ABSTRACT
The concept of Regional Religious Systems (RRS) is a new way to study the pattern of spatial distribution of religious sites and their relationship with other social and cultural factors. This introductory essay discusses the theoretical and methodological issues in this uncharted area. The author argues that the study of RRS must be situated in the context of regionalism in Greater China in light of a sophisticated understanding of the concept of region. Informed by William Skinner’s Macroregion Theory, RRS is defined as a spatial formation shaped by various socio-cultural and economic factors. This essay also explores various technical methods of handling the spatial data of religion through data analysis and map-making, including Hierarchical Regional Space (HRS), Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), Point Pattern Analysis, etc. Chapters included in this volume are also summarized at the end.
