Unit 1: Geography, Its Nature and Perspectives
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39 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Human geography | concentrates on patterns of human activity and on their relationships with the environment |
| Physical geography | concerned with the locations of such earth features as land, water, and climate; their relationship to one another and to human activities; and the forces that create and change them |
| Absolute location | exact location of a place on the earth described by global coordinates |
| Relative location | the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places |
| Spatial perspective | they way geographers look at everything-- in relation to space |
| Map | a diagrammatic representation of the earth's surface (or part of it) |
| Mental map | An internal representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in a place and where places are located. |
| Distribution | The arrangement of something across Earth's surface |
| Pattern | The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area. |
| Formal region | An area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics |
| Functional (nodal) region | a region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it |
| Perceptual (vernacular) region | A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity. |
| Remote sensing | A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments that are physically distant from the area or object of study. |
| Geographic Information Systems | A collection of computer hardware and software that permits spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, manipulated, analyzed, and displayed to the user. |
| Diffusion | the process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time |
| Expansion diffusion | The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process. |
| Relocation diffusion | The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another. |
| Acculturation | the modification of the social patterns, traits, or structures of one group or society by contact with those of another; the resultant blend |
| Assimilation | the process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture |
| Transculturation | cultural borrowing that occurs when different cultures of approximately equal complexity and technological level come into close contact |
| Contagious diffusion | The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population. |
| Hierarchical diffusion | The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places |
| Stimulus diffusion | The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected. |
| Independent invention | the term for a trait with many cultural hearths that developed independent of each other |
| Environmental determinism | the view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life including cultural development |
| Possibilism | The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives. |
| Culture | the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next |
| Cultural diffusion | the spread of cultural elements from one society to another |
| Cultural landscape | fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group |
| Culture hearth | Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture. |
| Culture trait | A single element of normal practice in a culture, such as the wearing of a turban. |
| Culture complex | A related set of culture traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils. |
| Culture realm | A cluster of regions in which related culture systems prevail. |
| Culture region | an area in which people have many shared culture traits |
| Culture system | Collection of culture complexes that shape a group's common identity |
| Sequent occupance | the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape |
| Folk culture | Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups. |
| Popular culture | Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. |
| Commodification | the process though which something is given monetary value |
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