UNIT ONE Vocab Flashcards
Sequent Occupance: The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape. This is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings.
- *My Definition:** Societies’ influences of both past and present shape the cultural landscape.
- *Example:** European colonialism has changed Africa and scarred populations in many ways.

Cultural landscape: Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group. This is the essence of how humans interact with nature.
My definition: Natural landscape fashioned by cultural group(s).
Example: Egypts form giant pyramids with limestone

Arithmetic density: The total number of people divided by the total land area. This is what most people think of as density; how many people per area of land.
My definition: # of people / total land area
Example: According to data.worldbank.org, the Netherlands had an average arithmetic density of 498. Number is found by midyear population / km2.

Physiological density: The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture. This is important because it relates to how much land is being used by how many people.
My definition: # people / unit area2 of arable land
Example: If the number of people who lived in 5 km2 of arable land were 500 people, then the physiological density would be 100 people per km2.

Hearth: The region from which innovative ideas originate. This relates to the important concept of the spreading of ideas from one area to another (diffusion).
The ancient culture hearths are Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Chang & Yellow River Valley, Nile River Valley and Delta, and Meso-America (beginnings of First Agricultural Revolution, which began around 12,000 years ago).
My definition: Origin of innovative ideas
Example: The cultural hearth of the Rubik’s cube is in Hungary. Rubik’s cubes spread by hierarchical diffusion because of toy distributors’ decisions to showcase them at popular events. They also spread by contagious diffusion because they are so popular.

Diffusion: The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.
My definition: Process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.
Example: Diffusion of Christianity from the Middle East

Relocation diffusion: The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
My definition: Spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
Example: Italian immigrants to NYC taught Irish-Americans how to make pizza.

Expansion diffusion: The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process. This can happen in 3 ways:
(1) Hierarchical diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power other persons or places.
(2) Contagious diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusStion of a characteristic throughout the population.
(3) Stimulus diffusion: the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.
My definition: Hierarchical diffusion is spread of an idea by people or nodes of authority. Contagious diffusion is the rapid spread of a characteristic. Stimulus diffusion of an underlying principle.
Example: Spread of Starbucks by contagious diffusion throughout the US and hierarchical decision because of corporate decisions to tap into the potential of other busy markets.

Absolute distance: Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.
My definition: physical distance between two places in prescribed units.
Example: The physical distance between me and my object of affection’s house is about 8 miles.

Relative distance: Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.
My definition: Absolute distance is exact measurement and relative distance is approximate.
Example: The distance between Earth and the Moon is 238,900 miles; however, this number changes due to forces of gravity from other planets, solar systems, the Sun, galaxies acting upon our galaxy, etc.

Distribution: The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
My definition: Arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
Example: Subway stores in Miami
Environmental determinism: A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.
Basically, environmental determinism is the doctrine that individual human actions, beliefs, and values are controlled or determined by the ambient environment.
My definition: 19th and early 20th century thought that geography was the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.
Example: Rich soil in Brazil calls for a lot of farming. Rocky soil and too cool temperatures calls for sheep and cattle herding in Scotland.

Absolute location: Position on Earth’s surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs parallel to the equator).
My definition: Position on Earth’s surface determind by coordinate system of longitude and latitude.
Example: GPS coordinates of Orlando, Florida, are
28° 32’ 17” N / 81° 22’ 45” W.

Relative location: Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features.
My definition: Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features.
Example: Orlando is west of the Atlantic Ocean, and Orlando is close to Lake Apopka.
Site: The physical character of place; what is found at the location and why it is significant.
My definition: What is found at a location and why it is significant.
Example: Orlando, Florida has many theme parks including Aquatica, Universal Studios, and Disney World. This is significant because Orlando brings attention to many tourists from all over the world.

Situation: The location of a place relative to other places.
My definition: Location of a place relative to other places.
Example: In the State of Florida, I live in Merritt Island, which is really close to Cape Canveral.
Space Time Compression: The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communications and transportation system.
My definition: Time reduction in diffusing something to distant places as a result of advancements in communications and transporation.
Example: #ALSicebucketchallenge is known all over the world in a short span of time because of near real-time communications such as Instagram and Internet.

Friction of Distance: is based on the notion that distance usually requires some amount of effort, money, and/or energy to overcome. Because of this “friction,” spatial interactions will tend to take place more often over shorter distances; quantity of interaction will decline with distance.
My definition: Quantity of interaction will decline with distance because distance usually requires some amount of effort, time, and/or money.
Example: When I am attending my overseas college, I will interact much less with my parents.

Distance Decay: The diminishing importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin. Typically, the farther away one group is from another, the less likely the two groups are to interact. Electronic devices such as the internet and e-mail have aided in eliminating barriers to interaction between people who are far from each other.
My definition: Distance among cultural groups becomes less and less relative because advancements of technology allows for widespread cultural diffusion within a short time.
Example: It could take American colonials 44 hours to go from Boston to New York. Nowadays, we can use airfare and be there in an hour or so.

Networks: defined by Manuel Castells as a set of interconnected nodes without a center. Also, a network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered by microelectronics-based information and communication technologies.
My definition: Set of interconnected nodes without a center.
Example: There are many movie theaters throught the United States and they all are of different sizes, depending on the populations surrounding them.
Connectivity: The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. Geographers are concerned with the various means by which connections occur.
My definition: The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Example: The relationship I share with the college of RSM Erasmus University is that it could be my future college.

Accessibility: The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain locations from other locations. Accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured.
My definition: How easy it is to reach certain locations from other locations.
Example: There is a very high degree of accessibility from Florida to Algeria due to airfare.

Space: Refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects.
My definition: Physical gap or interval between two objects.
Example: When the world’s largest scissors open up, there is a space between the two blades and the two blades slightly differ in long-lat coordinates.

Spatial Distribution: Physical location of geographic phenomena across SPACE.
My definition: Physical location of geographic phenomena across SPACE.
Example: Earthquakes originate at fault lines, many of which are underneath oceans.
























