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APHG Master List
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Acculturation | The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct culture features. |
Adolescent fertility rate | The number of births per 1,000 women ages 15-19 |
agnosticism | The belief that the existence of God can't be proven empirically. |
agribusiness | Commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations |
agricultural density | The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture |
agricultural revolution | the time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering |
animism | The belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events like thunderstorms and earthquakes have a discrete spirit and conscious life. |
annexation | legally adding land area to a city in the United States |
anocracy | a country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic but rather displays a mix of the two types |
apartheid | laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas. |
aquaculture | the cultivation of seafood under controlled conditions |
arithmetic density | the total number of people divided by the total land area |
assimilation | the process by which a group's cultural features are altered to resemble those of another more dominant group. |
asylum seeker | someone who has migrated to another country in the hope of being recognized as a refugee |
atheism | the belief that God does not exist |
autocracy | a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people |
autonomous religion | a religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates informally |
balkanization | a process by which as state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities |
balkanized | a small area that cannot be organized into a stable country because it's inhabited by many ethnicities with long-standing antagonisms toward each other. |
blockbusting | when real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into that neighborhood |
brain drain | large-scale emigration by talented people |
branch | a large and fundamental division within a religion |
bulk-gaining industry | an industry in which the final product weighs more or comprises a greater volume than the inputs |
bulk-reducing industry | an industry in which the final product weighs less or comprises a greater volume than the inputs |
carbon capture and storage (CCS) | the process of capture CO2 waste, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere (underground) |
cartography | the science of making maps |
caste | the class or distinct hereditary order into which a Hindu is assigned to religious law |
census | a complete enumeration (count) of a population |
central business district (CBD) | the area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered |
central city (city) | an urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-government unit known as a municipality |
central place | a market center for the exchange of services by people attracted from the surrounding area |
central place theory | the distribution of services where settlements serve as centers of market areas for services. Larger settlements are fewer and farther apart and provide services for those willing to travel. |
centrifugal force | An attitude that tends to divide people and hurt a state. Could be differences in religion, ethnicity, etc. |
centripetal force | an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state. Could be patriotism or shared cultural background |
chain migration | migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there |
circular migration | the temporary movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries to seek employment |
circulation | short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis |
city-state | a sovereign state comprising a city ands its immediate hinterland |
clustered rural settlement | a rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other with fields surrounding the settlement. |
colonialism | an attempt by one country to establish settlements and impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory |
combined statistical area (CSA) | In the US, two or more micropolitan or metropolitan statistical areas tied together by commuting patterns |
commercial agriculture | agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm |
compact state | a state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly (a shape with no tail. more boxy than other shape states) |
concentric zone model | a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings. |
consumer service | a service that primarily meets the needs of individual consumers, including retail, education, health, and leisure activities |
consumptive water usage | the use of water that evaporates rather than being returned to nature as a liquid |
contagious diffusion | the rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population |
cosmogony | a set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe |
cottage industry | manufacturing based in homes rather than in factories, most common prior to the Industrial Revolution |
counterurbanization | Net migration from urban to rural areas in more developed countries |
Creole/Creolized language | a language that results from mixing a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. |
crop rotation | the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year to avoid exhausting the soil |
crude birth rate (CBR) | the total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society |
crude death rate (CDR) | the total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people in the society |
cultural ecology | a geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships |
cultural landscape | an approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area |
culture | the body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group's distinct tradition |
custom | the frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing it. |
democracy | a country in which citizens elect leaders and can run for office |
demographic transition | the process of change in a society's pop from high crude birth and death rates and low rate of NIR to a condition of low crude birth/death rates, low NIR, and higher total population |
demography | the scientific study of population characteristics |
denomination | a division of a branch that unites a number of local religious congregations into a single legal and administrative body |
dependency ratio | the number of people under the age of 15 and over the age of 64 compared to the number of people active in the labor force |
desertification | degradation (worsening) of land, especially in semi-arid areas, primarily because of human actions such as excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting |
developed country | a country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development |
developing country | a country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of development |
developing language | a language spoken in daily use with a literary tradition that is not widely distributed |
dialect | a regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation |
dietary energy consumption | the amount of food that an individual consumes, measured in kilocalories (calories) |
diffusion | the process of spread of a feature, culture, or trend from one place to another over time. |
dispersed rural settlement | a rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages |
distance decay | the diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin |
double cropping | harvesting twice a year from the same field |
doubling time | the number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase |
ecumene | the portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement. Habitable land. |
edge city | a large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area. |
elderly support ratio | the number of working-age people (15-64) divided by the number of persons 65+ |
elongated state | a state with a long, narrow shape. |
emigration | Migration FROM a location |
enumeration | a count of something. Ex. counting people for a census |
environmental determinism | an approach that argues that the physical environment causes human activities and the success/failure of a society. |
epidemiologic transition | the process of change in the causes of death in each stage of the demographic transition model. |
epidemiology | the branch of medical science concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that are prevalent among a population. |
ethnic cleansing | a policy designed by one ethnic/religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the people of another ethnic/religious group from an area. |
ethnic enclave | a place with a high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in a surrounding area. For example, a large group of Kurds grouped together in a Eastern European region. |
ethnic religion | a religion that is concentrated mostly in one part of the world. They tend to not have missionaries or religious holidays for founders, but instead celebrate occurrences to their people or natural phenomena |
ethnicity | Identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth |
ethnoburb | a suburban area with a cluster of a particular ethnic population. Ex. China Town or Little Italy |
ethnocentrism | The belief that one's ethnicity is superior to another's. |
expansion diffusion | the spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process (like a domino effect) |
extinct language | a language that is no longer used. |
fair trade | an alternative to international trade that provides greater equity to workers, small businesses, and consumers, focusing primarily on products exported from developing countries to developed countries. |
federal state | an internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government |
female labor force participation rate | the percentage of women holding full-time jobs outside the home |
folk culture | culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogenous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups |
food desert | an area that has a substantial amount of low-income residents and has poor access to a grocery store, defined in most cases as further than 1 mile. |
food security | physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. |
forced migration | permanent movement, usually compelled by cultural factors |
Fordist production | a form of mass production in which each worker is assigned one specific task to perform repeatedly |
foreign direct investment (FDI) | Investment made by a foreign company in the economy of another country |
formal region | an area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics |
fossil fuel | an energy source formed from the residue of plants and animals buried millions of years ago. |
fragmented state | a state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory |
frontier | a zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control |
functional/nodal region | an area organized around a node or focal point |
fundamentalism | literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion. Typically these are too strict and refuse to see any other way than their own. Ex. Extremist groups like the Taliban, etc. |
gender inequality index (GII) | an indicator constructed by the UN to measure the extent of each country's gender inequality in terms of reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market |
gender-related development index (GDI) | an indicator constructed by the UN to measure the gender gap in the level of achievement in terms of income, education, and life expectancy |
genetically modified organism (GMO) | a living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology |
genocide | the mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group from existence |
gentrification | the process of converting an urban neighborhood from low income to middle class. Ex. Buying an old, run down apartment complex and remodeling it for wealthier clientele. |
gerrymandering | the process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefitting the party in power |
ghetto | a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited by a persecuted minority group. Ex. Jewish ghetto. Now used to denote an area of a city used by a minority group. |
globalization | actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope |
gravity model | a model which holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location. It is inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service. |
green revolution | rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers |
gross domestic product (GDP) | the value of the total output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, not accounting for money that leaves and enters the country. |
gross national income (GNI) | the value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, including money that leaves and enters the country |
guest worker | a term once used for a worker who migrated to the developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, usually from Southern and Eastern Europe or from North Africa, in search for higher paying work. |
habit | a repetitive act performed by a particular individual |
hearth | the region from which innovative ideas spread and originate |
hierarchical diffusion | the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places |
hinterland | the area surrounding a central place from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services |
horizontal integration | when a company buys other companies that are in the same industry to corner the market on the product. |
horticulture | the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers |
human development index (HDI) | an indicator constructed by the UN to measure the level of development for a country through a combination of income, education, and life expectancy |
immigration | migration TO a new location |
indigenous people | people who are native to a land. Ex. Native Americans |
industrial revolution | a series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of |
inequality-adjusted human development index (IHDI) | A modification of the HDI to account for inequality |
infant mortality rate (IMR) | the total number of deaths in a year among infants under 1 year of age for every 1000 life births in a society |
informal settlement | an area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures. AKA Shantytowns |
institutional language | a language used in education, work, mass media, and government |
intensive subsistence agriculture | a form of subsistence agriculture characteristic of Asia's major population concentrations in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land |
internal migration | permanent movement within a particular country |
internally displaced person (IDP) | someone who has been forced to migrate for similar political reasons as a refugee but has not migrated across an international border. Ex. A Syrian leaves his home city and stays with a relative in the countryside of Syria. |
international migration | permanent movement from one country to another |
interregional migration | permanent movement from one region of a country to another |
intervening obstacle | an environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that hinders migration |
intraregional migration | permanent movement within one region of a country |
isogloss | a boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate |
isolated language | a language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family |
just-in-time delivery | shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory before they are needed. |
labor-intensive industry | an industry for which labor costs comprise a high percentage of total expenses |
landlocked state | a state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea |
language | a system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning. |
language branch | a collection of languages related through a common ancestor that can be confirmed through archaeological evidence (the branch of the language tree) |
language family | a collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history (the trunk of the tree) |
language group | a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin and are very similar in grammar and vocabulary (the small branches and leaves of the language tree) |
life expectancy | the average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions. |
lingua franca | a language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages |
literacy rate | the percentage of a country's people who can read and write |
literary tradition | a language that is written as well as spoken |
logogram | a symbol that represents a word rather than a sound |
map scale | the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface |
maquiladora | a factory built by a US company in Mexico near the US border, to take advantage of the much lower labor costs in Mexico |
mashup | a map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service |
maternal mortality rate | the annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management |
medical revolution | medical technology from the US and Europe that has diffused to poorer countries in the world so they can live longer, healthier lives |
megalopolis | a continuous urban complex. This means a chain of cities that are so big they start to blend into one long, metropolitan area. Example boswash (Boston thru Washington dc) |
metropolitan statistical area (MSA) | an urbanized area of at least 50k, the county in which it's located, and adjacent countries. |
micropolitan statistical area (mSA) | an urbanized area of 10k-50k people, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties tied to the city |
microstate | a state (country) that encompasses a very small land area. Ex. Vatican City |
migration | a permanent move to a new location |
milkshed | the area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied |
missionary | an individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion |
mixed crop and livestock farming | commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans. |
mobility | all types of movements between locations (may/may not be permanent) |
monotheism | the belief in the existence of one God |
multiethnic state | a state that contains more than one ethnicity |
multinational state | a state that contains two or more ethnic groups with traditions of self-determination that agree to coexist peacefully by recognizing each other as distinct nationalities |
multiple nuclei model | a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities |
nationalism | loyalty and devotion to a particular nationality |
nationality | identity with a group of people who share legal attachment to a particular country |
nation-state | a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity |
natural increase rate (NIR) | the percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate |
net migration | the difference between the level of immigration and the level of emigration |
nonconsumptive water usage | the use of water that is returned to nature as a liquid |
nonpoint source pollution | pollution that originates from a large, diffuse area (as in you can't point to a definite spot...it's too spread out) |
nonrenewable resource | something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans |
official language | the language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents |
outsourcing | a decision by a corporation to turn over much of the responsibility for production to independent suppliers (sending work to other countries because it's cheaper...) |
overpopulation | a situation in which the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living |
paddy | the Malay word for wet rice used to describe a flooded field used for rice farming. |
pandemic | disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects a very high proportion of the population. Ex. COVID, Spanish flu, or Bubonic Plague |
passive solar energy systems | Solar energy systems that collect energy without the use of mechanical devices |
pastoral nomadism | a form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals |
perforated state | a state that completely surrounds another one. Ex. South Africa |
peripheral model | a model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road. |
physiological density | the number of people per unit area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture |
pidgin language | a form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of lingua franca; used for communications among speakers of two languages. |
pilgrimage | a journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes |
point source pollution | pollution that enters a body of water from a specific source |
polytheism | the belief in and worship of multiple gods |
popular culture | culture found in a large, heterogenous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. |
population pyramid | a bar graph that represents the distribution of population by age and sex |
possibilism | the theory that the physical environment may set limits on what people can do, but people have the ability to adapt and prosper. They see what is POSSIBLE.... |
post-Fordist production | adoption by companies of flexible work rules, such as the allocation of workers to teams that perform a variety of tasks |
potential reserve | the amount of a resource in deposits not yet identified but thought to exist. |
primary sector | the portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth, generally through agriculture. |
primate city | a city that is the largest settlement in a country and has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement |
primate city rule | a pattern of settlements in a country such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement. |
prime agricultural land | the most productive farmland |
prorupted state | an otherwise compact state with a large, projecting extension (it has a tail) |
proven reserve | the amount of a resource remaining in discovered deposits |
public housing | government-owned housing rented to low-income individuals with rents set at 30% of the tenant's income |
public service | a service offered by the government to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses. |
pull factor | a factor that induces people to move to a new location |
purchasing power parity (PPP) | the amount of money needed in one country to purchase the same goods and services in another country. |
push factor | a factor that induces people to move out of their present location |
quota | in reference to migration, a law that places a maximum limit on the number of people who can immigrate to a country each year. |
race | identity with a group of people who are perceived to share a physiological trait, such as skin color |
racism | the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race |
racist | a person who subscribes to the beliefs of racism |
range (of service) | the maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service |
rank-size rule | a pattern of settlements in a country that the ?th largest settlement is 1/?th of the largest settlement. Ex. The 5th largest settlement would be 1/5th the size of the largest. |
recycling | the separation, collection, processing, marketing, and reuse of unwanted material |
redlining | a process by which financial institutions draw red colored lines on a map and refuse to lend money for people to purchase or improve property within those lines. |
refugee | someone who is force to migrate from his/her home country and cannot return for fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinions. |
relocation diffusion | the spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another |
remanufacturing | the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product using a combination of reused, repaired and new parts |
remittance | the transfer of money by workers to people in the country from which they emigrated |
remote sensing | the acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods |
renewable resource | something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans |
rush hour | the four consecutive 15 minute periods in the morning and evening with the heaviest volumes in traffic |
sanitary landfill | a place to deposit solid waste, where a layer of earth is bulldozed over garbage each day to reduce emissions of gases and odors from the decaying trash, to minimize fires, and to discourage vermin. |
sawah | a flooded field for growing rice. Aka a paddy. |
scale | generally, the relationship between the portion of earth being studied and earth as a whole |
secondary sector | the portion of the economy concerned with manufacturing useful products through processing, transforming, and assembling raw materials |
sector model | a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district (CBD) |
self-determination | the concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves |
sequent occupance | the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.. Ex. an old building being used over the course of 200 years for various things like shops, projects, factory work, etc. |
sex ratio | the number of males per 100 females in the population |
shifting cultivation | a form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period. |
site | the physical character of a place |
situation | the location of a place relative to another place |
slash and burn agriculture | another name for shifting cultivation, so named because fields are cleared by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris |
smart growth | legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland |
sovereignty | ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states |
space | the physical gap or interval between two objects |
space time compression | the reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems |
spatial association | the relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature |
sprawl | development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up area |
stimulus diffusion | the spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected |
subsistence agriculture | agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer's family |
suburb | a residential or commercial area situated within an urban area but outside the central city |
sustainability | the use of Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future |
sustainable development | development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs |
swidden | a patch of land cleared for planting through slash and burning |
syncretism | the combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature |
taboo | a restriction on behavior imposed by social custom |
terrorism | the systematic use of violence by a group calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm among a population to coerce a government into actions it would not otherwise take |
tertiary sector | the portion of the economy concerned with transportation, communications, and utilities, sometimes extended to the provision of all goods and services to people in exchange for payment |
threshold | the minimum number of people needed to support a service |
toponym | the name given to a portion of Earth's surface |
total fertility rate (TFR) | the average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years |
transhumance | the seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures |
transnational corporation | a company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located |
unauthorized immigrant | a person who enters a country without proper documents to do so |
undernourishment | dietary energy consumption that is continuously below the minimum requirement for maintaining a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity |
uneven development | the increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy |
unitary state | an internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials |
universalizing religion | a religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location |
urban cluster | in the US, an urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants |
urbanization | an increase in the percentage of and the number of people living in urban settlements |
urbanized area | in the US, an urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants |
vernacular/perceptual region | an area that people believe exits as part of their cultural identity |
vertical integration | an approach typical of traditional mass production in which a company controls all phases of a highly complex production process (think: they control all aspects of an industry from the ground up...vertical!) |
voluntary migration | permanent movement undertaken by choice |
zero population growth (ZPG) | a decline of the total fertility rate to the point where the natural increase rate equals zero. |
zoning ordinance | a law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community. |
superimposed boundary | National borders imposed by a foreign entity. Ex. Most countries in Africa have borders created by Europeans. |
Devolutionary Changes (to a country) | Changes that seek to destroy a country from within making the country worse than it was before. |
MDC stands for.... | More Developed Country |
LDC stands for.... | Less Developed Country |
Carrying Capacity | the maximum number of people who can be realistically sustained by the geography of an area. |