Ethnic religion

Altar to Inari Ōkami at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Shinto is the ethnic religion of the Japanese people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In religious studies, an ethnic religion or ethnoreligion<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is a religion or belief associated with notions of heredity and a particular ethnicity. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, which are not limited in ethnic, national or racial scope.<ref name="Park">Template:Cite book</ref>

Terminology

A number of alternative terms have been used instead of ethnic religion. Another term that is often used is folk religion. While ethnic religion and folk religion have overlapping uses, the latter term implies "the appropriation of religious beliefs and practices at a popular level."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The term folk religion can therefore be used to speak of certain Chinese and African religions, but can also refer to popular expressions of more multi-national and institutionalized religions such as Folk Christianity or Folk Islam.<ref>Rock, Stella (2007). Popular religion in Russia. Routledge Template:ISBN, p. 11. Last accessed July 2009.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In Western contexts, a variety of terms are also employed. In the United States and Canada, a popular alternative term has been nature religion.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Some neopagan movements, especially in Europe, have adopted ethnic religion as their preferred term, aligning themselves with ethnology. This notably includes the European Congress of Ethnic Religions,Template:Sfn which chose its name after a day-long discussion in 1998, where most participants expressed that pagan contained too many negative connotations and ethnic better described the root of their traditions in particular nations. In the English-language popular and scholarly discourse Paganism, with a capital P, has become an accepted term.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Usage

Ethnic religions are defined as religions which are related to a particular ethnic group, and often seen as a defining part of that ethnicity's culture, language, and customs. Diasporic groups often maintain ethnic religions as a means of maintaining a distinct ethnic identity such as the role of African traditional religion and African diaspora religions among the African diaspora in the Americas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Some ancient ethnic religions, such as those historically found in pre-modern Europe, have found new vitality in neopaganism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Moreover, non-ethnic religions, such as Christianity, have been known to assume ethnic traits to an extent that they serve a role as an important ethnic identity marker;<ref name="Chong">Template:Cite journal</ref> a notable example of this is the Serbian "Saint-Savianism" of the Serbian Orthodox Church,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the religious and cultural heritage of Syriac Christianity branch of the Assyrian people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• Animism
• Ancestor worship
• Chinese ancestral worship
• Endogamy
• Ethnoreligious group
• Gavari
• Judaism
• Sikhism
• National god
• Phyletism
• Shamanism
• Slava (tradition)
• Totemism