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Chapter 8
Term | Definition |
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Transition zone | An area of spatial change where the peripheries of two adjacent realms or regions join; marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break) in the characteristics that distinguish these neighboring geographic entities from one another. |
Monsoon | The seasonal reversal of wind and moisture flows in certain parts of the subtropics and lower-middle latitudes. The dry monsoon occurs during the cool season and the wet monsoon occurs in the hot summer months. |
Caste system | The strict social stratification and residential segregation of people—specifically in India’s Hindu society—on the basis of ancestry and occupation. |
Indo-European languages | The major world language family that dominates the European geographic realm. This language family is also the most widely dispersed globally, and about half of humankind speaks one of its languages. |
Dravidian languages | The language family, indigenous to the South Asian realm, that dominates southern India today; as opposed to the Indo-European languages, whose tongues dominate northern India. |
Partition | The subdivision of the British Indian Empire into India and Pakistan at the end of colonial rule on August 15, 1947. |
Forward capital | Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border; it confirms the state’s determination to maintain its presence in the area of contention. |
Neoliberalism | A national or regional development strategy based on the privatization of state-run companies, lowering of international trade tariffs, reduction of government subsidies, cutting of corporate taxes, and overall deregulation of business activity. |
Megacity | Informal term referring to the world’s most heavily populated cities; in this book, the term refers to a metropolis containing a population of greater than 10 million. |
Extreme weather events | Unprecedented, record-breaking departures from the longer-term weather patterns of a certain area. In India: severe heat waves, droughts, and non-monsoonal rainstorms that trigger massive flooding and widespread landslides. |
Population geography | The field of geography that focuses on the spatial aspects of demography and the influences of demographic change on particular countries and regions. |
Population density | The number of people per unit area. |
Physiologic density | The number of people per unit area of arable land. |
Demographic transition | Multi-stage model, based on western Europe’s experience, of changes in population growth exhibited by countries undergoing industrialization. |
Fertility rate | More precisely the Total Fertility Rate, it is the average number of children born to women of childbearing age in a given population. |
Demographic burden | The proportion of a national population that is either too old or too young to be productive and that must be cared for by the productive population. |
Population pyramid | Graphic representation of a national population according to age and gender. Such a diagram of age-sex structure typically displays the percentage of each age group as a horizontal bar, whose length represents its relationship to the total population. |
Sex ratio | A demographic indicator showing the ratio of males to females in a given population. |
Buffer state | A state(s) separating ideological or political adversaries. |
Urban primacy | Refers to a country’s largest city—ranking atop its urban hierarchy—most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not in every case) the capital city as well. |
Taliban | The term means “students” or “seekers of religion.” Specifically, refers to the Islamist militia group that emerged from madrassas in Pakistan and ruled neighboring Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. |
al-Qaeda | The terrorist organization that evolved into an expanding global network under the directorship of Usama bin Laden between the mid-1990s and his elimination by the U.S. in 2011. |
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor | The 2000-kilometer (1250-mi), northeast-southwest development axis stretching between the westernmost Chinese city of Kashgar and Pakistan’s new Indian Ocean port of Gwadar. |
Communal tension | Persistent stress among a country’s sociocultural groups that can often erupt into communal violence, particularly in India. |
Hindutva | “Hinduness” as expressed through Hindu nationalism, Hindu heritage, and/or Hindu patriotism. The cornerstone of a fundamentalist movement that seeks to remake India as a society dominated by Hindu principles. |
Non-governmental organization (NGO) | A legitimate organization that operates independently from any form of government and does not function as a for-profit business. Mostly seeks to improve social conditions, but is not affiliated with political organizations. |
Micro-credit | Small loans extended to poverty-stricken borrowers who would not otherwise qualify for them. The aim is to help combat poverty, encourage entrepreneurship, and to empower poor communities—especially their women. |
Rising sea level | One of the expected major impacts of global climate change on the world ocean resulting from the large-scale melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice. Low-lying coastal settlements and islands are at greatest risk of inundation. |
Informal sector | Dominated by unlicensed sellers of homemade goods and services, the primitive form of capitalism found in many developing countries that takes place beyond the control of government. The complement to a country’s formal sector. |
Double delta | South Asia’s combined delta formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. All of Bangladesh lies on this enormous deltaic plain, which also encompasses surrounding parts of eastern India. |
Drone warfare | The use of remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as delivery systems to conduct military attacks. |