Human Geography: Regions, Culture, and Connections

Vocabulary flashcards covering key geographical concepts including culture, types of regions, spatial association, diffusion mechanisms, and cultural interaction results.

Culture

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

MDCs (More-Developed Countries)

Developed countries that have a higher possession of wealth and material goods because earn their living through performing services in exchange for wages.

LDCs (Less-Developed Countries)

Developing countries where inhabitants are more likely to work on agriculture.

Spatially Associated

A degree of cause and effect relationship between two or more phenomena; it is strong if two features have very similar distributions and weakens if they have very different distributions.

Formal Region

Also called a uniform region; an area where everyone shares common or distinctive characteristics such as language, production of a particular crop, or climate.

Functional Region

Also called a nodal region; an area organized around a node or focal point, such as transportation, trading/economic ties, or communication systems.

Vernacular Region

Also called a perceptual region; an area where people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity.

Region

A larger area of Earth instead of a specific point.

Cultural Landscape

A mix of cultural features (language, religion), economic features (agriculture and industry), and physical features (climate and vegetation).

Regional Studies Approach

A contemporary approach to studying the cultural landscape where geographers argue distinctive landscapes of different regions result from culture and the natural area.

Connection

Relationships among people and objects that cross the barrier of space.

Diffusion

The process by which a feature spreads across space from one place to another over time.

Hearth

The place from which an innovation originates.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.

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 characteristic throughout the population.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle even through a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse, resulting in a change when it reaches a new area.

Network

A chain of communication that connects places.

Distance-Decay

The phenomenon where the farther away someone is from another, the less likely the two are to interact.

Space-Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place.

Assimilation

The process where one group starts to become like another group to fit in.

Acculturation

The result on connections where two cultures meet and influence each other.

Syncretism

The result on connections where two cultures combine to create something new.