An Introduction to Human Geography and Migration Journeys of Transformation Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering geographic concepts, cultural patterns, population dynamics, and migration case studies from the USAD Social Science Resource Guide.

Human Geography

The study of how human activities vary across different locations.

Cartography

The discipline and methodology of creating visual representations of the Earth's surface through maps.

Absolute Location

The precise position of an object or place as determined by spatial coordinates within a grid system.

Topographic Map

A reference map that connects points of equal elevation using isolines to assist navigation and land engineering.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that displays how data varies across locations by using different shades or colors to represent density or intensity.

Graduated Symbol Map

A thematic map that compares data quantity across an area by contrasting symbols of varied sizes.

Robinson Projection

A map projection that aims for a balanced compromise among shape, size, distance, and direction distortions.

Distance Decay Effect

The phenomenon describing the reduction in interaction between two locations as their spatial separation grows.

Time-Space Compression

The reduction in the impact of physical distances resulting from technological advances in transportation and communication.

Gerrymandering

The deliberate configuration of voting district boundaries to favor a particular political party.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits, ideas, or innovations through the physical movement of people from one place to another.

Environmental Determinism

The perspective holding that the natural environment determines which human lifestyles and levels of development are possible.

Environmental Possibilism

The perspective acknowledging that environmental factors place limits on human development, but that humans play a significant role in shaping what is possible through technological innovation.

Cultural Hearth

The origin or geographic location where a specific culture or cultural trait first appeared.

Folk Culture

Culture characteristic of smaller, more isolated, and culturally unified groups, such as rural populations or Indigenous tribes.

Popular Culture

Culture characteristic of larger, denser, and more diverse groups that spreads rapidly through hierarchical and contagious diffusion.

Ethnocentrism

The attitude of judging another culture's values and practices against the standards and values of one's own culture.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of judging and understanding another culture based on that culture's own values and context.

Sequent Occupancy

The visible cultural imprints and layers left on a place by successive societies over time.

Balkanization

The fragmentation of a larger state or region into smaller, often hostile, and ethnically homogeneous units.

Centrifugal Force

A factor that divides a state, pulling its population apart and weakening internal cohesion.

Centripetal Force

A factor that unifies a state, pulling its population together and strengthening internal cohesion.

Lingua Franca

A shared language used to facilitate trade, communication, and diplomacy between people who do not share a native tongue.

Universalizing Religion

A faith that seeks global appeal, actively converts others, and aims to be practiced worldwide regardless of ethnicity.

Ethnic Religion

A faith system tied to a specific ethnic group, culture, or geographic location that does not actively seek global converts.

Arithmetic Density

The measure of population calculated by dividing the total population of a place by its total land area.

Physiological Density

The measure calculated by dividing the total population in an area by its arable (farmable) land.

Agricultural Density

The measure calculated by dividing the total number of farmers in an area by its total arable land.

Dependency Ratio

The ratio comparing the population of individuals too old or too young to support themselves relative to the working-age population.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population limit that a place's natural resources can sustainably support.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children born to a woman who survives her childbearing years.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

The annual percentage growth of a population calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate ($\text{CBR} - \text{CDR}$).

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

A model tracking a country's demographic transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates over five developmental stages.

Epidemiological Transition Model (ETM)

A model describing the shifts in causes of mortality from infectious diseases to chronic, age-related diseases as a country develops.

Malthusian Theory

The theory pioneered by Thomas Malthus stating that exponential population growth will eventually outpace linear food production, causing a population crisis.

Pronatalist Policy

A government program or law designed to encourage childbirth and increase population growth.

Antinatalist Policy

A government program or law designed to decrease birthrates and slow population growth, such as China's one-child policy.

Spatial Mobility

A broad concept encompassing all forms of geographic human movement, including daily commuting, travel, and permanent relocation.

Stepwise Migration

A migration process where an individual moves in a series of incremental steps or stages toward an ultimate destination.

Chain Migration

A phenomenon where the movement of initial migrants prompts family members or community members from the same origin to follow them to the same destination.

Migration Age Profile

The demographic pattern demonstrating that the propensity to migrate peaks in young adulthood (around age $25$) due to major life course transitions.

Brain Drain

The loss of educated, highly skilled, and productive individuals from a country or region due to emigration.

Refugee

An individual outside their country of origin with a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or social group membership.

Internally Displaced Person (IDP)

An individual forced to flee their home due to conflict, persecution, or disaster who remains within their country's national borders.

Principle of Non-refoulement

A legal rule under international refugee law prohibiting host countries from returning refugees to a country where they face persecution.

Manifest Destiny

The nineteenth-century belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand its territory across the entire North American continent.

Louisiana Purchase

The $1803$ land deal in which the United States purchased $828,800\text{ square miles}$ ($530\text{ million acres}$) of territory from France for $15\text{ million dollars}$.

Trail of Tears

The forced march in $1838\text{--}1839$ during which over four thousand Cherokee people died while being forcibly relocated west of the Mississippi River.

Great Migration

The twentieth-century movement of approximately six million African Americans from the rural South to urban centers in the North, Midwest, and West.

Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy

A $1995$ U.S. immigration policy allowing Cubans reaching U.S. land ("dry feet") to pursue permanent residency, while returning those intercepted at sea ("wet feet").

Bracero Program

A guestworker program operating from $1942$ to $1964$ that brought approximately $4.5\text{ million}$ Mexican workers into the U.S. for agricultural labor.

Hukou System

China's household registration system that classifies citizens as rural or urban residents, controlling internal migration and access to social services.

Schengen Area

A border-free zone established by European nations in $1985$ that abolishes internal border controls and passport checks among participating member states.