World Sikh Council’s America Region, which estimates that around 500,000 Sikhs are living in the USA.
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Sikhism
There are 24 million Sikhs worldwide. Over 90% live in India, mainly in the Punjab.
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The terms ‘traditional’ and ‘indigenous’ distinguish those cultures and belief systems that are not part of a major world religion. While they often share key features, such as reverence for nature and veneration of ancestors, they do not adhere to any central tenets. Many belief systems – such as Australian aboriginal traditions – have been part of the same geographic setting for thousands of years. Some have travelled and been shaped by what is loosely called Shamanism, thought to have originated in Siberia and to have migrated with movement of peoples into the Americas. The indigenous religion of China, which fuses Daoism, Buddhism, folk religion and Confucianism, is the majority religious practice of the country. In Japan, Shinto rites are widely practised, and even though an individual may profess a different ‘personal’ religion, Shintoism is often the ‘family’ religion. Traditional religion is still widely practised throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In the Caribbean and Latin America there are more than 3 million adherents of indigenous religions, from the 14,000 strong Huichol community in northern Mexico to the native peoples of the Amazon basin.
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Traditional Beliefs
There are more than 250 million adherents of traditional beliefs worldwide, excluding the indigenous religions of China and Japan. There are also many who belong to a major world religion while continuing to hold traditional local beliefs.
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The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world, with over 1 billion baptized members. While the number of priests worldwide and in Latin America remains steady, in 2003 the Vatican recorded a decrease in European priests and an increase in priests from Africa and Asia. The number of nuns worldwide has dropped significantly, particularly in Europe and North America, where there were 15,000 fewer in 2003 than in the previous year. In contrast there was an increase of nearly 4,000 nuns in Asia and 1,285 in Africa. Overall, however, Europe and the Americas still have the largest number of nuns, with 74 percent of the world total of 776,269. The Catholic Church is governed by the Holy See in Rome, officially known as the State of the Vatican City. It is the world’s only sacerdotal government and as such has official diplomatic representation. There are three types of pontifical representative: nuncios, for nations with a Catholic majority; pro-nuncios, for nations with a Catholic minority; and, permanent observers or delegates who are appointed to certain international organizations.
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Catholicism
There are more than 1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide. 200,000 schools, serving more than 52 million students, operate under Catholic Church auspices.
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New religious movements are religious or spiritual groups not officially recognized as standard denominations or Churches, but their definition is one of the most controversial in the field of religious studies. Some claim to have traditional roots and others are entirely new. All have their strongest appeal in predominantly Christian cultures where secularism has created crises of identity. The rise of new religious movements was aided by the growth of economy air travel from the 1960s, which made it possible for young people, swamis and teachers to travel extensively. Indonesia, with its long tradition of religious pluralism, has hundreds of new religious movements and is the only country in the world to offer them formal recognition and official protection. Shown here is a selection of recent movements with no historical roots, such as the Church of Scientology, or movements not accepted by their supposed parent faith, such as the Church of Unification, which is not recognized by mainstream Christians. Not covered are the thousands of people who belong to local new religious movements, who sometimes exceed the number of those involved in international movements.
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New Religious Movements
The migration of people and ideas fosters new religious movements. Most, but not all, have their origin in a major world religion. Many are very localized, while a few are now international.
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The creation of pan-Native American movements in the USA and Canada to formulate a common Native Religion is a conscious attempt to return to roots and reclaim identity. This has flowed through American society and into Europe, particularly in the New Age milieu which has adopted elements of traditional practice such as shaman groups, medicine lodges and sweat lodges. Over the past few decades, specific forms of Paganism have been arising in different countries around the world as people have sought to retrieve what they perceive to be a more ‘authentic’ religious tradition that is closely tied with the culture or mythology of their nation. Celtic Druidry draws inspiration from the Celtic traditions of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittany. Heathenry, a branch of Paganism drawing on Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology, seeks to revive Northern Europe’s pre-Christian traditions. Shamanism, with its underlying belief that an individual in an alternative state of consciousness can travel between various different worlds, is active in Siberia, in the USA amongst Native Americans, and in Latin America, Indonesia, Asia and Europe. Practised by indigenous people worldwide, Shamanism is also emerging as a new spiritual movement in New Age and Pagan communities in many industrialized countries. The slave trade between Africa and the Americas, from the 16th to the 19th centuries, blended African indigenous religions with Christianity and the traditions of the Caribbean, Central and South America. In Brazil, syncretized religions are followed by almost 5 percent of the population, and 15 percent are engaged in rites while also belonging to a major faith. Many of the followers of Santeria in Cuba are also professing Catholics and, in Haiti, Vodoun is officially recognized as a religion.
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