Unit 1: Geography, Its Nature And Perspectives Flashcards
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.
Diffusion
The spatial spreading or dissemination of a culture element (such as technological innovation) or some other phenomenon (e.g. A disease outbreak). See also contagious, expansion, hierarchical, relocation, and stimulus diffusion.
Expansion diffusion
The spread of an innovation or idea trough a population in an area in such a way that the number of those influenced grows continuously larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination.
Hearth
The area where an idea or cultural trait originates
Hierarchical diffusion
An idea or innovation spreads by passing first through the most connected places it peoples. An urban hierarchy is usually involved, encouraging the leap-frogging of innovations over wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence
Relocation diffusion
Sequential diffusion process in which item being diffused are carried by people that are evacuating an old area and relocating to a new one. Most commonly by a migrating population.
Stimulus diffusion
In which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.
Environmental determinism
The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development. Also known as environmentalism.
Pattern
The design of spatial distribution (e.g. Scattered or concentrated.)
Possiblism
Geographic viewpoint–a response to determinism– that holds that human decision making, not the environment, is the crucial factor of cultural development. Possiblists view the environment as providing a set of broad constraints that limit human choice.
Region
The Third Theme of Geography, an area on the earth’s surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogeneity of some phenomenon.
Formal region
A region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region or homogenous region.
Functional region
A region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it.
Perceptual region
A region that is only a conceptualization or an idea, and not as a physically marked entity. For example, in the US, “the South” is a perceptual region.
Scale
Representation of a real world phenomenon at a certain level of generalization or reduction. In cartography, the ratio of map distance to ground distance; indicated on a map as a bar graph.
