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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in; line-height: 100%">ASIAN
CULTURE <sdfield type=PAGE subtype=RANDOM format=PAGE>0</sdfield></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Asian
Culture in Religion</font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Joseph
J. Green</font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Northern
Arizona University</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Asian cultures are lush with
traditions that have been canonized or reinforced by their various
philosophies and religions. Traditions such as group welfare,
importance of the past, importance of agriculture, societal
hierarchy, subjugation of women, and the importance of extended
family. Three of the major Asian religions, Confucianism, Hinduism,
and Shinto contain many of these cultural tendencies.</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Mainly
in China, while it is debatable whether it is more of a philosophy or
a religion, Confucianism took hold early on, and it has helped govern
Chinese life ever sense. The Chinese have always maintained a strict
hierarchical order, and Confucius and Mencius, a major contributor to
Confucianism, canonized the common practice as the right and moral
thing to do. Confucianism also encourages people to organize and
rebel against the unjust for the good all, though in practice, people
rarely rebelled against unjust fathers. Confucius also stressed that,
while people are born moral, they must also study the histories and
educate themselves if they have any chance of remaining moral
throughout life. The general positive outlook on life that the
Chinese maintained was also embraced in Confucianism by encouraging
people to follow the traditions of a good long life and to die only
when surrounded by descendants. Indeed, Mencius said that the
greatest filial sin is to have no descendants, which, of course,
meant specifically male descendants as women were married off to
become part of someone else’s household which is one way
Confucianism supported, somewhat, the subjugated role of women in
Chinese society (Murphey, Rhodes and Stapleton, 2014). Along with
educating and culturing one’s self, Confucius also promoted the
cultivation of the land (Tucker, n.d.), which is the base importance
of an agrarian society as the Chinese were and largely still are.</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> While
Confucianism incorporated much of Chinese culture and has had such
profound influence on them, no religion is as closely tied with its
people as Hinduism is with the people of the Indian subcontinent.
Hinduism defines the caste system that the Indian people follow. In
an effort to maintain a hierarchical order, leadership, and
economics, Hinduism defines what group of people are responsible for
what tasks which greatly protects both group welfare, and the
hierarchical order. The caste system consists of four primary
societal ranks to maintain society and a pseud fifth class which is
for people without a caste. The first two castes define the order of
leadership, first the priestly class and then the ruling class. The
third class is reserved for the farmers and merchants of society to
keep the people fed and the economy strong, this also shows that
farmers are regarded as the highest rank under the leadership which
shows just how important agriculture is to the faith. The last true
rank is that of their laborers who provide labor and service for the
top three rungs of society. Hinduism also professes a love of all
living things, and recommends against taking life. This is embodied
for their reverence of past living things and the concept of
reincarnation. No one knows if the animal (s)he kills was an honored
ancestor, so it is best to avoid it. Unfortunately for women, they do
not fit very highly in the Hindu culture. It is declared that women
must never be independent, that they must first be subjects of their
fathers, then husbands, and then, if her husband is dead, her sons
(Murphey, Rhodes and Stapleton, 2014; Nigosian, 2000). Hindus also
typically place importance on the extended family which can be seen
by the fact that multiple generations of families have a tendency to
live together (Iskconeducationalservices.org, n.d.).</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Japan,
which is the primary basin of Shinto, holds a special place in Asian
culture by being a largely isolated island throughout much of the
development of Asia. Unlike other Asian cultures, Japanese women
actually had the ability to hold some amount of power instead of
being largely subjugated. For much of its history, Shinto actually
required women to take an active part in the religion in order for it
to work. Though there was a short period of Shinto history where
women were no longer required in the practice of Shinto, throughout
history women have enjoyed the ability to take on high roles in
Japanese culture which is reflected in Shinto (Haruko, n.d.). Unlike
other religions, Shinto is much more localized and therefore only
shares a few common Kami across the country. This also means that,
unlike the other religions discussed, Shinto doesn’t look for group
welfare in quite the same all-encompassing way, but has a focus on
the welfare of the local communities that build the shrines. Shinto
also professes an attachment to the past in the form of ancestor
worship. Shinto practitioners often worship ancestors of particular
clans or lineages as Kami for good fortune. Being an animistic
religion, it shouldn’t be surprising that Shinto puts a great
influence on agriculture as agriculture is the source of life which
makes it only natural to ascribe Kami to it for good tidings. Also
unlike other Asian religions, Shinto does little to promote a
hierarchical structuring of society, but it was used for some time to
give legitimacy to the ruling clan of Japan (Littleton, 1999).</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> As
we can see, tradition and religion are highly mingled in Asian
society. Indeed, in some cases such as Hindi, it can be hard to
separate the religion from the culture. However, three of the major
religions of the area, Hindi, Confucianism, and Shinto, all in
someway embody the cultural traditions of the local people and
reinforce them. In Asia, it would appear that religion is more of a
philosophical view on how to live life based on cultural tradition,
than some grand aspirations to a bountiful afterlife.</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">RESOURCES</font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Haruko, O.
(n.d.).&nbsp;<i>Women and Sexism in Shinto</i>. [online]
Nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp. Available at:
https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/3517 [Accessed 22 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Iskconeducationalservices.org.
(n.d.).&nbsp;<i>Heart of Hinduism: Family Life</i>. [online]
Available at:
http://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/lifestyle/904.htm [Accessed
22 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Littleton, S.
(1999).&nbsp;<i>Shinto</i>. pp.144-161.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Murphey, Rhodes
and Stapleton, K. (2014).&nbsp;<i>Asian Religions and Their Cultures.
In A History of Asia</i>. 7th ed. New York: NY: Taylor &amp; Francis
Group, pp.28-46.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Nigosian, S.
(2000).&nbsp;<i>World Religions: A Historical Approach</i>. 3rd ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, pp.20-57.</font></font></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Tucker, M.
(n.d.).&nbsp;<i>Confucianism | Religion | Yale Forum on Religion and
Ecology</i>. [online] Fore.yale.edu. Available at:
http://fore.yale.edu/religion/confucianism/ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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