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chapter 3 geography
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Unity of Place | The natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt’s notion that particular locale or region connections exist among climate, geology, biology, and human cultures. |
Indigenous Peoples | Aboriginal or native people |
Altiplano | High-elevation plateau, basin, or valley between even higher mountain ranges, especially in the Andes of South America. |
Land Alienation | One society or culture group taking land from another. |
Liberation theology | A powerful religious movement that arose in South America during the 1950s, and subsequently gained followers throughout the global periphery. |
Cultural pluralism | A society in which two or more population groups, each practicing its own culture, live adjacent to one another without mixing inside a single state. |
Commercial Agriculture | For-profit agriculture. |
Subsistence Agriculture | Farmers who eke out a living on a small plot of land on which they are only able to grow enough food to support their families or at best a small community. |
Remote sensing | The indirect capture of images by specially equipped, Earth-orbiting satellites. |
Uneven development | The notion that economic development varies spatially, a central tenet of core-periphery relationships in realms, regions, and lesser geographic entities |
Supranationalism | A venture involving three or more states—political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives. |
Rural-to-Urban migration | The dominant migration from countryside to city that continues to transform the world’s population, most notably in the less advantaged geographic realms. |
Informal sector | The form of capitalism found in many developing countries that takes place beyond the government, the complement to a country’s formal sector. |
Barrio | Term meaning “neighborhood” in Spanish. Usually refers to an urban community in a Middle or South American city. |
Favela | Shantytown on the outskirts or even well within an urban area in Brazil. |
Megacity | Informal term referring to the world’s most heavily populated cities |
Central Business District | The downtown heart of a central city; marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and clustering the tallest buildings. |
Gini Index | A measure of inequality within a given area, ranging from 0 to 100. |
Dependencia theory | theory Originating in South America during the 1960s, it was a new way of thinking about economic development and underdevelopment |
Insurgent state | The establishment by antigovernment insurgents of a territorial base in which they exercise full control; thus a state within a state. |
Failed state | A country whose institutions have collapsed and in which anarchy prevails. |
Neoliberal policies | Policies adhering to an ideology or development strategy that advocates the privatization of state-run companies |
Landlocked country | An interior country surrounded completely by land |
Human Development Index | A UN index that is a composite measure of life expectancy, education, and income per capita |
Triple Frontier | The turbulent and chaotic area in southern South America that surrounds the convergence of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. |
Primate city | A country’s largest city—ranking atop its urban hierarchy—most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well. |
Viticulture | The growing of grapes for the production of wine. |
Elongation | In political geography, refers to the territorial configuration of a state that is at least six times longer than its average width. |
Buffer state | A country or set of countries separating ideological or political adversaries. |
Entrepôt | A place, usually a port city, where goods are imported, stored, and transshipped; a break-of-bulk point. |
Forward capital | Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border |
Cerrado | Regional term referring to the fertile savannas of Brazil’s interior Central-West that make it one of the world’s most promising agricultural frontiers. |
Negative externalities | Undesirable side-effects and/or byproducts of an action |
Growth-pole concept | An urban center with a number of attributes that, if augmented by investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland. |