Chapter 2: Middle America

Question 1

Primate city

Answer 1

a country’s largest city–ranking atop its urban hierarchy–most expressive of the national culture and usually the capital city as well (but not all the time)

Question 2

Indigenous

Answer 2

aboriginal or native; an expample would be the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas

Question 3

NAFTA

Answer 3

the free-trade area launched in 1994 involving the United States, Canada, and Mexico

Question 4

Borderland

Answer 4

General term for a linear zone that parallels a political boundary. The most dynamic of these areas, such as those lining the U.S.-Mexico border, are marked by significant cultural and economic interaction across the boundary that separates them

Question 5

Maquiladoras

Answer 5

the term given to modern industrial plants in Mexico’s U.S. border zone; these foreign-owned factories assemble imported components and/or raw materials, and then export finished manufactures, mainly to the United States. Import duties are disappearing under NAFTA, bringing jobs to Mexico and the advantages of low wage rates to the foreign entrepreneurs.

Question 6

Land bridge

Answer 6

a narrow isthmian link between two large landmasses. They are temporary features–at least when measured in geologic time–subject to appearance and appearance as the land or sea level rises and falls

Question 7

Archipelago

Answer 7

island chain

Question 8

Hurricane Alley

Answer 8

most frequent pathway followed by tropical storms and hurricanes over the past 150 years in their generally westward movement across the Caribbean Basin; historically, hurricane tracks have bundled most tightly in the center of this route, most often affecting the Lesser Antilles…between Antigua and the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cuba, southernmost Florida, Mexico’s Yucatán, and the Gulf of MExico

Question 9

Altitudinal zonation

Answer 9

vertical regions defined by physical-environmental zones at various elevations, particularly in the highlands of South and Middle America

Question 10

Tropical deforestation

Answer 10

reduction of woodlands due to persistent economic and demographic problems of disadvantaged countries (for cattle pasture, population expansion, and the timber industry)

Question 11

Culture hearth

Answer 11

heartland, source area, or innovation center; place of origin of a major culture

Question 12

Hacienda

Answer 12

literally, a large estate in a Spanish-speaking country. Sometimes equated with the plantation, but there are important differences between these two types of agricultural enterprise

Question 13

Plantation

Answer 13

large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop. Almost all plantations were established within the tropics. In recent decades, many have been divided into smaller holdings or reorganized as cooperatives

Question 14

Connectivity

Answer 14

the degree of direct linkage between a particular location and other locations within a regional, national, or global transportation network (a form of accessibility)

Question 15

Mestizo

Answer 15

derived from the Latin word for mixed; refers to a person of mixed European (white) and Amerindian ancestry.

Question 16

small-island developing economies

Answer 16

additional disadvantages faced by lower-income island-states because of their territorial size and populations as well as overland inaccessibility. Limited resources require expensive importing of many goods and services; the cost of government operations per capita are higher; and local production is unable to benefit from economies of scale

Question 17

economies of scale

Answer 17

savings that accrue from large scale production wherein the unit cost of manufacturing decreases as the level of operation enlarges. Supermarkets operate on this principle and are able to charge lower prices than small grocery stores.

Question 18

regional integration

Answer 18

economic benefits of forging new international partnerships among three or more countries. The EU is the prototype; NAFTA and CARICOM are examples in the Middle American realm.

Question 19

acculturation

Answer 19

cultural modification resulting from intercultural borrowing. In cultural geography, the term refers to the change that occurs in the culture of indigenous peoples when contact is made with a society that is technologically superior.

Question 20

transculturation

Answer 20

cultural borrowing and two-way exchanges that occur when different cultures of approximately equal complexity and technological level come into close contact

Question 21

ejidos

Answer 21

Mexican farmlands redistributed to peasant communities after the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. The government holds title to the land, but user rights are parceled out to village communities and then individuals for cultivation.

Question 22

biodiversity hot spot

Answer 22

a much higher than usual, world-class geographic concentration of natural plant and/or animal species. Tropical rainforest environments have dominated, but their recent ravaging by deforestation has had catastrophic results.

Question 23

ecotourism

Answer 23

attracting tourism based on the natural attractions of a country and its environment

Question 24

offshore banking

Answer 24

term referring to financial havens for foreign companies and individuals, who channel their earnings to accounts in such a country (usually an “offshore” island-state) to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.