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Key Terms: Chapter 11

Universalizing religions - Religions that actively seek converts because they view
themselves as offering belief systems of universal appropriateness and appeal

Ethic religions - Religions that generally do not seek converts outside the group that give
rise to the religion; consequently these religions are spatial concentrated

Christianity - The religion believing in the Holy Trinity; it is divided between Roman
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy

Islam - The fastest growing of the world’s major religions, dominant in Northern Africa
and Southwest Asia; the two major sects are the Sunni and Shi’ite

Hinduism - One of the world’s major religions concentrated in the single geographic
realm of India; it lacks major branches, a central authority, or a single prescriptive holy
book

Buddhism - One of the world’s major religions; it has historic roots in northern India, but
remains strong in Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. The major division is between the
Mahayana and Theravada forms of Buddhism

Shintoism - An ethnic religion, related to Buddhism, focusing primarily on nature and


ancestor worship; it is the state religion of Japan

Chinese religions - Religions dominant in China; have elements of Buddhism mixed with
local belief systems, ex. Confucianism and Taoism

Confucianism - A Chinese religion maintaining a certain philosophy of life

Taoism - A Chinese belief system emphasizing the idea that human happiness lay in
maintaining the proper relationship with nature

Judaism - One of the world’s most influential religions, spanning throughout the Middle
East, North Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the Americas. The three main branches
are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform

Shamanism - A traditional community faith in which people follow their shaman, a


religious leader, teacher, healer, and visionary.

Traditional religion - Religions rooted in local culture and society, involving beliefs in a
god as a creator and provider, divinities both superhuman and human, spirits, and life
hereafter; prominent in Africa

Sikhism - A minor religion of northwestern India containing elements of both Hinduism


and Islam
Nation of Islam - A Islamic movement beginning in the 1930s reflecting the desire of
American blacks to free themselves from white oppressors. Black Muslims await the
arrival of the messiah while subscribing to a doctrine of self-sufficiency

Syncretic religion - A religion resulting from the intermixing of elements of different


cultural sources in distinctive ways

Secularism - Indifference to or rejection of organized religious affiliations or ideas

Monotheistic religions - Worship a single deity

Polytheistic religions - Worship more than one deity

Animistic religions - Centered on the belief than inanimate objects possess spirits and
should therefore be revered

Zoroastrianism - A monotheistic religion in southwest Asia developing around the middle


of the first millennium B.C.

Key Terms: Chapter 12

Karma - The fundamental doctrine of Hinduism involving the transferability of the soul;
good deeds and adherence to the faith lead to a higher level in hierarchy in the next life

Reincarnation - The cornerstone principle of Hinduism; rebirth as another being in the


next life, depends upon karma

Caste system - A strict hierarchal system of Indian society; it locks people into particular
social classes and imposes many restrictions

Untouchables - The lowest of the castes in the caste system

Jainism - A minor religion in South Asian developed in reaction to Hinduism; similar to


Buddhism and influential due to the wealth of its adherents

Taoism - A Chinese religion emphasizing the idea that human happiness lay in
maintaining the proper relationship with nature; it is based on the text Tao-te-ching or the
“Book of Way”
Feng Shui - The art and science of organizing living spaces in order to channel the life
forces that exist in nature in favorable ways.

Confucianism - A philosophy of ethics, education, and public service based on the


writings of Confucius and traditionally thought of as one of the core elements of Chinese
culture.

Diaspora - The spatial dispersion of members of any ethnic group

Ashkenazim - Jews who after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem traveled north into
Central Europe

Sephardim - Jews who after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem scattered across North
Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula

Zionism - The movement to unite the Jewish people of the diaspora and the establish a
national homeland for them in Palestine

Caliphate - A Muslim community

Sunni - The largest sect of Islam, emphasizing the belief in the effectiveness of family
and community in the solution of life’s problems; accept the traditions of Muhammad

Shiite (Shiah) - One of the two major divisions of Islam; emphasizes the belief in the
infallibility and divine right to authority of the Imams, descendants of Ali
Imams - Shiite Muslim leaders whose appointments are regarded as sanctioned by Allah;
they are thought to be without sin and infallible

Sayyids - Descendants of the family of Ali found East Africa

Sharifs - Descendants of the family of Ali found in North Africa

Crusades - Holy war between Christians and Muslim over control of Jerusalem or the
Holy Lands, occurring between 1095 and 1199.

Key Terms: Chapter 13

Interfaith boundaries - The boundaries between the world’s major faiths


Sharia religious laws - Harsh moral and criminal codes imposed in the Islamic faith

Exclave - A bounded piece of territory that is a part of a particular state but lies separated
from it by the territory of another state

Enclave - A piece of territory that is surrounded by another political unit of which it is not
apart

Ethnic cleansing - The slaughter and/or forced removal of othe ethnic group from its
homes and lands by another ethnic group

Intrafaith boundaries - The boundaries between branches of a major religion

Religious fundamentalism - Religious movement whose objectives are to return to


concentration on the basic values and beliefs of a faith and to influence state policy

Ayatollah - A supreme religious leader

Jihad - Islamic holy war; may be interpreted as personal or global

Islamic republic - A completely Islamic state; Muslim leaders called for the establishment
of an Islamic republic in Algeria in 1991.

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