Across families
Chinese Folk Religion and Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí)
Different families with 12 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.11 (0 would be identical).
Ancestors, local gods, Buddhist figures and Daoist ritual specialists used together without embarrassment, organised around efficacy rather than around creed. Belonging is to a family and a place, not to a doctrine.
Cuban orisha worship structured around divination, initiation and a strict ritual grammar, with Catholic saints as a historical overlay rather than as theology. Authority is earned through initiation and is not negotiable.
Where they agree
A3 Plurality
Both sit at many powers and spirits — a gap of 0.00.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning a personal being one can address — a gap of 0.02.
A4 Locus
Both sit at fully present within it — a gap of 0.02.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.02.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at essential and prescribed — a gap of 0.03.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at between one life, then judgment and cyclical return — a gap of 0.04.
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.05.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at leaning animate and itself sacred and animate and itself sacred respectively — a gap of 0.06.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning a people, inherited — a gap of 0.07.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.07.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound — a gap of 0.08.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at leaning achieved by effort or insight and between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight respectively — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
B3 Institutional authority
Chinese Folk Religion: between clergy and tradition decide and individual conscience decides. Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí): clergy and tradition decide. A gap of 0.43 on an axis running from “clergy and tradition decide” to “individual conscience decides”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Chinese Folk Religion | Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.05 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning a personal being one can address | leaning a personal being one can address | 0.02 |
| A3 Plurality | many powers and spirits | many powers and spirits | 0.00 |
| A4 Locus | fully present within it | fully present within it | 0.02 |
| B1 Source of truth | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | 0.07 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | leaning metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.16 |
| B3 Institutional authority | between clergy and tradition decide and individual conscience decides | clergy and tradition decide | 0.43 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | continues in some form | 0.02 |
| C2 Shape of time | between one life, then judgment and cyclical return | between one life, then judgment and cyclical return | 0.04 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.08 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | leaning achieved by effort or insight | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | 0.10 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | essential and prescribed | essential and prescribed | 0.03 |
| D3 The body | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | leaning to be celebrated | 0.15 |
| E1 Exclusivity | many valid paths | between one true path and many valid paths | 0.26 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | between an intentional act and beginningless or natural | leaning an intentional act | 0.34 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning a people, inherited | leaning a people, inherited | 0.07 |
| E4 Standing of nature | leaning animate and itself sacred | animate and itself sacred | 0.06 |
Positions for Chinese Folk Religion rest principally on Ethnographic scholarship on Chinese popular religion (Feuchtwang, Yang); for Santería (Regla de Ocha / Lucumí), on Lucumí/Santería ritual practice and Brandon, Santeria from Africa to the New World. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.