Human Geo 1.2-1.3 Vocab

Question 1

Location

Answer 1

The position of anything on Earth’s surface. Geographers describe a feature’s place on earth by identifying its location. In doing so, they consider three ways to identify location: place name, site, and situation.

Question 2

Toponym

Answer 2

The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface. It may be named for a person, or religion, or ancient history (Athens, Pontiac, etc). A place name may indicate the origin of its settlers (British origins in Australia & North America, Dutch origins in South Africa, etc). Some place names derive from physical features of the environment. Board of Geographical Names was established in the late 19th and is the authority of US place names. Recently, they’ve removed many offensive/racist place names.

Question 3

Site

Answer 3

The physical character of a place. Important site characteristics: climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, & elevation. Site factors are important to determine locations for settlements, but people disagree on the attributes of a good site (hilltop for easy defense? river for communication?)

Question 4

Situation

Answer 4

The location of a place relative to another place. It is a valuable way to indicate location for 2 reasons:
1. Finding an unfamiliar place: Comparing its location with a familiar one.
2. Understanding the importance of a place: Many places are important because they’re accessible to other places. Ex. Gibraltar (connecting the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean; an important route for ships traveling between Europe & Western Hemisphere) has become a center for the trading/distribution of goods between Europe and Africa because of its situation.

Question 5

Absolute Location

Answer 5

Description of the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude.

Question 6

Cultural Landscape

Answer 6

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area. It is a combination of cultural features, economic features (industry or agriculture), and physical features (climate/vegetation). The approach was initiated in France by Paul Vidal de la Blache and Jean Brunhes around 1900, and was adopted by several Americans Carl Sauer and Robert Platt.

Question 7

Formal Region

Answer 7

An area in which most people share one or more distinctive characteristics; AKA uniform region. The shared feature could be a cultural value (language), an economic activity, or an environmental property. Some formal regions are easy to identify (countries/local gov’t units; like MT, where everyone is subject to a common set of laws).

Question 8

Functional Region

Answer 8

An area organized around a node or focal point. The characteristic dominates at a node and diminishes in importance outward. The region is tied to the central point by transportation/communications systems or by economic or functional associations. Geographers use these regions to convey information about economic areas.

Question 9

Vernacular (or perceptual) region:

Answer 9

An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity. They emerge from people’s informal sense of place, not scientific models. Ex: Americans refer to the South as a place with distinct environmental (last winter frost is in March, and rainfall is plentiful in winter) and cultural features (adherence to Baptist Religion and joining the Confederacy in the Civil War), many of which can be measured.

Question 10

Culture.

Answer 10

The body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitutes the distinct tradition of a group of people. We think of it as the collection of novels, paintings, symphonies, and works. A person with a taste for these intellectual outputs is said to be “cultured.” Intellectually challenging culture is distinguished from popular culture (TV). Culture also refers to small living organisms. The origin of the world is “to care for,” which means TO CARE ABOUT (worship), or to TAKE CARE OF.

Question 11

Spatial Association

Answer 11

The relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature. It is strong if 2 features have similar distributions. (distribution of US overdose deaths vs distribution of opioid prescriptions written). Opioid use increased rapidly in the late 1990s, when doctors prescribed them for patients, and many became addicted and illegal criminal “drug cartel” organizations formed as drug overdose became a problem in America.

Question 12

Globalization

Answer 12

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope. It means that the scale of the world is shrinking (in the ability of a person/object/idea to interact with another). Geographers recognize the increasing importance of the local scale and preserving distinct cultures in the face of globalization.

Question 13

Transnational Corporation

Answer 13

A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its HQs or shareholders are located. Examples: Ford & McDonald’s. A locality may be especially suitable for a transnational corporation to conduct research, extract raw materials, produce parts, etc. In a global economy, they remain competitive by identifying the optimal location for each of these activities.

Question 14

Distribution

Answer 14

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface. Many objects are distributed across space in a regular manner, for discernible reasons. Geographers identify 3 properties of features as they’re distributed across Earth: Density, concentration, and pattern.

Question 15

Density

Answer 15

The frequency with which something occurs in space. A large number of a feature doesn’t necessarily lead to high density, because density has 2 measures: # of a feature AND size of land area. China has the most people, but not highest density, whereas the Netherlands has the highest density. High population density is also unrelated to poverty (Netherlands high density, wealthy vs Mali low density, very poor).

Question 16

Concentration

Answer 16

The extent of a feature’s spread over a given area. If the objects in an area are close together, they’re clustered. To clearly compare concentration, 2 areas must have the same number of objects and same size area. Concentration is used to describe changes in distribution (in the US, its becoming increasingly dispersed evenly across the country).

Question 17

Pattern

Answer 17

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area. Some features are organized in a geometric pattern, others irregularly. The arrangement of houses along a street and many other objects form a linear distribution. Many US cities have a regular grid pattern of streets that intersect at right angles to form blocks. The system of farm townships, ranges, and sections established in 1785 is another example.

Question 18

Poststructuralist Geography

Answer 18

Geographic approach that examines how the powerful in a society dominate, or seek to control, less powerful groups, how the dominated groups occupy space, and confrontations that result from the domination. They understand space as the product of ideologies or value systems of ruling elites. Some poststructuralists study how local gov’ts have pursed policies that impose hazardous industries on minority neighborhoods (ex. 2014 Flint, Michigan water crisis).

Question 19

Humanistic Geography

Answer 19

Approach to human geography that emphasizes the different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings. Ex: LGBTQ people are attracted to places like San Fransisco’s Castro District because its friendly/accepting to them. African Americans can find themselves in a “white space” urban neighborhood, where they’re uncomfortable/unwelcome.

Question 20

Behavioral Geography

Answer 20

Approach to human geography that emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological basis for individual human actions in space. Distinctive spatial patterns by gender/ethnicity are constructed by the attitudes and actions of cultural groups & larger society.

Question 21

Uneven Development

Answer 21

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy. From “command centers” in New York, London, & Tokyo, key decision makers employ modern telecommunications to send orders to factories, shops, & research centers around the world. “Nonessential” employees can be relocated to lower-cost offices outside the major financial centers. Today, workers/cultural groups around the world now share a single economic and cultural world with others (interconnected).

Question 22

Diffusion

Answer 22

The process by which a feature spreads from one place to another over time. Geographers observe two basic types of diffusion—relocation and expansion.

Question 23

Hearth

Answer 23

A place from which an innovation originates. In order for it to emerge, a cultural group must be willing to try (and afford) something new and have the technical ability to achieve the desire idea and economic structures to facilitate its implementation. Many dominant features of the US & Canada come from hearths in Europe and Southwest Asia. In some cases, an idea can originate independently in multiple hearths.

Question 24

Relocation Diffusion

Answer 24

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another (migration). The most common languages in North/South America are Spanish, French, English, & Portuguese (because of Europeans migrating there in the past). In 2002, scientists measured relocation diffusion by France’s Euro coins.

Question 25

Expansion Diffusion

Answer 25

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process. It may result from hierarchical diffusion, contagious diffusion, or stimulus diffusion.

Question 26

Hierarchical Diffusion

Answer 26

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power (political leaders, the socially elite) to other persons or places. Innovations may originate in a particular node/core region of power (city) and diffuse later to rural areas. Hip-hop & rap music originated in urban areas & diffused from African Americans, a group that hasn’t been economically dominant but is the source of many trends/fashions.

Question 27

Contagious Diffusion

Answer 27

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population (without regard for hierarchy or need for permanent relocation of people). New music/ideas go viral because web surfers all have access to the same material simultaneously.

Question 28

Meme

Answer 28

Contagious diffusion through the Internet or social media.

Question 29

Stimulus Diffusion

Answer 29

The spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. Ex: Innovative features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad have been adopted by competitors. Stimulus diffusion is encouraged by all of the new technologies.

Question 30

Network

Answer 30

A chain of communication that connects places. A major airline has a network known as “hub-and-spokes,” where an airline flies planes from many places into 1 hub airport in a short period of time, and then sends the planes to another set of places. In the past, connections among cultural groups required physical movement (sailboats, animals, walking). To be connected with a place in the modern world, we may not even need to travel (communications networks), where diffusion is instantaneous.

Question 31

Distance Decay

Answer 31

The diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin. It is much less severe in the contemporary world because connection between places takes much less time.

Question 32

Space-Time Compression

Answer 32

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems.

Question 33

Assimilation

Answer 33

The process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group (which is dominating the group).

Question 34

Acculturation

Answer 34

The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of 2 groups, each of which retains distinct cultural features.

Question 35

Syncretism

Answer 35

The combining of elements of 2 groups into a new cultural feature. The 2 cultural groups come together to form a new culture.