Ethnic religion
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Tibetan Buddhism is followed by Tibetans, Mongols, Manchus and many other Asian ethnicities; it's also spreading in the West.
'''Ethnic religions''' may include officially sanctioned and organized [[civil religion]]s 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. Contrasted to this are [[imperial cult]]s that are defined by political influence detached from ethnicity.
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)
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 (polytheism)|shirk]] (idolatry).
The notion of ''[[goyim|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 [[Ancient Greek religion|Greek religion]].
Contemporary ethnic religions are [[Shinto]] of the [[Japanese people]], [[Judaism]] of the [[Jewish people]] (see: [[Who is a Jew?]]), and [[Hinduism]]<ref>Sopher, ''Geography of Religions'', Prentice-Hall, 1967, page 13</ref> (except for some, comparatively small Hindu movements: see [[Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?]]).
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 church]]es with "ethnic flavours" such as [[Germanic Christianity|Germanic]], [[Ethiopian church|Ethiopian]], [[Armenian church|Armenian]], [[Greek Orthodoxy|Greek]], [[Russian Orthodoxy|Russian]] and others.'''
==Indigenous traditional ethnic religions==
{{see|List of mythologies}}
* [[African traditional religions|African]]
** [[San religion]]
** [[Yoruba religion]]
* Asian
** [[Bön]]/[[Tibetan Buddhism]]
** [[Chinese folk religion]]
** [[Korean shamanism]]
** [[Mandaeism]]
** [[Ryukyuan religion]]
** [[Shamanism in Siberia]]
** [[Shinto]] (Japan)
** [[Tengriism]] (Turkic-Mongolic)
** [[Yazdânism]] (Kurdish)
** [[Zoroastrianism]] ([[Parsi]])
* [[Circumpolar religion|Arctic]]
** [[Sami religion]] / [[Noaidi]]
** [[Shamanism among Eskimo peoples]] / [[Inuit mythology]]
* Indo-European
** [[Folk Hinduism]]
** [[Slavic Religion]]
* [[Native American religions|North America]]
** [[Anishinaabe traditional beliefs]]
** [[Mesoamerican Calendar Religion]] / [[Mexico]] / [[Central America]]
==Ethnic Christian Churches==
{{see|National church}}
* [[Armenian Apostolic Church]]
* [[Assyrian Christianity]]
* [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church]]
* [[Church of England]]
* [[Church of Scotland]]
* [[Church of Sweden]]
* [[Coptic Church]]
* [[Ethiopic Church]]
* [[Eritrean Orthodox Church]]
* [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark]]
* [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland]]
* [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland]]
* [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway]]
* [[Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church]]
* [[Greek Orthodox Church]]
* [[Macedonian Orthodox Church]]
* [[Russian Orthodox Church]]
* [[Romanian Orthodox Church]]
* [[Serbian Orthodox Church]]
==[[Folkish]] Neopagan revivals==
{{see|Paganism}}
{{see|Polytheistic reconstructionism}}
* [[Baltic neopaganism|Baltic]]
** [[Romuva (church)|Lithuanian]]
** [[Dievturība|Latvian]]
* [[Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism|Celtic]]
* [[Finnish neopaganism|Finnish]]
* [[Germanic neopaganism|Germanic]] ([[Ásatrú|Norse]], [[Theodism|Anglo-Saxon]])
* [[Hellenic neopaganism|Greek]]
* [[Slavic neopaganism|Slavic]]
==See also==
* [[Animism]]
* [[Civil religion]]
* [[Evolution of religion]]
* [[Paganism]]
* [[Pre-Christian Alpine traditions]]
* [[Shamanism]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Paganism]]