The Interconnectedness of Geography, Culture and Religions
In this essay that is based on the lecture by Professor Jens Micah De Guzman, we will analyze the interconnectedness of geography, culture and religions.
We can prove that geography, religion, and culture are practically interrelated. Geography influences religion, and religion, in turn, affects culture.
How does geography influence religion?
It is a common knowledge that civilizations ordinarily develop in and around river systems where there are easy access to water, food sources, and irrigation systems. This geographical state permits people to grow crops and thus shift from the hunter gatherer lifestyle to becoming agriculturist—farming and domesticating livestock.
The Ganges, Indus Valley, the Nile, and Amazon River are geographical regions where various kinds of people have developed over time. Dissimilarities in culture result in diverse religious inclinations which incorporate their environments into their rituals, mythologies, and iconography. This partially explains the rise of various religions in these places.
The origin of some features within a religion can also be explained by geography. For instance, shrines in Shintoism have been built for reasons that include geography (e.g. mountain shrines). Every shrine typically has a “kami” (god), which may be a natural or topographical feature. The “kami” is said to normally reside in an object, such as a stone. (Read: What is Kami in Shintoism (and the Importance of Worshiping these)
Many examples also prove that the physical environment of a place or geography elucidates many aspects of the religions in it:
“Across many of the world’s religions, mountains have been associated with talking to God or as the abode of a god. Mount Sinai was the place where God talked to Moses and the Jews. The Mount of Olives was where Jesus ascended into heaven and where he is supposed to return. Mt. Athos in Greece as an ancient monastery where monks dedicate their lives to living in seclusion devoted to God.’
“Olympus was the home of the ancient Greek pantheon and Mt. Fuji was the dwelling place of gods in Japan. Man even built artificial mountains in an attempt to reach the divine in the form of pyramids, ziggarats, and mounds.” (“Geography and Religion,” n.d.)
Aside from mountains, trees and rocks also had religious significance. The Stonehenge and Easter Island serve as examples from ethnic religions of the past. The “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem called the ‘Kotel,’ being the last vestiges of the Second Temple, is a modern example.
On the other hand, tress were used to produce totems, that is, objects (such as an animal or plant) that are believed by a particular culture to have spiritual significance and that are adopted by it as emblems. In fact, it is said that the Catholic and other Protestant sects’ ‘Christmas tree’ has its origin from that paganistic treatment of trees.
Likewise, geographical properties such as rivers, water, and desert were given religious meaning. The Ganges Rivers is seen as sacred until today by the Hindus while the Nile River was deemed sacred in ancient Egyptian religion.
We can also see that water is employed as a means of purification in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, such as in the practice of baptism. The desert, on the other hand, is customarily regarded as a means of spiritual refinement, such as in the practice of meditation and ascetism.
How does religion affect culture?
Religion significantly impacts culture as it affects and influences it in many vital ways. It can be proved that religion can considerably define the values, ideas, beliefs, heritage, and lifestyle of a society; all of which are essential constituents of culture.
For instance, relationships, marriage, birth, death, homemaking, and farming are usual events in cultures—and these normally have a religious significance.
Religion can have an enormous impact on people’s culture especially when those in a certain culture believe intensely in its religion. Their culture appears to accept only those ways of thinking and conducts which are acceptable to their religion.
Before, European societies’ were zealous Catholics. This had great effects on European culture at the time as most cultural expressions were church-related. Most arts were religious and much of the music produced were as well religious in genre.
In fact, European cultures, especially in the Middle Age, valued religion to the point that people were eager to dedicate major resources to things like building basilicas and supporting monasteries.
Moreover, territories that are strongly affected by Islam have developed cultures that are dominated by men, and in which things such as socializing with members of the opposite sex in public are frowned upon. This, too, reveals the interplay between religion and culture.
It can be noticed that Muslims may be Arabs, Turks, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians, Europeans, Africans, Americans, Chinese, or other nationalities. And yet, their Islamic faith almost homogeneously influences their view on customs, attire, diets, celebrations, places of worship, politics, and other aspects of life.
Religion remarkably influences various cultures in various ways. Amazingly too, religion can affect the same culture in different ways at different times. For more information about the topic, read Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: A Comparative Analysis and Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism: Similarities and Differences.
For more free lectures like this, visit Homepage: Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems
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Also Check Out: The Worldview of Atheism by Jensen DG. Mañebog