Portable Belief Systems
Once, your birthplace determined your beliefs. Later, as networks of trade and empire expanded, belief systems became portable, spreading across continents and blending, clashing, and redefining power and identity along the way. These classroom-ready lessons and teaching materials help you illustrate how portable belief systems impacted the world.
How to Teach Portable Belief Systems
Blog: Creative Comparison: Empowering Students to Drive Historical Comparison
Give students the wheel: When they choose what to compare and what yardsticks to use, historical thinking gets creative, and a lot more fun.
PD: Early Belief Systems
Explore early belief systems from the Mediterranean and Near East in this session from the NYU Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.
What’s a Fun Way to Teach About Major World Religions?
Check out teachers’ ideas for introducing students to belief systems with hands-on activities that don’t oversimplify world religions.
Teaching Sensitive Topics
The adage about never discussing politics or religion in polite company doesn’t really work in a history class. Find the support you need for difficult but meaningful discussions about belief systems.
Teach Tomorrow: Lessons on Portable Belief Systems
Lesson 4.2
Comparing Portable Belief Systems
From Hinduism and Buddhism to Christianity and Islam, religions transformed societies as they spread to new places. What common ideas did these portable belief systems share—and how did they differ?
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Lesson 4.3
How Do Religions Grow and Change?
Beliefs and ideas spread along long-distance trade routes, thanks to merchants, armies, and religious missionaries. As beliefs spread, some religions blended with local cultures and took on new traditions.
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Portable Belief Systems Activities and Resources
Source Collection: Portable Belief Systems
Article
Source Collection: Portable Belief Systems
Students dig into the sources as they investigate the diffusion of belief systems across trade routes from c. 6000 BCE to c. 700 CE.
Comparison: Belief Systems
Activity
Comparison: Belief Systems
Belief systems tell us a lot about how people thought and how they lived. Time to compare the history and teachings of several different belief systems.
Spread of Islam Thematic Map
Map
Spread of Islam Thematic Map
This map shows the expansion of Islam as a world religion, from the conquests of Muhammad in the seventh century to the eighteenth century.
Belief and Power
Closer
Belief and Power
The Mauryan emperor Ashoka was one of the most important figures in the history of South Asia. Read his words and consider how he used religion to shape his rule.
Syncretism
Article
Syncretism
Belief systems change over time. They also change when people come into contact with each other and share ideas. This process is called syncretism.
Rumi
Graphic Biographies
Rumi
Rumi was a poet who believed that universal love was a path to God. He rejected divisions based on ethnicity and religion.
Writing Assessments for Portable Belief Systems
Pre-Writing: Early Chinese Philosophies
Assessment
Pre-Writing: Early Chinese Philosophies
Get ready for writing by crafting a claim and gathering supporting evidence to compare the impact of early Chinese philosophies on government.
DBQ Sources: Early Chinese Philosophies
Assessment
DBQ Sources: Early Chinese Philosophies
Analyze the documents to explore how Chinese philosophies influenced the state.
Writing: Early Chinese Philosophies
Assessment
Writing: Early Chinese Philosophies
Time to write! Demonstrate your understanding of the connections between early Chinese belief systems and governance of the state.