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Geography420
Chapter 3&4 Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Culture | The way of life that distinguishes a people for example government language religion customs and beliefs |
| Population density | The average number of people living in a given area |
| Birthrate | The number of live births each per 1,000 people |
| Immigrant | 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 decided 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 authoritarian 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 Economy | an economic system in which families produce goods and service 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 |
| Natural Resource | A material in the natural environment that people value and use to satisfy their needs |
| Renewable Resource | A natural resource that the environment continues to supply or replace as it is used |
| Nonrenewable Resource | A natural resource that cannot be replaced once it is used |
| Fossil Fuel | Any one several nonrenewable mineral resources formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals and used for fuel |
| Nuclear Energy | A type of energy produced by fission the splitting of uranium atoms in a nuclear reactor releasing stored energy |
| Water Power | Energy produced from falling water to move machinery or generate electricity |
| Geothermal Energy | Energy produced from the earths intense interior heat |
| Solar Energy | Energy produced by the sun |
| Primary Economic Activity | An economic activity that takes or uses natural resources directly such as fishing or mining |
| Subsistence Farming | Farming that provides only enough for the needs of a family or a village |
| Commercial Farming | The rising of crops and livestock for sale in markets |
| Secondary Economic Activity | An economic activity in which people use raw materials to produce or manufacture new products of greater value |
| Cottage Industry | A small scale manufacturing operation using little technology often located in or near peoples homes |
| Commercial Industry | A large scale manufacturing operation that employs many people and produces large quantities of goods |
| Tertiary Economic Activity | An economic activity in which people do not directly gather or process raw materials but pursue activities that serve others service industry |
| Quaternary Economic Activity | An economic activity that focuses on the acquisition processing and sharing of information such as education or research |
| Export | An item that is sent out of the country for sale |
| Import | An item that is brought into a country for sale |