Unit 1 vocab Flashcards
(35 cards)
built landscape
a landscape that has been altered by humans. Cities, roads, buildings, bridges, and mass transit are all part of built landscapes.
cartography
The theory and practice of making visual representations of Earth’s surface in the form of maps.
contagious diffusion
the rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population. doesn’t stay around long
cultural ecology
the relationship between culture and the environment, dealing with human adaptations to various environments. (One example of cultural ecology would be the Quechua people of Peru. The culture of the native Quechua is influenced by the harsh, high altitude Andean environment that they live in.)
cultural landscape
the visible reflection of a society, including their cultural beliefs and practices, on the physical environment. It’s essentially how human activities modify and shape the natural world.
density
the frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area (So, if two million people live in ten square miles, the population density is two hundred thousand people per square mile.)
distance decay
Distance decay is the name of the theory that states that as the distance between two places increases, the interaction or connection between those two places decreases.
environmental determinism
Environmental determinism is the theory that the environment determines, plays a decisive role, or causes social and cultural development. (A typical environmental determinism example is the development of Inuit culture in response to the Arctic conditions in which they live.)
equator
A line that runs through the middle of the Earth horizontally. This separates the Earth into Northern and southern hemispheres.
expansion diffusion
when innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations. (For example, Islam has spread throughout the world, yet stayed strong in the Middle East, where it was founded.)
formal region
an area within which everyone shares distinctive characteristics. (well-defined areas that share a common attribute such as language, culture, religion, or economic activity)
friction of distance
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.)
functional region
functional region is also called a nodal region because it is defined by a social or economic function that occurs between a node or focal point and the surrounding areas. For example the circulation area of the New York Times is a functional region and New York is the node.
GIS
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface. (map things)
GPS
GPS stands for Geographic Positioning System. This system uses data from satellites to pin-point a location on earth and help people find their way to a destination.
hearth
A “cultural hearth” is a place of origin for a widespread cultural trend. (For example modern “cultural hearths” include New York City, Los Angeles, and London because these cities produce a large amount of cultural exports that are influential throughout much of the modern world.)
hierarchical diffusion
when a cultural trend is spread from one segment of society to another in a pattern, such as hip hop spreading from cities to less populated areas.
international data line
The date line, also called the International Date Line, is a boundary from which each calendar day starts. Areas to the west of the date line are one calendar day ahead of areas to the east. The date line runs from the North Pole to the South Pole through the Pacific Ocean.
latitude (parallel)
Latitude is an angular measurement north or south of the equator
longitude (horizontal)
Longitude is the angular measurement east and west of the Prime Meridian
possibilism
The concept that the natural environment places constraints on human activity, but humans can adapt to some environmental limits while modifying others using technology.
prime meridian
The prime meridian is the line of 0° longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around Earth.
projection
the process which the 3-D surface of Earth is transferred onto a 2D map.
relocation diffusion
Diffusion is the spread of an idea or characteristic over time. When people move, or relocate, they spread ideas along with them. Therefore this is called relocation diffusion.
