Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| local race | Demographic unit variously defined as culture province, culture net, culture area, culture sphere, nation, national race, local breeding population, reproductive isolate, genetically distinct population. |
| local religion | A single ethnoreligion or tribal religion restricted to a local tribe’s, or people’s, population. |
| low spiritists | Afro-American spiritists (qv). |
| macro region | United Nations’ definition of continent, dividing the world into 6 such regions; previously named continental area now replaced by major area. |
| macroreligion | A global or worldwide religion or family of religions, usually with from 20 to 100 million adherents. |
| macrozone | One of 10 global zones used in language classification. |
| Mahayanists | The Greater Vehicle school of Buddhists (qv), or Northern Buddhism (China, Japan, et alia). |
| mahdi | A Muslim leader who assumes a messianic role. |
| Maitreya | (Sanskrit). In Buddhism, the Buddha who is to be the next to appear on earth; a bodhisattva. |
| major area | UN term used in statistical enumerations instead of the looser term ‘continent’. |
| major civil division (MCD) | United Nations’ term for the next level of administrative or political subdivision in a country immediately below nationwide level. |
| male_and_female | Whether both males and females are included in survey. Some of the Demographic and Health Surveys only include women. |
| Malikites | Followers of Malikiya, one of the 4 schools or rites of Sunni Muslim law. |
| mallam | In West Africa, a Muslim religious practitioner or cleric. |
| Mandaeans | Gnostics (Mandaiia), followers of 2nd-century- AD syncretistic Jewish-Christian fertility religion (Christians of St John, Followers of John the Baptist, Dippers, Sabaeans, Nasoreans), regarding John the Baptist as the Messiah; found today only in Iraq and Iran. |
| mandala | (Sanskrit: circle). A sacred design that represents the universe as an aid to meditation. |
| Mantrayana | The Tantrism school of Buddhists; Tantrayana (qv). |
| Maoism | The teachings of Mao Tse-tung regarded as a secular quasi-religion. |
| marabout | In West Africa, a charismatic Muslim practitioner. |
| Maroon | A Mulatto (qv). |
| Marranos | Christianized Jews or Moors (Muslims) of medieval and contemporary Spain and Portugal who accepted forced conversion in the 15th century to escape persecution or death, but who still to this day secretly practice the Passover and other Jewish rites; also called Anusim, New Christians, Secret Jews, Crypto-Jews, Conversos. Total: 300000 |
| masjid | (Arabic). A mosque (qv). |
| Masonic | Belonging to or connected with Freemasons (qv) or Freemasonry. |
| materialism | Preoccupation with material things rather than intellectual or spiritual things. |
| maternal mortality rate | The annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births. |
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Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
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