click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Human Geography
Chapter 1 Vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Human 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 |
| Physical Geography | The spatial analysis of physical phenomena, including climate, environmental hazards, weather systems, animals, and topography. |
| Spatial Distribution | Physical locations of geographic phenomena, usually show on a map |
| Geography | The spatial study of people, place, space, and environment |
| Pandemic | An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide |
| Epidemic | Widespread, rapid diffusion of disease among a people in a 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 the world spatially |
| Location | Position on Earth, including both absolute location and relative location |
| Absolute Location | Precise location of a place, usually defined by latitude and longitude |
| Relative Location | The location of a place or attribute in reference 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 |
| Human-environment interactions | Reciprocal relationship between humans and environment |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Diffusion | Spread of an idea, innovation, or technology from its hearth to other people and places |
| Spatial Interaction | Degree of connectedness or contact among people or places |
| Distance | The amount of space between two things |
| 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 a hierarchy of connectedness. 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 makers and gatekeepers at another scale |
| Context | The physical and human geographies creating the place, environment, and space in which events occur and people ac |
| Cartography | The art and science of making maps |
| Reference Maps | Maps showing absolute location of places and geographic features |
| 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 |
| 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 or experience by individuals or groups |
| Activity 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 (e.g., satellites) 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 | 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 |