Unit I: Geography Vocabulary
Terms
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- Latitude
- distance north or south of the Equator
- Patriarchal
- describing a family headed by the father, husband, or oldest male
- Geography
- study of people, their environments, and their resources
- Monsoon
- seasonal wind; in India, the winter monsoon brings hot, dry weather and the summer monsoon brings rain
- Steppe
- sparse, dry grassland
- Nuclear Family
- family unit consisting of parents and children
- Patrinlineal
- term for a family organization in which kinship ties are traced through the father
- Lineage
- group claiming a common ancestor
- Polytheistic
- believing in many gods
- Savanna
- grassy plain with irregular patterns of rainfall
- Nomad
- person who moves from place to place in search of food
- Monotheistic
- believing in one God
- Prehistory
- period of time before writing systems were invented
- Clan
- group of families with a common ancestor
- Longitude
- distance east or west of the Prime Meridian
- Strait
- narrow water passage
- Subcontinent
- large landmass that juts out from a continent
- Silt
- rich soil carried by flooding rivers
- Delta
- triangular area of marshland formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of some rivers
- Matrilineal
- term for family organization in which kinship ties are traced through the mother
- Archipelago
- chain of islands
- Glacier
- thick sheet of ice that covered parts of the Earth during the ice age
- Cataract
- waterfall
- Joint Family
- family organization in which several generations share a common dwelling