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Impacts of Religion on the
Physical & Cultural
Environment
• Religious values are important in understanding how people
identify and use and organize the physical environment
• Intense identification with one religion can cause conflict
between groups and this is shown throughout history
Places of Worship
 The tallest and most elaborate structures
worldwide are often religion structures
 Major historic (sometimes current)
religions can be identified based on
buildings in a society
Places of Worship: Christian Churches
 Christian churches of different
branches vary in architectural
style & building styles
 Were traditionally built at the
center of the community for
weekly worship attendance
 Seen as important places of
worship
 New England Religious
settlement (pg.193)
Places of Worship: Muslim Mosques
 Mosques are traditionally viewed as
a place for community gathering
(unlike Christianity where they are
seen primarily as places to worship)
 Mosques are found in larger cities,
small city places of worship may be
simple structures
 All proper mosques have a
minaret tower where people are
summoned to worship
 Mosques built around a central
courtyard and face toward Mecca
(Makkah)
 This is the directions toward which
Muslims pray
Places of Worship: Hindu Temples
 Buildings are not particularly
important in Asian religions
 Worship generally occurs at
home
 Temples that are built are for a
particular god (manifestation of
Brahman)
 Small, dimly-lit buildings
 Not places of large
gatherings
 Sometimes contain a pool for
religious bathing
Places of Worship: Buddhist Pagodas
 Tall and elaborate
buildings that contain
artifacts that are
believed to have been
part of Buddha's
possessions
 Not a community
gathering or worship
place
 Meditation occurs at
home or in small
buildings near the
Pagodas
Disposing of the Dead
 In Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths
the dead are buried
 impacts the environment by the
designation of land for
cemeteries which take up a lot of
space
 Hindus cremate the dead (Shiva) by
burning them on the Ganges river
 Impacts of environment by
depleting the wood supply in
India
 In SE Asian religions dead may be left
for the birds to strip away unclean
parts of the body, or may be thrown
to the sea to escape the deaths
impact of the living in the community
Culture: Place Names & Hierarchical Religions
 Toponyms (Religious
names) given traditionally
by immigrants in the new
world (north & south
America)
 Particularly common in
Quebec & SW United
States (Pg. 194)
 Mormon & Catholic faiths
organized hierarchically
 Landscape is organized
into “wards” and
“parishes”