Religion and Geography: Location, Size, Neighbours and Boundaries of Nigeria
Abstract
The concept of religion varies widely across different cultures and individuals. Some view religion as a
source of meaning and guidance in life, while others may see it as a way to seek supernatural protection
or avoid punishment after death. Regardless, religion often plays a significant role in shaping personal
and societal values and practices. This work explores Religion and Geography: Location, Size,
Neighbours and boundaries of Nigeria and relays the synergy between religion and geography as one area
cannot do without the other, because geography is basically the study of the environment and how people
live in it while religion occupies itself with the study of human beliefs and practices living in that same
society. The methodology adopted in this work is purely descriptive approach. The findings show that
religion and geography are interwoven in the sense that religion is anthropomorphic and deals with human
beings and their belief system whereas geography is the scientific study of the earth’s surface, analyzing
them, describing them and explaining them all with a view to seeing how mankind can live a richer, better
and safer life. The invisible supernatural beings in the study of religion are made manifest through the
study of geography in the mundane physic-visible world. The work recommends that no one aspect should be neglected but rather geography is a platform upon which religious beliefs and practices find expression
in humans and man is at the centre of the study of religion. The research work concludes that both the
study of religion and geography should be integrated properly in human development in this country
Nigeria.
References
the natural foundations of Religion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1),29-34.
2. Bering, J. (2002). Intuitive conceptions of dead agents’ mind. The natural foundations of afterlife
beliefs as phenomenological boundary. Journal of Cognition and Culture 2, 263-208.
3. Bering, J., & David, B. (2004). The natural emergence of afterlife' reasoning as a developmental
regularity. Developmental Psychology, 40: 217-33.
4. Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained. New York: Basic Books. Boyer, P. and Clark, B. (2005). Domain
specificity and intuitive ontology. In David Buss (ed), Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology,
Hoboken, N.J. Wiley, 96-118.
5. Burkert, W. (1996). Creation of the sacred. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
6. Carey, S. (1985). Conceptual change in childhood. Cambridge: MIT Press.
7. Carey, S. (1995). On the origin of casual understanding. In D. Sperber, D. Premack and A.J. Premack
(ed). Casual Cognition: Oxford: Oxford University Press. 268-302.
8. Carey, S. (2000) "Science education as conceptual change. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology 1:37-41.
9. Carneiro, R. (2003). Evolutionism in cultural anthropology. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.
10. Cherry, J. (1992). Animism in thought and language. Ph.D Thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
11. Crapo, R.H. (2001). Cultural anthropology. Boston: McGraw Hill.
12. Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: Murray.
13. Dennett, D. (1987). The international stance. Cambridge: MIT Press.
14. Durkheim, E. (1965). The elementary forms of the religious life. New York: Free Press.
15. Feuerbach, L. (1957). The essence of Christianity. New York: Harper and Row.
16. Freeman, K. (1966). Ancilla to the pre-socratic philosophers. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
17. Freud, S. (1927). The future of an illusion. Garden City, N.Y. Anchor.
18. Geertz, C. (1966 ). Religion as a Cultural System, in M. Banton (ed.). Anthropological Approaches to
the Study of Religion. London: Tavistock. 1-4
19. Guthrie, S. (1980). A cognitive theory of religion. Current Anthropology 21(2), 181-203.
20. Guthrie, S. (1996). The sacred: A skeptical view. In Thomas Idinopulos and Edward Yonan (eds). The
Sacred and its Scholars. Leiden: Brill, 1-46.
21. Guthrie, S. (1997). Anthropomorphism: A definition and a theory. In R. Mitchell, N. Thompson, and
L. Miles (eds). Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes and Animals. Albany: SUNY Press, 50-58.
22. Guthrie, S. (2000a). Bottles are men, glasses are women. Anthropology News 41(4):20-21.
. Guthrie, S. (200b). Projection. In Russell McCutcheon and Willi Braun (ed). Guide to the Study of
Religion, London, Cassell, pp. 225-38. Guthrie, S. (2001). Whys Gods? A cognitive theory. In Jensine
Andersen (ed), Religion in mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 94-111.
24. Hassin, R.R., James S.U., & John, A.B. (2005). The new unconscious. New York: Oxford University
Press.
25. Herbelein, A. (2004). Impaired spontaneous anthropomorphizing despite intact perception and social
knowledge. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(19), 7487-91.
26. Horton, R. (1960). A definition of religion and its uses. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
90: 201-26. Horton, R. (1967). African traditional thought and western science. Africa: 37: 50-71,
155-87.
27. Horton, R. (1976). African conversion and confusion: A rejoinder on Christianity in eastern Nigeria.
Canadian Journal of African Studies. 10: 481-198.
28. Hume, D. (1957). The natural history of religion. Standard, Calif, Stanford University Press.
29. Kluckhohn, C. (1942). Myths and rituals: A general theory. Harvard Theological Review. 35:1.
30. Malinowski, B. (1955). Magic, science and religion. Garden City. N.Y. Doubleday.
31. Marx, K. (1957). On Religion, Mosco: Progress Publishers
32. Marx, K., & Friedrich, E. (1957). On religion. Moscow: Progress. Piaget, J. (1933). Children's
philosophies. In a handbook of child psychology 2
nd ed. Worcester, Mass: Clark University Press, 505-
16.
33. Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1979). Taboo. In William Lessa and Evon Vogt (eds). Reader in Comparative
Religion. New York: Harper and Row, 46-56.
34. Spiro, M. (1966). Religion: problems of definition and meaning. In Michael Banton (ed).
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. London: Tavistock, pp. 85-126.
35. Tylor, E.B. (1871). Primitive culture. London: John Murray.
36. Tylor, E.B. (1979). Animism. In William Lessa and Evon Vogt (eds). Reader in Comparative Religion.
New York: Harper and Row, 9-19
