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Human Geography chp1
Human Geography
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 interactions, increasing interdependence, and deepening relations across country borders. |
Fieldwork | Observations researchers make of physical and cultural landscapes with a focus on seeing similarities and differences. |
Patterns | Description of the spatial distribution of a human or physical phenomenon (e.g., scattered or concentrated. |
Physical geography | One of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of physical phenomena, including climate, environmental hazards, weather systems, animals, and topography. |
Culture | 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. |
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. |
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. |
Cultural Landscape | The visible human imprint on the landscape. |
Cultural trait | A learned belief, norm, or value passed down through generations in a culture |
Cultural Ecology | Study of the historical interaction between humans and environment in a place, including ways humans have modified and adapted to environment. |
Carrying Capacity | The idea that land can hold a measurable amount of plant and animal life. |
Connectivity | Position of a place or area relative to others in a network. |
Global Positioning System (gps) | Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features. |
Geographic Information systems (GIS) | A system of computer hardware and software designed to show, analyze, and represent geographic data (data that have locations). |
Geographic concepts | Mental categories used to organize and analyze the world spatially. |
Epidemic | Widespread, rapid diffusion of disease among a people in a particular location or region at a particular time. |
Expansion Diffusion | The spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth across space without the aid of people moving. |
Environmental Determinism | Set of theories that use environmental differences to explain everything from intelligence to wealth. |
Diffusion | Spread of an idea, innovation, or technology from its hearth to other people and places. |
Distance Decay | Decreasing likelihood of diffusion with greater distance from the hearth. |
Sense of place | Infusing a place with meaning as a result of experiences in a place. |
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. |
Relative Location | The location of a place or attribute in reference to another place or attribute. |
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). |
Rescale | Changing the geographical scope at which a problem is addressed by engaging decision makers and gatekeepers at another scale. |
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. |
Reference Maps | Maps showing absolute location of places and geographic features. |
Remote Sensing | A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area of study. |
Location | Position on Earth, including both absolute location and relative location (one of the five themes of geography). |
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. The von Thünen model is an example. |
Absolute Location | Precise location of a place, usually defined by latitude and longitude. |
Accessibility | Ease of flow between two places. |
Activity Spaces | Places within the rounds of daily activity. |
Human-environment interaction | Reciprocal relationship between humans and environment (one of the five themes of geography). |
Hierarchical Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from one person or place to another person or place based on a hierarchy of connectedness. Specific type of expansion diffusion. |
Hearth | Area or place where an idea, innovation, or technology originates. |
Stimulus Diffusion | A process of diffusion where two cultural traits blend to create a distinct trait. |
Node | Connection point in a network, where goods and ideas flow in, out, and through the network. |
Formal Region | Area of land with common cultural or physical traits. |
Functional Region | Area of land defined as sharing a common purpose in society. |
Movement | Mobility of people, goods, and services across Earth (one of the five themes of geography). |
Mental Maps | Maps of an area made from memory or experience by individuals or groups (also known as cognitive maps). |
Thematic Maps | A map that tells a story, typically showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon using map symbols. |
Terra Incognita | Areas on maps that are not well defined because they are off limits or unknown to the map maker. |
Spatial distribution | Looking at where things occur, why they occur where they do, and how places are interconnected. |
Possibilism | Theory in geography that humans, not environment, shape culture. |
Political Ecology | An approach to studying human-environment interactions in the context of political, economic, and historical conditions operating at multiple scales. |
Pandemic | An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide. |
Spatial perspective | Looking at where things occur, why they occur where they do, and how places are interconnected. |
Perceptual Region | Area of land that an individual perceives as being similar. |
Place | Uniqueness of a location (one of the five themes of geography). |
Perception of place | How a place is envisioned. |
Spatial interaction | Degree of connectedness or contact among people or places. |