McGraw-Hill OnlineMcGraw-Hill Higher EducationLearning Center
Student Center | Home
Current News
Weekly Update
Glossary
Chapter Introduction
Analyze the Issue 1
Web Map 1
Interactive Exercise 1
Web Map 2
Web Map 3
A Further Note 1
Web Map 4
Web Map 5
A Further Note 2
Chapter 4 Quiz
Web Links
Chapter Specific News
PowerWeb Articles
Feedback
Help Center


International Politics on the World Stage, Brief 4/e
World Politics: International Politics on the World Stage, Brief, 4/e
John T. Rourke, University of Connecticut - Storrs
Mark A. Boyer, University of Connecticut - Storrs

Nationalism: The Traditional Orientation

World Religions, World Languages

Due to the size of these maps, downloading them is recommended. Click on the links below or download these files to view these maps.

World Religions (475.0K)

This web map illustrates the predominate religions in different regions of the world.

Religious adherence is one of the fundamental defining characteristics of culture. A depiction of the spatial distribution of religions is, therefore, as close as we can come to a map of cultural patterns. More than just a set of behavioral patterns having to do with worship and ceremony, religion is an important conditioner of the ways that people treat one another and the environments that they occupy. In many areas of the world, the ways in which people make a living, the patterns of occupation that they create on the land, and the impacts that they make on ecosystems are the direct consequence of their adherence to a religious faith.

World Languages (472.0K)

This web map illustrates the predominate languages in different regions of the world.

Like religion, language is an important defining characteristic of culture. It is perhaps the most durable of all cultural traits. Even after centuries of exposure to other languages or even of conquest by speakers of other languages, the speakers of a specific tongue will often retain their own linguistic identity. As a geographic element, language helps us to locate areas of potential conflict, particularly in regions where two or more languages overlap. Many, if not most, of the world's conflict zones are also areas of linguistic diversity. Language also provides clues that enable us to chart the course of human migrations, as shown in the distribution of Indo-European languages. And it helps us to understand some of the reasons behind important historical events; linguistic identity differences played an important part in the disintegration of the Soviet Union.