In the world there are more than 5, 000 religious cults that have had their own admirers. The study and classification of such a variety is carried out by a special science - religious studies.
In science, there are several dozen classifications of religions, but the most famous and most universal is the classification of E. Taylor, which divides religions according to the evolutionary principle.
Cult of ancestors
The lowest step in this classification is the cult of ancestors. Despite the fact that this type of religion is the oldest of all, it has many followers around the world. The peoples of Southeast Asia (residents of India, China, Indonesia and Thailand) make daily offerings to the spirits of their ancestors in the form of food, drink and flowers. In addition, the cult of ancestors is very common in Japan and in the countries of Central and South America.
Fetishism
Fetishism or worship of special sacred things and symbols began to spread with the development of the social system. The objects of worship in religions of this kind were magical objects and amulets. One way or another, even world religions include echoes of fetishism (as an example, we can cite the symbolic wearing of crosses by Christians, statues of Buddha, Christ, or the Muslim stone of the Kaaba).
Idolatry
Idolatry - that is, worship of the image of a deity appeared with the development of artistic and technical skills in people. Idols were carved from stone or wood and were distributed throughout the world. In part, idolatry was combined with shamanism and animism (in the case of wooden images of Native American totems or stones of Easter islands). Idolatry later developed into polytheism.
Polytheism
Polytheism or polytheism is the most voluminous view in terms of the number of religions. It can include worship of any pantheon of deities, starting from ancient Egyptian and ancient Sumerian beliefs, which have long had no admirers and ending with one of the largest world religions - Hinduism. Polytheism also includes such religions that are widespread in the modern world as Shintoism, Taoism, Jainism, partially Buddhism (in which it is historically customary to recognize not only the existence of the Buddha, but also various gods, demigods and devas), vetch (neopaganism). In Russia, polytheism is common in eastern Siberia, in the Altai Mountains, in Udmurtia, Chuvashia, and partially Bashkiria.
