Chapter 8 Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscapes: ACTION-ORIENTED
ACTIVITY—Religion around the World
Introduction: Many of the world’s regions have fairly distinctive religious spatial patterns (e.g.,
Latin America is primarily Roman Catholic, Southeast Asia is largely Buddhist, Northern Africa is
primarily Islamic, etc. See Figure 8.27 Religions of the World in the textbook). Several sources of
world data list a country's religious makeup. The CIA’s World Factbook is one of the best
sources of comparative world data: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/.
Using this website, list the dominant religion and corresponding percentage for each of the
following countries in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1
Country
Dominant
Religion
Percent of
Total
Major Religious
Holidays
Religious
Disputes
Iran
Indonesia
Italy
India
Israel
Iceland
Next, list for each of these religions:
1) Clothing influences present because of the dominance of this religion
2) Food preferences or taboos found in this country that are directly related to spiritual beliefs
3) Any other cultural traits that are impacted by the presence of this religion
Now check the CIA World Factbook website for the religious holidays observed in these
countries, and also note if there are religious disputes taking place within the country, or
between it and other countries. You might also want to consult the Atlapedia website
(www.atlapedia.com/), which covers religious disputes for individual countries under the
section "Modern History."