Adaptive Strategy
The unique way in which each culture uses its particular physical environment; those aspects of culture that serve to provide the necessities of life–food, clothing, shelter, and defense.
Animists
Adherents of animism, the idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment.
Contact Conversion
Spread of religious beliefs by personal contact.
Culture Hearth
A focused geographic area where important innovations are born and from which they spread.
Ecotheology
The study of the influence of religious belief on habitat modification.
Ethnic Religion
A religion identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group; does not seek converts.
Fundamentalism
A movement to return to the founding principles of a religion, which can include literal interpretation of sacred texts, or the attempt to follow the ways of a religious founder as closely as possible.
Gaia Hypothesis
The theory that there is one interacting planetary ecosystem, Gaia, that includes all living things and the land, waters, and atmosphere in which they live; further, that Gaia functions almost as a living organism, acting to control deviations in climate and to correct chemical imbalances, so as to preserve Earth as a living planet.
Orthodox Religions
Strands within most major religions that emphasize purity of faith and are not open to blending with other religions.
Pilgrimages
Journeys to places of religious importance.
Syncretic Religions
Religions, or strands within religions, that combine elements of two or more belief systems.
Universalizing Religions
Also called proselytic religions, they expand through active conversion of new members and aim to encompass all of mankind.
