Chapter 1
Terms
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- region
- an area on the earth's surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogenity
- geocaching
- A high-tech version of hide-and-seek. Geocachers seek out hidden treasures utilizing GPS coordinates posted on the Internet by those hiding the cache.
- generalized map
- A general map depicting a certain piece of info. such as precipitation.
- pattern
- the design of spatial distribution
- formal region
- type of region marked by a certain degree of homogenity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region of homgeneous region.
- location theory
- a logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of economic activities & the manner in which its producing areas are interrelated
- perceptual region
- a region that only exist as a conceptualization or idea & not physically demacated enity
- activity space
- the space within which daily activity occurs
- 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.
- cultural landscape
- the visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape
- medical geography
- the study of health and disease within a geographic context and from a geographical perspective. Among other things, medical geography looks at source, diffusion routes, and distribution of diseases
- global positioning system
- satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features
- perception of place
- belief or "understanding" about a place developed through books, movies, stories or pictures
- culture complex
- A related set of culture traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils.
- cartography
- the art and science of making maps, including data complitation, layout, and design
- spatial
- pertaining to space on Earth's surface; sometimes used as a synonym for geographic.
- distance
- the measurement of the physical space between two places
- stimulus diffusion
- A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.
- culture
- the sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a society
- thematic maps
- maps that tell stories, typically showing the degree of some attribute of the movement of a geographic phenomenon
- isotherm
- line on a map connecting points of equal temperature values
- remote sensing
- method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments that are physically distant from th area or object of study
- relocation diffusion
- 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.
- spatial distribution
- physical location of geographic phenomena across space.
- environmental determinism
- the view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development
- pandemic
- an outbreak of disease that spreads world-wide.
- spatial interaction
- the relationship between phenomena and the places in which they affect eachother
- independent invention
- a trait with many cultural hearths that develop independent of each other
- cultural diffusion
- expansion and adoption of a cultural element from place of origin to a wider area
- cultural barrier
- prevailing cultural attitude rendering certain innovations, ideas or practices unacceptable or unadoptable in that particular culture
- spatial perspective
- observing variations in geographic phenomena across space
- political ecology
- An approach to studying nature - society relations that is concerned with the ways in which environmental issues both reflect, and are the result of, the political and socioeconomic contexts in which they are situated.
- geographic concept
- ways of seeing the world spatially that are used by geogrpahers in answering research questions
- rescale
- Involvement of players at other scales to generate support for a position or an initiative
- cultural hearth
- heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture
- mental map
- Image or picture of the way space is organized as determined by an individual's perception, impression, & knowledge of that space
- movement
- movement of people goods and ideas across the surface of the planet
- accessibility
- The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations.
- place
- uniqueness of a location
- connectivity
- the degree of direct linkage between one particular location and other locations in a transport network
- sense of place
- 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.
- hierarchial diffusion
- a form of diffusion in which an idea or innovation spreads by passing first among the most connected places or peoples down to others
- possibilism
- geographic viewpoint- a responce to determinism- that holds that human decision making, not the environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development
- culture trait
- A single element of normal practice in a culture, such as the wearing of a turban.
- reference maps
- maps showing the absolute location of places and geographic features determined my a frame of refereence, typically latitude and longitude.
- sequent occupance
- notion that succesive societies leave their cultural imprint on a place contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape
- geographic information systems
- A collection of computer hardware and software that permits spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, manipulated, and displayed to the user.
- relative location
- the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places
- cultural ecology
- The multiple interactions and relationships between a culture and the natural environment.
- fieldwork
- the study of geographic phenomena by visiting places and observing how people interact with and thereby change those places
- globalization
- The expansion of economics, political and cultural processes to the point that they beome global in scale and impact.
- absolute location
- the position or place of a certain item on the surface of the earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude
- human-environment
- the reciprocal relationship between humans and environment
- functional region
- region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it
- location
- the geographical situation of people and things
- five themes
- location, human-environment, region, place, movement
- time-distance decay
- the decling degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source
- landscape
- the overall apperance of an area
- expansion diffusion
- The spread of an innovation or an idea through a populationin an area in such a way that the number of those influenced grows continuously larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination.
- physical geography
- one of the 2 major divisions of systematic geography; the spatial analysis of the structure, processses, and location of the Earth's natural phenomena such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and toposgraphy.
- epidemic
- a regional outbreak of a disease
- human geography
- one of the 2 major divisions of geographyl; the spatial analysis of human population, their cultures, activities, & landscapes