Chapter 1 Vocab Flashcards
Fieldwork
The study of geographic phenomena by visiting places and how people interact and change.
Human Geogprahy
One of the two major divisions in Geography. Spatial analysis of population, culture, activities, and landscapes.
Globalization
Processes that are increasing interactions, depending relationships, and heightening interdependence without regards to the country’s borders. Expansion of economic, political, and culture to become global on impact
Physical Geography
One of the major two divisions on geogprahy. The analysis of structure, processes, and location of Earth’s natural phenomena such as climate soil, plants, animals, and topography.
Spatial
Pertaining to space on the Earth’s surface; sometimes. used as a synonym of geographic.
Spatial distrubution
Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.
Pattern
The design of a spatial distribution. Ex: ( scattered or concentrated)
Medical Geogrpahy
The study of health and disease within a geographic context and from the geographical perspective among other things medical geography looks at resources diffusion rates and distributions of disease
Pandemics
An outbreak of a disease that spread worldwide
See also endemic
Epidemic
Regional outbreak of a disease
Spatial perspective
Observing variations in geographic phenomena across space
Five themes of Geography
Developed by the geography Educaitional national implementation project in 1986: Location Human- Environment Region Place Movement
Location
The first theme of Geography: the geographical situation of people and things
Location theory
A logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity an the manner in which it’s producing areas are interrelated
Human-Environment interaction
The second theme of geography: reciprocal relationship between the humans and the environment
Region
The third theme of Geography: an area on Earth marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual regions of homogeneity at some phenomenon.
Place
The fourth theme of Geography: uniqueness of a location
Sense of place
State of mind derived through the infusion of a place with the meaning and emotion by remembering events that occurred in that place by with a character
Perceptions of places
The understanding of a place through books, movies, stories, or pictures.
Movement
The fifth theme of Geography: mobility of people goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet
Spatial interaction
When two regions satisfy others demand through the presence of nearer opportunity that diminishes far away sites
Distances
Measurement of the physical space between two places
Accessibility
The degree of ease with which it’s is possible to reach a certain location from other locations( varies from location)
Connectivity
The degree of direct linkage between one location and the other locations in a transport network.
Landscape
The overall natural appearance of an area. Comprised of natural and human influences.
Cultural landscape
The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape \: Buildings Forms Artifacts
Sequent occupancy
The notion that successive societies leave cultural imprints on a place, each contributing, to the cumulative cultural landscape
Reference maps
Maps that show absolute location determined by latitude and longitude
Thematic maps
Maps that tell stories showing degree of some attribute or movement of a geographic phenomena
Absolute locations
The exact position or place of an item on the earth, expressed with latitude or longitude
GPS- global positioning system
Satellite bases system for determining the absolute location
Geocaching
A hunt for a cache, the gps coordinates which are placed on the Internet
Relative locations
The regional position of situation of a place in relation to other places
Distance
Accessibility
Connectivity
Mental maps
Images or picture of the way space is organized as determined by an individual’s perception, impression, and knowledge
Activity spaces
The places we travel routinely that reflect on our daily activity
Generalize
A process cartographers use to interpret maps
Generalized map
A map used to explain a certain set of information
Remote sensing
What geographers use to monitor Earth’s surface over a long period of time
GIS( Geographic information systems)
A collection of computer software and hardware that permits spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, manipulated, analyzed, and displayed to the user.
Formal region
A Type of region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena
Functional region
A region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it
Perceptual region
A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and is not as a physically demarcated entity
Culture
The sum total of all the knowledge attitudes and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members o a society
Culture trait
A Single element of normal practice in a culture, such as wearing the turban
Cultural hearth
Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture
Culture complex
A related set of cultural traits such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils
Independent invention
The term for a trait with many cultural hearths that developed independent of each other.
Culture diffusion
The expansion and adoption of a cultural element, from its place of origin to a wider area
Time-distance decay
The declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source.
Cultural barriers
Prevailing cultural attitude rendering certain innovations, ideas, or practices unacceptable or unadoptable in that particular culture
Expansion diffusion
The spread of an innovation or an idea through a population in an area such a way the number if those influenced grows continuously larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination
Contagious diffusion
The distance - controlled spreading of an idea, innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person- analogous to the communication of a contagious illness
Hierarchical diffusion
A form of dissuasion in which an idea spreads by passing first among the most connected places or people. An urban hierarchy is usually involved, encouraging the leapfrogging of innovations, over wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence
Stimulus diffusion
A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place
Relocation diffusion
Sequential diffusion process in which the items being diffused are transmitted by their carrier agents as they evacuate the old areas and relocate to new ones. The most common form of relocation diffusion involved the spreading of innovations by a migrating population
Geographic Concepts
Ways of seeing the world spatially that are used by geographers in answering research questions
Environmental determinism
The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development. Also referred to as environmentalism
Possiblism
Geographic viewpoint- a response to determinism- that holds that human decision making, not the environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development. Nonetheless, possibilists view the environment as providing a set of broad constraints that limit the possibilities of human choice.
Cultural ecology
The multiple interactions and relationships be tween a culture and the natural environment
Political ecology
An approach to studying nature - society relations that is concerned with the ways which environmental issues both reflect, and are the result of, the political and socioeconomic contexts in which they are situated
