Geo Test #2

Spring 2026

8 tools geographers use to understand religion

Diffusion: relocation (including missionaries), hierarchical, contagious

Acculturation: voluntary acceptance or forced domination (see other flashcard)

Hearth or point of origin: Christianity Jerusalem, Buddhism Nepal, Islam Mecca, Mormonism Manchester New York

path of spread and Expansion: varies by group and time, but usually along preexisting SITUATION CHARACTERISTICS like trade routes or communication lines, or through political and social expansion

limits/no limits: Ethnic or Universalizing (see other flashcard**)

Classifying: branches, denominations, sects (see other flashcard)

Acculturation in religion (voluntary acceptance or forced domination)

Free/voluntary acceptance: missionary work, social climbing, personal choice, in Islam and Buddhism for ex

Forced domination: Government regulates that all citizens must be members of a certain religion, or migration overwhelms earlier inhabitants and new religion takes over, imperial/military conquest

Ethnic VS Universalizing religions

Ethnic: Isolation!!, limited and spatially (socially or ethnically) concentrated, principles likely to be based on physical characteristics of a particular location (LARGEST IS HINDUISM)

typically unknown or unclear origins

Universalizing: Expansion!!, no limits to expansion, tries to appeal to all people, not only at one location, sees no boundaries to expansion (LARGEST CHRISTIANITY, FOLLOWED BY ISLAM)

Classification of religions (and examples in Christianity in US)

Branches: large fundamental division, slightly differ theologically, ex: Roman Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox

Denominations: division of branch, unites local congregations in administrative whole, ex: Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, and other Protestants

Sects: relatively small group that has broken away from a denomination and/or is somewhat self defining, ex: Beachy and Kauffman Amish

What is the world's largest ethnic religion? In what country do 97 percent of the adherents of this religion live?

Hinduism, India

Most Europeans adhere to which of the two major universalizing religions? (short answer somehow—expand)

Christianity, but many belong to different denominations with slightly differing practices and beliefs…

Which branch of Islam is the largest in Iran and Iraq?

SHIA/SHIITE IN IRAN AND IRAQ

SUNNI IN SYRIA

Two main branches of Islam

Sunni: concentrated in Syria, where the holy center is in Saudi Arabia where Sunni are majority and control Syria (but don’t want to mess with the few Shiite who live there bc they live near the oil), Sunni want the leader to be the one with the most community support, majority

Shia/Shiite: in Iran and Iraq, want the leader to be related to the predecessor (Mohammad), minority, but control the oil in Syria

What major universalizing religion originated in present-day India?

HINDUISM

(Buddhism: Nepal, NOT INDIA, where Buddhas said to be born)

How did early Christianity spread? By what means and where? What about early Islam?

(pptx)

First relocation diffusion from missionaries going out from WHERE, then contagious in the Roman Empire, and hierarchical bc Roman Emperor Constaintine made it official religion

What are the three major branches of Christianity?

Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism

Based on Rubenstein, discuss the calendar in universalizing religions.

Solar calendar: Christianity, months that correspond to the season or the apparent position of the sun in relation to the stars

Lunar: Islam, months that correspond to cycles of moon phases

Lunisolar: Judaism, lunar months that are brought into alignment with the solar year through periodic adjustment

How do different religions incorporate natural features and geography into their cosmogony?

Judaism: major holidays connected to the agricultural calendar of the religion’s homeland in present-day Israel

Hinduism/Buddhism: believe many physical features such as mountains and rivers are sacred and have DIETIES or spiritual meanings present within them, many believe the deities are immanent and exist in physical features

Universalizing: purpose of the holidays in universalizing religions is to commemorate events in the founder’s life rather than to the physical environment, holidays sometimes arrive in diff seasons

How has religion been a source of territorial conflict among people?

Where is the origin of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Commonly called Mormons)? (pptx)

Western New York (Manchester), NOTTT Utah!!! (they migrated there later)

T or F: Natural landscape features are the holiest places in Islam

False? The holiest places in Islam are related to Mohammad and his life

Mecca (where Mohammad was born), Medina (where he is buried), and Jerusalem (related to Mohammad’s night journey and the story of Abraham)

T or F: Individual ethnic religions have more concentrated geographic distributions than universalizing religions

TRUE bc most ethnic religions are highly spatially concentrated (socially or ethnically) concentrated and the principles are likely to be based on physical characteristics of a particular location

While universalizing religions aim to spread as far as they can and are not concentrated in one place, but rather present across many areas

The Ganges is the most holy river for MUSLIMS

FALSE!! not related to Muslims (Islam), it is the holiest river in Hinduism because it is associated with the deity Ganga (Ganges) and people often pilgrimage to the river and it is used to purify people ritualistically to cleanse away their sins and bad karma, it is also considered a bridge between the holy and physical realm

T or F: Jerusalem is a holy city to all three major universalizing religions

false??: Jerusalem is a holy city for Christianity and Islam (and Judaism, but that’s ETHNIC), but not for Buddhism (The 3rd major universalizing religion)

It is holy in Christianity bc it is the city where Jesus is said to have been crucified and resurrected and in Islam bc it is the location of two major holy places/temples

It is not related to Buddhism, the third largest universalizing religion, separated geographically from origins of Buddhism in India (Buddhism concentrated in India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia

Holy in Judaism bc location of primary temples, but JUDAISM IS ETHNIC, NOT UNIVERSALIZING

Tor F: Buddhism is the most important religion in India

FALSE!! A much higher percentage of India’s population is Hindu than are Buddhist. About 80% of India’s population identify as Hindu, while much less identify as Buddhist.

What is the world's largest ethnic religion? In what country do 90% of the adherents of this religion live? Why do some of them live also in Fiji and Guyana? (think about the colonial age

and indentured servants on plantations).

Hinduism, 90% of adherents live in India, some live in Fiji and Guyana bc they were brought there as indentured servants by the British to work in the Sugar industry after those island became British colonies

(involved signing contracts to work for five years on plantations, after which workers could choose to stay or return to India)

Where are the Coptic Christians located? pptx

Egypt, 5-15% of Egypt’s population, Ethnic portion of Christianity?…

Which country in the world has the largest number of Muslims? How did this religion of Islam arrive there? pptx

Indonesia (about 87% of its population), 13% of the world’s Muslims, spread there through trade and cultural exchange…

Although the spread of a universalizing religion varies by group and time, they all tended to follow what features on the landscape as the religion spreads (many times man-made – hint

consider situation characteristics)? Another hint think of the apostles especially Peter. pptx

Tend to follow pre-existing routes of communication, trade, or political/social expansion, SITUATION CHARACTERISTICS THAT ALREADY EXIST!!

Name the hearth area for Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Church of Latter Day Saints.

Christianity: Jerusalem and ancient Palestine

Islam: Mecca

Buddhism: Nepal

Mormons: Upstate New York (Manchester)

Based on our discussion in class (see ppts) can sects in a universalizing religion become

more like an ethnic religion appealing only to one group of people? On the other hand, can

sects in an Ethnic religion become more universalizing?

When Islam first spread to Spain in Europe how did it do so? What about when it spread in

Indonesia, the largest Muslim country?

What do both Judaism and Islam have in common in their ancestry?

Both regard Abraham as their patriarch and are part of the same ancestral family tree

What ethnic group brought Islam into Western Europe by invasion? What about Eastern

Europe?

Give an example of voluntary free acceptance of a religion versus domination and forced

compliance. According to the video, what occurred in Syria under the Roman Empire?

What Major Religions exist in Syria? Give examples from the video.

Sunni and Shia/Shiite Islam…

Name two major denominations of Christianity in the United States that are highly

regionally concentrated, also include the geographic name of the region.

Latter-Day saints/Mormons: Utah (not New York? just founded in NY?), kind of wanted to isolate themselves and govern themselves and escape the persecution they faced in the North, so they migrated West and ended up in Utah

Lutherans: Minnesota

Name two denominations of Christianity that are very dispersed or spread across the country.

Be sure you can identify the unique spatial patterns of Catholics, Southern Baptists,

Mormons, Jews, and Mennonites (highly related to Amish).

What U.S. government agency does not consider Hispanic or Latino to be a race?

Department of Education/whole govt? Considers it an ethnicity, not a race…

One-half of all Asian Americans live in what U.S. state?

California, where most Asian people migrate to…

A system of racial discrimination in South Africa was called ________

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas (non-white South Africans segregated where they could live, work, and go to school, despite the whites being the minority) only ended in 1990s

Define ethnicity. Start by making a series of bullet points, then write a definition in your own words.

Identity, group of people, share cultural traditions, homeland/hearth

An identity of a group of people who share cultural traditions from a homeland or hearth

Describe the geographic distribution of three largest ethnic minorities in the United States, Blacks,

Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Do their patterns greatly differ? Is there some spatial process of diffusion that caused these differences? As a result of these patterns name a state that could be most impacted by each group.

Explain the difference between race and ethnicity both the way that Rubenstein presents it and the lecture discussion.

Describe the migration patterns that have shaped the African American ethnic identity, does this relate to Gullah-Geechee? In the 20th century what major migration patterns impacted where African Americans came to live?

What was redlining in American cities? Did it occur in Seattle? What are restrictive covenants? How did they limit the ability of past minorities to live in certain parts of a city? (review both book and ppt slides)

A process by which financial institutions draw red-colored lines on a map and refuse to lend money for people to purchase or improve property within the lines—banks and real estate agents wouldn’t work with the people discriminated against

Yes, it happened in Seattle, intertwined with racially restrictive covenants that kept people from buying or renting houses in certain areas.

Restrictive covenants: used after redlining was outlawed by supreme court case Buchanan V. Warley in 1917 to continue the racial segregation and limitations of African Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Indigenous people, and sometimes Jews

In the predominately Black city of Flint, MI what happened to their water system and why? Might this be an example of environmental racism? (7.5)

T or F: The major cause for the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi and is their lack of a common language and customs not political domination of one group over the other. (7.9)

FALSE!! the two groups speak the same language, have similar beliefs and customs, and intermarriage has lessened the physical differences between the two ethnic groups yet they fight bc of political conflict: Tutsis favored by German colonizers for leadership, and remained, in control after they gained independence from colonizers, want to eliminate minority Hutus to dominate

T or F: Clustering of ethnicities is most pronounced at the neighborhood level in the United States. (7.3)

True! people of same ethnicities, cultural, social, and economic backgrounds tend to live in the same neighborhoods in the US and group together, due to immigration patterns (CHAIN MIGRATION), real estate prejudice, social networks, and desire for community and support

Chinatown in San Fransico and New York, Little Havana in Miami, and various Little Italy’s

T or F: The Balkan states broke down because of ethnic conflict, which ironically might end in peace through the tragic process of ethnic cleansing. (7.10)

Where are the Kurdish people found? (7.6)

parts of eastern Turkey, western Iran, and northern Syria and Iraq

The Kurds are Sunni Muslims who speak a language in the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European and have distinctive literature, dress, and other cultural traditions (represent an ethnicity without its own nationality

Discriminated against buy the Turks who want Turkish nationalism to rise, despite many Kurdish people living there

How might the ethnic/tribal and religious makeup of Iraq present challenges to political stability there? (pptx)

Define the term "ethnic cleansing" and give an example

a purposeful policy designed by one ethnicity or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas (policy, ethnicity or religious group, violent and terrifying, remove over ethnic or religious group, geo area)

Ex: Holocaust during WWII, German nationalists want Jewish people exterminated, concentration camps, war crimes, and other horrible things killing them, based on ethnicity and religion

What African American northward migration followed the major U.S. highways?

Great Migration of Black from south to north in US, often followed major transportation routes of US highways and railroads, allowed migration by automobile, bus, and trains as transportation methods developed, connected southern towns to northern cities and provided direct connection to economic opportunities in cities that were experiencing labor shortages

Asian Americans are clustered in what two states?

California and Hawaii (or New York?)…

Regional Clusters in USA: African Americans are clustered in what region? Native Americans are clustered in what two regions? Hispanics/Latinos are clustered in what region? What processes led to these clusters?

African-Americans: Southeast

American Indians: Southwest and North-central

Hispanics/Latinos: Southwest

Asian-American: West

Chain migration (migrating to area with people of same group), real estate prejudice, social networks, and desire for community and support

Slavery as occurred between Africa and the Americas was a kind of ________ migration.

Forced—they didn’t want to migrate but were forced to

Laws instituting racial segregation in the United States before the Civil Rights Era were known as what?

Jim Crow laws

state and local laws that enforced racial segregation (in public places, school, services, jobs, voting, etc.)

What are two different regions in Sudan have or are still fighting the central government and are referred to as Ethnic Cleansing by Rubenstein? (7.9)

Darfur region and South Sudan?…

Explain the difference between Nationalism and Patriotism. George Orwell provides a succinct means of doing this.

patriotism: a defensive love of one’s country, devotion to where you live but don’t want to force it on others, defensive in military and culturally but just wants to protect the country, not dominate others

nationalism: an aggressive pursuit of power and prestige for a collective identity, wants to dominate and take over others

Where is the largest concentration of White dominate counties in the US?

In rural areas (not in urban areas) bc diff ethnicities did not migrate to rural areas since there was no economic opportunities there (like there was in urban areas), there’s only farming which the white settlers do

What is Gullah Geechee, where did it come from originally? What is its hearth area in the United States?

the language and culture of African Americans who are descendants of enslaved Africans from West and Central Africa who were brought to the coastal regions of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, particularly the SEA ISLANDS, culture developed in isolation by enslaved people esp when their owners fled the islands during the Civil War

Origin: West and Central Africa

Hearth in US: Sea Islands off west coast (Carolinas and Florida)

Why was Gulla created? Why is it a dying language and perhaps culture? (note to most scholars Gullah is the language and Geechee is the culture)

The Gulla language was created so that the enslaved people on the US sea islands could communicate with each other since they were from diff parts of Africa and spoke many diff languages (so they combined them with each other and with English), and it also usually made it so that the slaveholders couldn’t understand what they were saying

Dying language bc of the isolation and many of the original speakers dying out and culture too bc people are being forced to move off the island bc of economic reasons and the development of the islands for tourism. Original speakers dying, young speakers practicing less and moving away

American folk music as FOLK culture: before coming across the Atlantic (from Europe), what country was the hearth where this music was developed?

Scotland

What region is the hearth area for American folk music (as folk culture) in the US?

Appalachia, where Scotts-Irish immigrants lived and it was isolated there for a long time bc nobody left and the economy was bad there…

Why did American folk music (as folk custom) not change during the 18th and 19th century?

Isolation!! Was isolated in Appalachia physically by the mountains —isolated the Scotts-Irish immigrant group and their culture

how did American folk music diffuse as FOLK culture to America from Europe

RELOCATION DIFFUSION with immigration when the Scotts-Irish immigrated to the US from Scotland!!

how did American folk music diffuse as FOLK culture once INSIDE America?

Also RELOCATION DIFFUSION as the Scott-Irish immigrants living in Appalachia began to move to industrial centers in other locations in the US (hillbilly highway)

What became the hearth for American folk music as a POPULAR custom?

Nashville, Tennessee—As Scott-Irish immigrants moved on hillbilly highway for economic opportunities, many ended up in Nashville and played their music from home that they missed, it became popular especially as radio and the Grand Ol Opry developed and spread the music from folk culture into a popular custom

What type of diffusion did American folk music as a POPULAR custom spread across the US?

Hierarchical—from radio down??

As American folk music became a popular custom, what other types of music influenced it?

Western Cowboy music (and Celtic music from Scotland as a folk custom)

Blues music as folk culture: before crossing the Atlantic, where did its antecedents originate?

Africa

Blues music as folk culture: Where was its hearth area in the US?

Mississippi Delta

Isolation: What hindered the degree to which Blues music spread as folk culture in the US?

Segregation

White people didn’t want to listen to it bc it was made by Blacks and bc it was so sad, Isolation prevented Black people from mixing with Southern whites in any sort of musical context, white people REJECTED Blues music

What was the hearth of blues music as a POPULAR custom?

Memphis, Tennessee (Beale Street)

By what type of diffusion did professional musicians in blues music diffuse to Northern cities

Relocation

Less segregation in industrial cities in the North which makes evolution of the music possible, Black people got exposed to diff styles of music in unsegregated musci halls in the North

What other type of music from the South mixed with Blues music?

Gospel in Southern US in Black churches then spread, Blues seen as bad and Gospel seen as good (morally/religiously)

According to Larry Ford, what was the hearth area for rock based on Allan Freed?

Cleveland, Ohio—Allan Freed bought “race records” and played them on the radio in Cleveland and organized music festivals with both Black and white musicians, coined the term Rock and Roll to be more race-neutral so more people would listen to it (the prejudice whites listening to Black made music)

What type of diffusion brought rock music to the UK from the US?

Stimulus—they took the idea of the music from American music and developed their own rock from there

Why is the Mississippi Delta so important in the development of Blues? (think situation)

Because Tennessee is the center of the Mississippi Delta and that is the origin point of the popularization of Blues music (Beale Street in Memphis). From there, it spread throughout the whole Delta in hierarchical diffusion

Locate the Mississippi Delta on a map

Where did Indo-Euro languages originate from?

either present day Turkey or Kazakhstan, spread either by warriors or farmers

Origin of English

can be traced back to the invasion of England by ANGLES, SAXONS, JUTES from Germany, Denmark, Norway, and France…

Define dialect

a regional variation of a language (distinguished by vocab, spelling, and pronunciation)

AAVE (African American vernacular English)

a dialect used by some Blacks in the US

Centripetal and Centrifugal Force

Centripetal: pulls people TOGETHER, cultural value that unifies people

Centrifugal: pulls people APART

Literary tradition

When a language is used commonly in writing as well as in speaking

Define language

system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning

Why is the vocab different between English in US and English in England?

settlers in America encountered many new objects and experiences…

Acculturation

OLD CULTURE GETS REPLACED BY NEW CULTURE

individuals or groups adopt elements of another culture while retaining aspects of their original culture, shaping cultural identity and social dynamics in geographic spaces

T or F: Switzerland has one official language

FALSE! Switzerland has 4 official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh

the 4 distinct Scandinavian languages emerged bc of migration and political organization of the region into 4 independent and isolated countries

T or F: The Indo-European language family has the one language that is spoken by the most people in the world

TRUE!! nearly half of the world speaks an Indo-European language as their first language

and English specifically is an official language in 56 countries, more than any other language

Lingua franca

a language of international communication used for business or trade between countries that speak diff languages (mutually understood by both)

modern ones are English, Swahili, Hindi, Indonesian, Russian, etc. in diff areas

Pidgin language

a simplified version of a langua franca

Cosmogony

A set of beliefs concerning the origin of the universe

How does race and mass communication fit into the development of rock in the US?

White cover artists (such as Elvis) covered Black songs, so that more people would listen to them, then that type of music spread and combined with other types to evolve into rock

What percentage of people in Africa today are Christian?

about 55%

highly competitive area right now between Cristain and Islam missionary work…

What is the largest ethnic religion?

Hinduism

What is the largest universalizing religion?

CHRISTIANITY, FOLLOWED BY ISLAM

Prior to arrival of Old English in England in 449 AD, the majority of people spoke what language?

Latin

However, between 43 AD and 410 AD, the language of the ruling class was what?

Celtic

Even though Latin and Celtic are from two separate language branches, they both belong to what language family?

Indo-European

449 AD marks the beginning of Old English (in England) due to the arrival of what 3 groups?

Angles, Saxons, Jutes