Folk religion

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Folk religion consists of beliefs, superstitions and rituals transmitted from generation to generation of a specific culture. It could be contrasted with the "organized religion" or "historical religion" in which founders, creed, theology and ecclesiastical organizations are present. Ethnic religion similarly refers to the religious practices particular to a certain ethnicity. Folk religion and ethnic religion alike are characterized by the absence of proselytization, membership being as a rule equivalent to ethnicity.

The folk religion with the largest number of adherents is the Chinese folk religion, accounting for some 6% of world population. Various "primal indigenous" religions (animism, shamanism) account for another 4%, but elements of folk religion exist as part of all religious traditions and should be regarded as popular currents (as opposed to a theological or institutionalized) rather than as separate religions, so that folk religion like "superstition" is a truly endemic phenomenon present in every society.

1 Ethnic religion
- 1.1 List
2 Folk religion
- 2.1 Examples
3 Literature
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Ethnic religion

In antiquity, religion was one defining factor of ethnicity, along with language, regional customs, national costume, etc. As Xenophanes famously comments:

Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair. (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 7.4)

Ethnic religions may include officially sanctioned and organized civil religions with an organized clergy, but they are characterized in that adherents generally are defined by their ethnicity, and conversion essentially equates to cultural assimilation to the people in question. The notion of gentiles ("nations") in Judaism reflect this state of affairs, the implicit assumption that each nation will have its own religion. Historical examples include Germanic polytheism, Celtic polytheism, Slavic polytheism and pre-Hellenistic Greek religion.

Contrasted to this are imperial cults that are defined by political influence detached from ethnicity.

With the rise of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, ethnic religions came to be marginalized as "leftover" traditions in rural areas, referred to as paganism or shirk (idolatry).

Contemporary ethnic religions are Shinto of the Japanese people, Judaism of the Jewish people (see: Who is a Jew?), and ethnocentric currents of Hinduism (Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?) or Buddhism (e.g. Tibetan Buddhism).

Over time, even revealed religion will assume local traits and in a sense will revert to an ethnic religion. This has notably happened in the course of the History of Christianity, which saw the emergence of national churches with "ethnic flavours" such as Germanic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Greek, Russian and others.

[edit] List

"Indigenous" traditional ethnic religions

Further information: List of mythologies

African
- Yoruba religion
- San religion
Asian
- Shinto (Japan)
- Ryukyuan religion
- Chinese folk religion
- Tengriism (Turkic-Mongolic)
- Korean shamanism
- Shamanism in Siberia
- Bön/Tibetan Buddhism
- Folk Hinduism
- Zoroastrianism (Parsi)
- Yazdânism (Kurdish)
- Mandaeism
Arctic
- Sami religion / Noaidi
- Shamanism among Eskimo peoples / Inuit mythology
North America
- Anishinaabe traditional beliefs

Ethnic Christian Churches:

Further information: National church

"Folkish" Neopagan revivals

Further information: Polytheistic reconstructionism

[edit] Folk religion

The term is also applied to the blending of folk practice with those of major religions, so that folk practices amongst people in Christian countries are called "folk Christianity," in Islamic countries "folk Islam", and so on. The term is also used, especially by the clergy of the faiths involved, to describe the desire of people who otherwise infrequently attend religious worship, do not belong to a church or similar religious society, and who have not made a formal profession of faith in a particular creed, to have religious weddings or funerals, or (among Christians) to have their children baptised.

Folk religion can also be thought of as the practice of religion by lay people outside of the control of clergy or the supervision of theologians (e.g. outside of organized religion -- popular culture). There is occasionally tension between the practice of folk religion and the formally taught doctrines and teachings of a faith. For "folk religion" to be a meaningful category, there must be an institutional religion with a traditional teaching or professional clergy to contrast it against; in cultures that lack these things, it is difficult to speak of folk religion as a meaningful category.

Folk religion answers human needs for reassurance in times of trouble, and many of its rituals are aimed at mundane goals like seeking healing or averting misfortune. Many elements of folk religion stem from animistic or fetishistic practices, which is almost inevitable given its mundane goals and ritualistic nature. Folk religion also often aims at divination to foresee the future. The line is often blurry between the practice of folk religion and the practice of magic: see magic and religion.

[edit] Examples

"superstition"; rituals to ward off the Evil Eye, curses, demons, witchcraft etc.
amulets, protective qualities ascribed to religious objects like the Bible or a crucifix; hex signs
blessing of animals and crops (fertility rites), food, vehicles, buildings etc.
belief in traditional systems of magic (hoodoo, voodoo, pow-wow, Benedicaria, Palo Monte and Santería)
ancestor worship
animism, or belief in spiritual beings associated with landscape or specific human domains (saints, demons, angels; in Christianity in particular various local forms of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

[edit] Literature

Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic. Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson (1971).