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Chapter 1 Vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Geography | The spatial study of people, place, space, and environment |
Human Geography | One of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of human phenomena, including population, cultures, activities, and landscapes |
Globalization | Processes heightening interaction, increasing interdependence, and deepening relations across country borders |
Fieldwork | Observations researchers make of physical and cultural landscapes |
Patterns | Description of spatial distribution of human or physical phenomena (ex. scattered or concentrated) |
Physical Geography | One of the two major divisions; the spatial analysis of physical phenomena, including climate, environmental hazards, weather system, animals, and topography |
Spatial distribution | Physical location of geographic phenomena, usually shown on a map |
Pandemic | An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide |
Epidemic | Widespread, rapid diffusion of disease among a people in particular location or region at a particular time |
Spatial perspective | Looking at where things occur, why they occur where they do and how places are interconnected |
Geographic concepts | Mental categories used to organize and analyze spatially |
Location | Position on Earth, including both absolute and relative location (one of the five themes of geography) |
Absolute Location | Precise location of a place, usually defined by latitude and longitude |
Relative Location | The location of a place or attribute in references to another place or attribute |
Location theory | Understanding the distribution of cities, industries, services, or consumers with the goal of explaining why places are chosen as sites of production or consumption ex. The von thunen model |
Human-environment interactions | Reciprocal relationship between humans and environment (one of the five themes of geography) |
Environmental determinism | Set of theories that use environmental differences to explain everything from intelligence to wealth |
Hearth | Area or place where an idea, innovation, or technology originates |
Possibilism | Theory in geography that humans, not environment, shape culture |
Carrying Capacity | The idea that land can hold a measurable amount of plant and animal life |
Cultural Ecology | Study of the historical interaction between humans and environment in a place, including ways humans have modified and adapted to environment |
Political Ecology | An approach to studying human-environment interactions in the context of political, economic, and historical conditions operating at multiple scales |
Region | Area of Earth identified as sharing a formal, functional, or perceptual commonality that makes it different from regions around it (one of the five themes of geography) |
Formal Region | Area of land with common cultural or physical traits |
Cultural traits | A learned belief, norm, or value passed down through generations in a culture |
Functional Region | Area of land defined as sharing a common purpose in society |
Nodes | Connection point in a network, where goods and ideas flow in, out, and through the network |
Perceptual/Vernacular Region | Area of land that an individual perceives as being similar |
Place | Uniqueness of a location (one of the five theme of geography) |
Sense of Place | Infusing a place with meaning as a result of experiences in a place |
Perception of Place | How a place is envisioned |
Movement | Mobility of people, goods, and services across Earth (one of the five themes of geography) |
Diffusion | Spread on an idea, innovation, or technology from its hearth to other people and places |
Spatial Interaction | Degree of contentedness or contact among people or places |
Distance | the amount of space between two things, regions, or land masses |
Accessibility | Ease of flow between two places |
Connectivity | Position of a place or area relative to others in a network |
Expansion Diffusion | The spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth across space without the aid of people moving |
Contagious Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from one person or place to another person or place based on proximity. Specific type of expansion diffusion |
Hierarchical Diffusion | spread of an idea or innovation from one person or place to another person or place based on hierarchy of contentedness. Specific type of expansion diffusion |
Stimulus Diffusion | A process of diffusion where two cultural traits blend to create a distinct trait |
Relocation Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth by the act of people moving and taking the idea or innovation with them |
Cultural landscape | The visible human imprint on the landscape |
Sequent occupance | Imprints left on the cultural landscape by a series of successive societies. Each society contributed to the cumulative cultural landscape. |
Scale | Geographical scope (local, national, or global) in which we analyze and understand a phenomenon |
Rescale | Changing the geographical scope at which a problem is addressed by engaging decision maker and gatekeepers at another scale |
Context | The physical and human geographies creating the place, environment, and space in which events occur and people act |
Cartography | The art and science of making maps |
Reference maps | Maps that show the absolute location of places and geographic features |
Thematic maps | A map that tells a story, usually showing the degree of attributes or the movement of a geographic phenomenon. |
Global Positioning System (GPS) | Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features. |
Mental maps | maps of an area made from memory and experience by individuals or groups (also known as cognitive maps) |
Activity (action) spaces | Places within the rounds of daily activity |
Terra Incognita | Areas on maps that are not well defined because they are off limits or unknown to the map maker. |
Remote sensing | A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (ex. satalites) that are physically distant from the area of study. |
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | A system of computer hardware and software designed to show, analyze, and represent, geographic data (data that have locations) |
Culture | a group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by a people |
Culture Complex | A group of interrelated cultural traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils. |
Formal Region | Area of land with common cultural or physical traits |