The many-deity religion of a particular people as it is actually practised: local, transmitted by custom and household observance rather than by scripture, and frequently coexisting with an official religion layered over it.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe many-deity religion of a particular people as it is actually practised: local, carried by custom, festival and household observance rather than by scripture or a professional priesthood, and commonly coexisting with an official religion layered over it. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredChinese and Vietnamese popular religion: distinct traditions with distinct pantheons and distinct histories, grouped here by how they are transmitted rather than by any shared content. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryContested: folk or popular religion is defined by contrast with an elite or official religion - a distinction the practice itself does not observe, and one that scholarship increasingly declines to draw. 2 Learn More
Folk polytheisms
This group gathers folk polytheistic religions, the popular, often local and unsystematised many-god traditions carried in custom, festival and household practice rather than in a formal theology or a professional priesthood.
The browser will find the traditions the atlas classes here. The entries describe each as a lived popular religion, noting its characteristic blend of deities, spirits and inherited practice.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Popular ReligionView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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