AP Human Geography Unit 3

Adherent

A group of people who are loyal to a belief, religion, organization, or idea.

Artifact

Objects and technology that a certain group of people makes through culture.

Centrifugal force

A force that pulls a group of people apart.

Centripetal force

A force that brings people together.

Culture

The beliefs, core values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a group of people and passed down throughout generations.

Cultural landscape

A natural landscape that has been altered by humans to express their cultural beliefs and values.

Cultural norm

The universally accepted standards and patterns of behavior in a group of people.

Cultural relativism

When an ethnic group assesses solely based on its unique standards.

Cultural trait

A material object, specific behavior, belief, or custom shared by a group of people.

Denomination

A subdivision of a branch that unites people of a certain region together.

Dialect

A unique variation of a language that is specific to a particular geographical area.

Ethnicity

The act of belonging to a certain group of people who share common cultural characteristics.

Ethnic neighborhood

Cultural landscapes within the place of their origin.

Ethnocentrism

When one ethnic group evaluates another ethnic group through preconceived ideas, forming opinions about the other ethnic group.

Gender identity

How a person personally identifies themselves; may be the same or different from assigned birth sex.

Gendered space

When society strictly controls male and female roles.

Gentrification

A process where lower class neighborhoods become more wealthy due to higher income people making changes.

Identity

How humans uniquely make sense of themselves and how they want others to make sense of them.

Language

A verbal form of human communication that carries human thoughts and cultural identities.

Mentifact

The main elements of a specific culture that show its central ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs.

Pilgrimage

An expedition taken to reach a holy place for spiritual reasons.

Placemaking

The process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in.

Popular culture

The universally accepted behaviors, beliefs, and practices of common people in a society at any given time.

Postmodern architecture

Architecture that emphasizes form, structure, and materials and is more diverse than traditional architecture.

Religion

A system of spiritual beliefs that form ideas and values in a culture.

Safe space

A space that people of all identities are welcomed and accepted.

Sect

A small group in a denomination.

Sense of place

The subjective feelings and memories a person associates with a place.

Sequent occupance

The idea that successive societies leave their cultural imprints, which helps influence future cultural landscapes.

Sociofact

The social structures and organizations that shape social behavior.

Third place

A communal place that is separated from home or work where individuals develop a sense of self.

Toponym

Place names that help define how a place is different from another.

Traditional architecture

Building styles that come from different cultures, religions, and places.

Traditional culture

Long established behaviors, beliefs, and practices that have been established throughout generations.

Acculturation

When one culture adopts cultural traits from another culture while still retaining elements of their own distinct culture.

Assimilation

A category of acculturation in which one culture adopts almost all the customs, traditions, language, and other cultural traits of another country.

Collectivist culture

When a culture expects members to conform to one responsibility within the family.

Contagious diffusion

When an idea or cultural trait spreads adjacently, regardless of social class.

Creolization

When people incorporate elements, beliefs, or values from an incoming or conquering culture and endow them with new meanings.

Cultural appropriation

When you adopt elements from another culture.

Cultural convergence

As cultures interact with each other, they become more similar, sharing ideas, innovations, and other cultural traits.

Cultural divergence

Conflicting or opposite beliefs cause two cultures to become less similar.

Cultural hearth

The original location of a cultural trait.

Diffusion

When a cultural trait spreads to different places over time.

Expansion diffusion

How cultural traits spread in ways other than people moving.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of a cultural trait from a person or place of power or authority to other people or places of a lower class.

Lingua franca

A common language used among speakers of different languages, often as citizens of a conquered country adopt the language of their conqueror.

Multiculturalism

When diverse cultures coexist within one shared space.

Relocation diffusion

When cultural traits appear in an area because of people migrating to the area.

Stimulus diffusion

The idea behind a cultural trait stimulates the innovation of a cultural trait or new cultural trait.

Syncretism

When two or more cultural traits combine to form a new custom, idea, value, or practice.

Buddhism

The oldest universal religion that arose from a hearth in northeastern India between the mid-sixth and mid-fourth centuries b.c.e.

Christianity

The largest religion today; started in Israel around the start of the common era.

Ethnic religion

Religions tied with a certain ethnic region.

Hinduism

A religion mostly clustered around Southeast Asia; originated around 1500 BC.

Islam

The second largest religion; originated in the cities of Mecca and Medina in present day Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century.

Isolate

A language that doesn’t belong to a specific language family.

Judaism

Originated in Israel and present day Lebanon; Abrahamic religion.

Language branch

A group of languages within a family that are from the same location of origin, separated from other branches several thousand years ago.

Language family

The biggest group of related languages.

Language group

Groups of languages with a branch that share common vocabulary.

Secularized

When a person doesn’t follow a specific religion but identifies with that religion because of cultural race or ethnicity.

Sikhism

A religion found mainly in the Punjab region of India; founded by Guru Nanak, who lived from 1469 to 1539.

Universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to everybody, regardless of location, language, or ethnicity.