question

Absolute Location

answer

The position or place of a certain item on the surface of the Earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude, 0 degrees to ninety degrees north or south of the equator, and longitude, 0 degrees to 180 degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian passing through Greenwich, England (a suburb of London).

question

Accessibility

answer

The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations. Accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured.

question

Activity Space

answer

The space within which daily activity occurs.

question

Cartography

answer

The art and science of making maps, including data compilation, layout, and design. Also concerned with the interpretation of mapped patterns.

question

Connectivity

answer

The degree of direct linkage between one particular location and other locations in a transport network.

question

Complementarity

answer

A condition that exists when two regions through an exchange of raw materials and/or finished products can specifically satisfy each other's demands.

question

Contagious Diffusion

answer

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.

question

Cultural Barrier

answer

Prevailing cultural attitude rendering certain innovations, ideas or practices unacceptable or unadoptable in that particular culture.

question

Cultural Diffusion

answer

The expansion and adoption of a cultural element, from its place of origin to a wider area.

question

Cultural Ecology

answer

The multiple interactions and relationships between a culture and the natural environment.

question

Cultural Hearth

answer

Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture.

question

Cultural Landscape

answer

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape. The layers of buildings, forms, and artifacts sequentially imprinted on the landscape by the activities of various human occupants.

question

Culture

answer

The sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a society. This is anthropologist Ralph Linton's definition; hundreds of others exist.

question

Culture Complex

answer

A related set of cultural traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils.

question

Culture Trait

answer

A single element of normal practice in a culture, such as the wearing of a turban.

question

Distance

answer

Measurement of the physical space between two spaces.

question

Environmental Determinism

answer

The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development. Also referred to as environmentalism.

question

Epidemic

answer

Regional outbreak of a disease.

question

Expansion Diffusion

answer

The spread of an innovation or an idea through 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.

question

Fieldwork

answer

The study of geographic phenomena by visiting places and observing how people interact with and thereby change those places.

question

Five Themes

answer

Developed by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project (GENIP), the five themes of geography are location, human environment, region, place, and movement.

question

Formal Region

answer

A type of region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region or homogenous region.

question

Functional Region

answer

A region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur with it.

question

Geocaching

answer

A hunt for a cache, the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates which are placed on the internet by other geocachers.

question

Geographic Concept

answer

Ways of seeing the world spatially that are used by geographers in answering research questions.

question

GIS

answer

A collection of computer hardware and software that permits spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, manipulated, analyzed, and displayed to the user.

question

GPS

answer

Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features.

question

Globalization

answer

The expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes to the point that they become global in scale and impact. The processes of globalization transcend state boundaries and have outcomes that vary across places and scales.

question

Hierarchical Diffusion

answer

A form of diffusion in which an idea or innovation spreads by passing first among the most connected places or peoples. An urban hierarchy is usually involved, encouraging the leapfrogging of innovations over wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence.

question

Human Geography

answer

One of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of human population, its cultures, activities, and landscapes.

question

Human-Environment

answer

The second theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation; reciprocal relationship between humans and environment.

question

Independent Invention

answer

The term for a trait with many cultural hearths that developed independent of each other.

question

Intervening Opportunity

answer

The presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away.

question

Isotherm

answer

Line on a map connecting points of equal temperature values.

question

Landscape

answer

The overall appearance of an area. Most landscapes are comprised of a combination of natural and human-induced influences.

question

Location

answer

The first theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; the geographical situation of people and things.

question

Location Theory

answer

A logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity and the manner in which its producing areas are interrelated. The agricultural location theory contained in the von Thünen model is a leading example.

question

Medical Geography

answer

The study of health and disease within a geographic context and from a geographical perspective. Among other things, medical geography looks at sources, diffusion routes, and distributions of disease.

question

Mental Map

answer

Image or picture of the way space is organized as determined by an individual's perception, impression, and knowledge of that space.

question

Movement

answer

The fifth theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet.

question

Pandemic

answer

An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide.

question

Pattern

answer

The design of a spatial distribution (e.g. scattered or concentrated

question

Perception of Place

answer

Belief or understanding about a place developed through books, movies, stories, or pictures.

question

Perceptual Region

answer

A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity. For example, in the United States, "the South" and "the Mid-Atlantic region" are perceptual regions.

question

Physical Geography

answer

One of the two major divisions of systematic geography; the spatial analysis of the structure, processes, and location of the Earth's natural phenomena such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and topography.

question

Place

answer

The fourth theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; uniqueness of a location.

question

Political Ecology

answer

An approach to studying nature-society relations that is concerned with the says in which environmental issues both reflect, and are the result of, the political and socioeconomic contexts in which they are situated.

question

Possibilism

answer

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 limits the possibilities of human choice.

question

Reference Map

answer

Maps that show the absolute location of places and geographic features determined by a frame of reference, typically latitude and longitude.

question

Region

answer

The third theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; an area on the Earth's surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogeneity of some phenomenon.

question

Relative Location

answer

The regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places. Distance, accessibility, and connectivity affect relative location.

question

Relocation Diffusion

answer

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 involves the spreading of innovations by migrating population.

question

Rescale

answer

Involvement of players at other scales to generate support for a position or an initiative (e.g., use of the Internet to generate interest on a national or global scale for a local position or initiative).

question

Remote Sensing

answer

A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g. satellites) that are physically distant from the area or object of study.

question

Sense of Place

answer

State of mind derived through the infusion of a place with meaning and emotion by remembering important events that occurred in that place or by labeling a place with a certain character.

question

Sequent Occupance

answer

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

question

Spatial

answer

Pertaining to space on the Earth's surface; sometimes used as a synonym for geographic.

question

Spatial Distribution

answer

Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.

question

Spatial Interaction

answer

A realized movement of people, freight, or information between an origin and a destination. It is transport demand/supply relationship expressed over a geographical space.

question

Spatial Perspective

answer

Observing variations in geographic phenomena across space.

question

Stimulus Diffusion

answer

A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.

question

Thematic Map

answer

Maps that tell stories, typically showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon.

question

Time-Distance Decay

answer

The declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source.

question

Urban Hierarchy

answer

A ranking of settlements (hamlet, village, town, city, metropolis) according to their size and economic functions.

AP Human Geography Vocab Ch. 1 – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards