ABSTRACT
Students of religion have suggested a number of ways of analysing religious systems. The term 'religious system' is being used to denote both the beliefs and practices involved. Family religion is usually associated with some kind of ancestor worship. Religious systems which are practised on a household basis, but which are also part of the wider society, bring us naturally to a consideration of tribal groups. It would be extremely difficult to find a tribal religion which did not include some features of the religions of neighbours. Some universal religions, for instance Christianity and Islam, have been adopted as the state religions of particular countries, but other religious systems seem to be more or less peculiar to specific states. Either the religious system is dominated by the political system, and has no real independence of its own—this might be said of classical China and, to some extent, Rome also.
