Chapter 6 bocab

Athiesm

The belief that God does not exist.

Agnosticism

The belief that the existence of God can’t be proven Empirically.

Universalizing Religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Ethnic Religion

A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated.

Congregation

A local assembly of persons brought together for a common religious worship.

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative body.

Branch

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

Syncretic

Combining several religious traditions.

Animism

The belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunder storms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and concious life.

Monotheism

The doctrine or belief in the exsistence of only one God

Polytheism

Belief in or worship of many gods

Missionary

An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion.

Ghetto

During the middle ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews; now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any majority group live because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Hierarchical Religion

A religion in which a central authority excercizes a high degree of control

Autonomous Religion

A religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates internally.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes.

Caste

The class or distinct heredity order in to which a Hindu is assigned, according to religious law.

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion or a religious branch, denomination, or congregational.

Cultural Landscape

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface

Density

The frequency in which something exists within a given unit of area

Concentration

The spread of something over a given area

Pattern

The geometric or regular distribution in a given area.

Diffusion

The process of the spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.

Hearth

The place where innovative ideas originate.

Secularism

refers to attitudes, activities, etc., that aren’t religious or spiritual; not connected with religion.

Zionism

The movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.