AP Human

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area.

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture.

Agricultural Density

The number of farmers per unit area of arable land.

Density

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.

Concentration

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.

Pattern

The geometric arrangement of something in a study area.

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

Culture

The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group of people’s distinct tradition.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

Terroir

The contribution of a location's physical features to the way food tastes

Creole

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer’s language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Dialect

A form of a language spoken in a local area.

Language Family

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

Language Group

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Universalizing Religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, regardless of location or culture.

Ethnic Religion

A religion that primarily appeals to one group of people living in one place.

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body.

Branch

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

Monotheism

Belief in the existence of only one god.

Polytheism

Belief in a collection of gods.

Sense of Place

A place having unique characteristics that give it meaning and character to its inhabitants.

Nationality

The identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a particular country.

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a particular nationality.

Ethnic Cleansing

Process by which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

Blockbusting

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood.

Ghetto

A neighborhood in a city set up by law where only one group can live

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Nation-State

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.

Multi-ethnic State

A state that contains more than one ethnicity.

Multinational State

A state in which the government represents several ethnic groups through (often) devolution of power.

Centripetal Force

An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.

Centrifugal Force

Forces that divide a state - internal religious, political, economic, ethnic differences, etc.

Frontier

a zone separating two states in which neither state exercises political control

Prorupted State

An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension.

Perforated State

A state that completely surrounds another one.

Fragmented State

A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory.

Elongated State

A state with a long and narrow shape.

Landlocked State

A state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea.

Compact State

A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.

Federal State

An internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government.

Unitary State

An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials.

Gerrymandering

Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

Supranationalism

An alliance of two or more countries seeking cooperation with each other without giving up either's autonomy.

Colonialism

Control of a territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society.

Imperialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Investment made by a foreign company in the economy of another country.

Developing Country

A country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic development.

Developed Country

A country that has progressed relatively far along the continuum of development.

Gross National Income (GNI)

The value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, including money that leaves and enters the country.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year.

Genetic Engineering

Modifying a plant or animal by selecting it for desired traits and breeding it.

Von Thunen Model

A model of the spatial pattern of economic activities in an agricultural district. The model explains and predicts patterns of agricultural land use.

Globalization

The integration of markets, states, communication, and trade on a worldwide scale

Development

A process of improvement in the material conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology.

Malthus's Population Curve

A graph that shows Malthus's theory about food production and population increase

Model

A simplified image of a real world object or situation.

Transnational Corporation

Any set of actions or processes that involve mechanisms that cut across formal political boundaries

Purchasing Power Parity

A measure of the goods and services affordable with what can be earned in each country.

North/South Divide

The difference in wealth between the richest and poorest countries.

Dependency Theory

A theory or economic development sees economic disparities as built into the system - poorer countries are poor because of the actions of wealthier countries, not because of failures within the poorer countries.

Life Expectancy

The number of years a newborn infant can expect to live.

Human Development Index (HDI)

A statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.

Pollution

A process of deterioration of the environment for humans through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction…

Isotherm

A line on a map connecting points having the same climate.

Renewable Resource

A resource that is produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans.

Nonrenewable Resource

A resource of economic value that cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equal to its consumption.

Fossil Fuel

A fuel, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, that is formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.

Anthropogenic

A term that refers to human activities that cause the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Global Warming

A rise in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans that is caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Climate Change

A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels

Asthenosphere

A zone in the earth's mantle located roughly 100 km and 250 km below the surface. The lithosphere is regarded as resting on the asthenosphere.

Cinder Cone

A relatively small and isolated volcano that is composed of lava fragments.

Composite Volcano

A volcano that is built up of alternate layers of lava and ash.

Shield Volcano

A broad, domed volcano with gently sloping sides, characteristic of the eruption of fluid, basaltic lava.

Lithosphere

The outermost rigid layer of the earth is divided into a set of dozen or so plates.

Plate Tectonics

The theory that explains how large pieces of the lithosphere, called plates, move and change shape.

Divergent Boundary

An area where plates pull apart, creating new crust (Iceland)

Convergent Boundary

An area where plates collide, causing one to go underneath anothe

Subduction

The process by which oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.

Transform Boundary

An area where plates slide past each other; crust is neither created nor destroyed

Weathering

A series of physical and chemical processes by which rocks on or near the Earth's surface break down and change.

Chemical Weathering

The disintegration and decomposition of rock near the surface of the earth through chemical processes.

Physical Weathering

The disintegration and decomposition of rock near the surface of the earth through mechanical processes.

Frost Wedging

The process by which water freezes in the cracks of rock and wedges it apart.

Mass Wasting Events

Processes that move weathered rock and soil down-slope.

Erosion

The downslope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity.

Leaching

The removal of dissolved materials from soil by water moving downwards.

Habitat

The natural environment in which a species lives.

Indicator Species

Species that serve as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded.

Parasitism

The relationship in which one species lives in or on another species and consequently harms it.

Mutualism

The relationship in which both species benefit.

Commensalism

The relationship in which one species benefits, but the other isn't significantly affected.

Pesticide Resistance

The ability of one or more organisms to tolerate a particular chemical designed to kill it.

Invasive Species

A species that enters an environment which it had not formerly occupied.