Term | Definition |
Culture | The way of life that distinguishes a people, for example government, lauguage, religion customs, and beliefs. |
Population Density | The average number of people living in a given area. |
Birthrate | The number of live births each year per 1,000 people. |
Immagrant | A person who moves into a country. |
Emigrant | A person who leaves a country to live elsewhere. |
Urbanization | The growth of city populations. |
Rural | Of, or characteristic of, the countryside. |
Culture Hearth | A place in which important ideas begin and thereafter spread to surrounding cultures. |
Cultural Convergence | The contact and interaction of one culture with another. |
Diffusion | The process by which a cultural element is transmitted from one group or individual to another. |
Cultural Divergence | The restriction of a culture from outside influences. |
Sovereignty | A country's freedom and power to decide on policies and actions. |
Unitary system | A system of government in which one central government holds most of the political power. |
Federation | A government structure in which some powers are given to the national government and other powers are reserved for more local governments. |
Confederation | A system of government in which individual political units keep their sovereignty but give limited power to a central government. |
Authoritarian | Descriptive of a system of government in which the leaders hold all political power. |
Dictatorship | A system of government in which absolute power is held by a small group or one person. |
Totalitarianism | A system of government in which a central authority controls all aspects of society. |
Monarchy | A system of authoritian government headed by a monarch-a king, queen, shah, or sultan- whose position is usually inherited. |
Democracy | A system of government in which the people are invested with the power to choose their leaders and determine government policy. |
Traditional Economies | An economic system in which families produce goods and services for their own use, with little surplus and exchange of goods; also known as a subsistence economy. |
Market Economy | An economic system in which decisions about production, price, and other economic factors are determined by the law of supply and demand. |
Command Economy | An economic system that is controlled by a single central government. |