animal. unholy spirit.4. Those texts usually have been interpreted in tradition-specific ways that reinforce internal theological principals and religious identities and leave no natural reason, on the basis of their texts, to understand Baal-Hadad, Elijah, St. George, and al-Khir as anything other than discrete, unrelated figures from within their respective and separate religious communities. The world religions paradigm is the theoretical framework from within which most of the investigations involving the popular Jewish, Christian, and Muslim figures of Elijah, St. George, and al-Khir have been undertaken. Occupying nearly the entire East Asian landmass, it covers approximately one-fourteenth of the land area of Earth. Probably, due to The Warring States period before China's unification in 221 BC. These terrains were dangerous for Armies to travel. This would constitute apostasy, a crime which is punishable by death. Although there is not space in this forum to detail this argument, in my recent book, Geography, Religion, Gods, and Saints in the Eastern Mediterranean (New York: Routledge, 2020), which is the product of nearly a decade of research, I investigate the regional importance and longevity of the storm-god Baal-Hadad, as well as subsequent local counterparts such as Levantine Zeus, Jupiter, and even St. George, and alternative and corollary figures like Hebrew Bible Elijah, Late Antique Elijah, and al-Khir. 8. Of these, the Beijing dialect is the most widespread Chinese tongue and has officially been adopted as the basis for the national language. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. The Ancient Chinese have thrived for thousands of years because of the geography, their skills, and their talents. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. It is the largest of all Asian countries and has the largest population of any country in the world. New York: Routledge. Most people in the Americas are Christian, while almost everyone on the Arabian Peninsula is Muslim. The Eastern Mediterranean was shaped by certain geographical and climatological forces that enabled life, through rainfall agriculture, but that also limited life, due to a lack of largescale irrigative rivers, constant aridity, and the blight of frequent drought. Green, Alberto R. W. 2003. Monotheism History, Origin & Examples | What is Monotheism? copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. That is because a traditional world religions perspective of these figures understood the figures only in isolation, uprooted from their local settings, and separated from their local communities. Pretend that you are a geographer studying religion. The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category. In, Haddad, Hassan S. 1969. As more and more people shared the same set of beliefs and practices, people who did not know each other could find common ground and build mutual trust and respect. Language Development & Diffusion | What are the Most Spoken Languages? In general, the Eastern Mediterranean is arid, with rainfall totals decreasing from north to south and west to east, and with drought being a regular climatological condition. What are the major teachings of Buddhism? Another way in which we can see the effects of geography on religious narratives, figures, motifs, metaphors, and structures in this example, in the area of the Levant is through the notion of agrarian religion, first identified and coined by James Grehan in his 2014 book, Religious traditions are always a product of both time and place. Since the 1960s, the field of Geography of Religion has evolved in various ways, but one of its more important contributions is the contextualization of religion that is evident in local, geographically oriented studies of religion (Stump 2008, 177; Knott 2010, 476-491). For many in these collectivist societies, one's religion is determined by the culture and reinforced through family legacy. Why did geography study the spread of Christianity on a worldwide scale? The Invention of World Religions. 3c. Central to Chinas long-enduring identity as a unitary country is the province, or sheng (secretariat). The floods would sometimes become uncontrollable, until the Chinese developed a system . Haddad, Hassan S. 1960. For example, in Yemen, it is illegal to convert from Islam to another religion. Explore China's iconic cultural monument the Great Wall of China. This lesser position is likely to reflect both Babylonian geography and agricultural practices: the storm-god as bringer of rain has no role in the agrarian rituals of Babylonia, where agriculture was characterized by irrigation (Schwemer 2007, 130-131). Shanghai is the main industrial city; Hong Kong is the leading commercial centre and port. Geographers do not simply look at physical features, such as mountains and deserts, that have formed the borders between religions in the past. However, cultural influences do not just change the external shape of religion. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The years from the 8th century bce to 221 bce witnessed the painful birth of a unified China. Indeed, even in the West, religious differences can be met with fear and spark conflict. What are the effects of religion to our culture? China's physical geography made farming possible but travel and communication difficult. The Geography of Religion: Faith, Place and Space. 4. The country is bounded by Mongolia to the north; Russia and North Korea to the northeast; the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea to the east; the South China Sea to the southeast; Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, and Nepal to the south; Pakistan to the southwest; and Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to the west. However, liberalism is far from the ''default position'' of human life. Its early civilization stayed contained within the natural barriers and did not start spreading until trade routes were developed. Southern China has a very subtropical climate and remains mildly warm to hot throughout the year. According to Alberto R.W. As a native of the Levant, Haddad uniquely was positioned to have been aware, as well, of the common practices surrounding these figures between local communities of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others. Religious groups might even come to violence over past persecution, significant differences, or land disputes. Author of, William Haas Professor Emeritus of Chinese Politics, Stanford University, California. Some other well-known mountains in China are the Kunlun Mountains, the Tianshan Mountains, and the Qinling Mountains. Most of Europe, the Americas, and many African countries are characterized by a Christian heritage that has made most of the population Christian today. As the agrarian orientation of our societies gradually has diminished since the mid-20th century CE, the original influence of geography has persisted within our religious traditions its just that, usually, we cant see it any longer. Impact Of Geography On China Ancient China is one of the oldest and longest lasting civilizations in the world. China is a country located in east Asia. It does not store any personal data. In the modern West, the great religions of the world coexist side-by-side. -Most people are born into their religion. For them, religion is simply the way that life is. In many North African and Middle Eastern countries, on the other hand, Islam is dominant. Influence of geography on language development can be of many types: 1. Lastly, Geography of Religion as a method helps underscore, as well, the importance of cultural context within religious studies. The Silk Road Overview & Trade Items | What was the Silk Road? China has 33 administrative units directly under the central government; these consist of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities (Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin), and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). For example, ISIS terrorists often invoked the Crusades, which ran from 1095 to 1271, in their campaign to establish an Islamic state in the 2010s.

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