| Term | Definition |
| Ashkenazim | One of two main ethnic groups within Jewish sulture. This branch eventually settled in Central Europe after having been driven out of Jerusalem early in the first millenium A.D. |
| Brahman | A HIndu of the highest caste, most often a priest; a person believed to possess sacred knowledge and to be of the greatest purity. |
| caste system | The strict social segregation of people-specifically in India's Hindu society-on the basis of ancestry and occupation. |
| Confucianism | A philosophy of ethics, education, and public service based on the writings of Confucias and traditionally thought of as one of the core elements of Chinese culture. |
| diaspora | A term describing forceful or voluntary dispersal of a people from their homeland to a new place. |
| Feng Shui | The Chinese art and sciencfe of placement and orientation of tombs, dwellings, buildings, and cities. |
| imam | The political head of the Muslim community or the person who leads prayer services. |
| karma | In Hinduism and Buddhism, the force generated by a person's actions that affects transmigrations into a future existence, determining conditions and position in the next earthly stage of life. |
| Sephardim | One of two main ethnic groups within Jewish culture. This branch settled in Northern Africa and later in the Iberian Peninsula after having been driven away from Jerusalem early in the first millenium A.D. |
| Shiite | Represent the Persian variation of Islam and believe in the infallibility and divine right to authority of the imams, descendents of Ali. |
| Sunni | Bwelieve in the effectiveness of family and community in the solution of life's problems. |
| Zionism | The movement to unite the Jewish people of the diaspora and to establish a national homeland for them in Palestine. |