Download Key Issue 3 Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Patterns?

Reading Guide
Chapter 6: Religions
Key Issue 3
Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Patterns?
Pages 206-217
1. In what two ways do religious structures often stand out in a landscape?
2. Why does a church, the physical structure, play a more critical role in Christianity than in other religions?
3. Why do many Christian churches vary in architectural style?
4. Identify four specific, visible features of a typical mosque.
5. Describe the places of worship for the following religions.
Sikh Gurdwaras
Jewish Synagogues
Baja’i Houses of Worship
6. What is the religious purpose of a Buddhist pagoda?
7. What is the religious significance of a Hindu temple? Where do most Hindu religious functions take place?
8. Complete the chart below with brief notes on the religious settlements indicated.
Utopian Settlements
Salt Lake City, Utah
Puritans
9. Look at figure 6-41 on page 208. Describe the differing toponyms in Quebec versus Ontario, New York, and Vermont.
10. Where else in the United States might you find Roman Catholic toponyms?
11. Read “Doing Geography: Distribution of Religion” on page 209. What two religious groups are in conflict in Ireland?
12. Describe the conflict between the two groups and how it has affected the spatial distribution of religions in Belfast.
13. Define hierarchical religion.
14. List the Roman Catholic hierarchy, indicating geographic region and leader who heads it.
15. Why are parishes in Latin America so much larger than in Europe?
16. Describe an autonomous religion.
17. In the absence of a hierarchy, what is the only formal organization of territory in Islam?
18. What holds Islam together?
19. Complete the chart below to categorize other religions and their denominations.
Autonomous Religions
Hierarchical Religions
20. Complete the chart below on how universalizing and ethnic religions differ on the types of places that are considered holy.
Ethnic Religion
Universalizing Religion
21. Define pilgrimage.
22. Read the section about Holy Places and make notes on three case studies: Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.
Holy Sites
Buddhist
Islamic
Hindu
23. Define cosmogony.
24. Give at least three examples of how religions have incorporated characteristics of cosmogony.
25. Christians practice burial of the dead. Complete the flowchart below to indicate the history of this practice.
↓
↓
26. Complete the chart below with brief notes on the disposal of the dead in other ways other than burial.
Hindus
Parsis
Micronesia
27. What is the principle purpose of the religious calendar in a universalizing religion?
28. What is the most prominent feature of the calendar in an ethnic religion?
29. Both the Jewish and the Muslims use a lunar calendar, yet in a different way and with very different results. Explain.
30. How is the date of Easter related to physical geography (the natural world) through the calendar?
31. Why do different Christian branches celebrate Easter on different days?
32. How is this similar to Buddhism’s major holidays?
33. How is the Jewish calendar typical of the ethnic use of the calendar?
34. What is the solstice?