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Altar to Inari Ōkami at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Shinto is the ethnic religion of the Japanese people.

Ethnic religion 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. Contrasted to this are imperial cults that are defined by political influence detached from ethnicity. A partly overlapping concept is that of folk religion referring to ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an institutionalized religion (e.g. folk Christianity). Adherents of an ethnic religion may constitute an ethnoreligious group.

In antiquity, religion was one defining factor of ethnicity, along with language, regional customs, national costume, etc. 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). 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.

Adherents.com cites Barrett's 2001 world religion calculations for a demographic estimate, ranging at 457 million "tribal religionists, "ethnic religionists," or "animists," including African Traditional religionists, but not including Chinese folk religion or Shintoism.

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, Syrian, Greek, Russian and others.

The term ethnic religion is therefore also applied to a religion in a particular place, even if it is a regional expression of a larger world religion. For example, Hinduism in the Caribbean has been considered an ethnic religion by some scholars, because Hindus in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname consider themselves a distinct ethnic group.^[1] Korean Christian churches in the United States have been described as an ethnic religion, because they are closely associated with the ethnic identity of immigrant Korean Americans.^[2]

Some scholars classify entire religions as either universal religions that seek worldwide acceptance and actively look for new converts, or ethnic religions that are identified with a particular ethnic group and do not seek converts.^[3]

Judaism is considered an ethnic religion by some authors (defining of the Jewish people, but not by others. Hinduism as a whole is mostly classed as one of the world religions, but some currents of Hindu nationalism take it as definitive of an Indian or Hindu ethnicity or nation. Within Hinduism, there are regional or tribal currents with ethnic traits, sometimes termed Folk Hinduism.

Indigenous traditional ethnic religions[link]

The symbol of the Ndut initiation rite in Serer religion.

Indian devotees of Shiva in pilgrimage.

A typical Chinese local-deity temple in Taiwan.

African traditional religions. Particularly organised or influential forms.

• Odinani (Igbo)
• Vodun and Yoruba religion (Western Africans)
• Serer religion (West Africa)

Afro-American or African diasporic religions

• Candomblé, Umbanda and Quimbanda (Brazilians)
• Kumina and Rastafarianism (Jamaicans)
• Marialionzanism (Venezuelans)
• Santería, Regla de Arará, Regla de Palo (Cubans)
• Haitian Vodou (Haitians)
• Louisianan Voodoo (Louisianan African Americans)
• Winti (Surinamese)

Asian ethnic religions

• Bön (Tibetans)
• Chinese Ethnic Religion or Shenism, and Taoism (Hans)
• Dongbaism (Nakhi)
• Druze
• Judaism (Jews)
• Kirant Mundhum (Kirats)
• Muism or Sinism (Koreans)
• Mandaeism
• Ryukyuan Shinto and Ijun (Ryukyuans)
• Samaritanism
• Siberian Shamanism
• Shinto (Japanese)
• Sikhism and Ravidassia (Punjabi)
• Tengriism (Turko-Mongols)
• Yazdânism (Kurds)
• Zoroastrianism (Persians, Parsi, and other Iranians)
• Hinduism and Jainism (Indians, Indian diaspora), and ethnic religions of India not necessarily classified as Hindu:
  • Donyipoloism (Arunachali)
  • Sanamahism (Meitei)
  • Sarna (Santals)

Arctic ethnic religions

• Sami shamanism / Noaidi
• Eskimo shamanism / Inuit mythology

American ethnic religions

• Northern American religions and Peyotism
• Anishinaabe traditional beliefs
• Ancient Mexicah Religion, Santa Muerte Worship
• Maya religion (ethnic Maya; Guatemalans)

European and Near Eastern ethnic religions

• Paganism and Neopaganism

Ethnic Christian churches[link]

A Coptic church in Cairo, Egypt.

• Armenian Apostolic Church
• Assyrian Christianity
• Bulgarian Orthodox Church
• Church of Denmark
• Church of England
• Church of the Faroe Islands
• Church of Iceland
• Church of Norway
• Church of Scotland
• Church of Sweden
• Coptic Church
• Ethiopic Church
• Eritrean Orthodox Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
• Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church
• Greek Orthodox Church
• Macedonian Orthodox Church
• Russian Orthodox Church
• Romanian Orthodox Church
• Serbian Orthodox Church

Reconstructionist Neopagan revivals[link]

Heathenism (Germanic)[link]

Heathen altar for Haustblot in Björkö, Westgothland, Sweden. The big wooden idol represents god Frey (Ing), the picture in front of it goddess Freya (Walpurgis), and the small red idol god Thor.

Heathenism (also Heathenry), or Greater Heathenry, is a blanket term for the whole Germanic Neopagan movement. Various currents and denominations have arisen over the years within it.

Forn Siðr, Ásatrú or Vanatrú (Norse Paganism)

• Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið (1972)
• The Troth (1987)
• Asatru Folk Assembly (1996)
• Swedish Asatru Assembly (1994)
• Åsatrufellesskapet Bifrost (1996)
• Folktrú (folklorist Scandinavian Forn Siðr)
  • Foreningen Forn Sed (1999)
  • Samfälligheten för Nordisk Sed (1999)

Odinism or Wotanism (ethnically exclusivist movements)

• Odinic Rite (1973)
• Odinist Fellowship (1996)

Theodism (American tribalist movements)

Armanism or Irminism (or Irminenschaft) (German Paganism and Ariosophical movements)

• Heidnische Gemeinschaft (1985)
• Artgemeinschaft (1951)

Deutsche Heidnische Front (1998)

• New Armanen-Orden

Urglaawe (Pennsylvanian Deitsch Paganism)

Celtism (Celtic)[link]

Celtic Reconstructionism (1980s)

Neo-druidism (Druidism, Druidry or Neodruidry)

• Reformed Druids of North America (1963)
• Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (1964)
• Ár nDraíocht Féin (1983)

Other European[link]

A Romuvan ritual in Lithuania.

Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism (Hellenism)

• Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes
• Hellenion

Roman Way to the Gods or Religio Romana

• Nova Roma

Armenian polytheism (Hetanism)

Slavic polytheism (Rodnovery)

• RUNVira, Sylenkoism
• Native Polish Church
• Native Faith Association of Ukraine

Baltic polytheism

• Lithuanian Romuva
• Latvian Dievturība

Finnish Neopaganism (Suomenism)

Estonian polytheism

• Taaraism and Maausk
• Maavalla Koda

Church of the Guanche People (Canary Islands)

Ancient Near East[link]

Semitic Neopaganism

Kemetism (Egyptian Neopaganism)

• Ausar Auset, "Black" Kemetism or Neterianism
• Kemetic Orthodoxy, "White" Kemetism
• Church of the Eternal Source
• Ta Noutri

See also[link]

• Animism
• Ancestor worship
• National god
• Shamanism
• Totemism

References[link]