APHUG Geography Perspectives Review (Unit 1)

Site

The physical character of a place.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places (relative location).

Formal region

An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics (uniform region).

Functional region

An area organized around a node or focal point (nodal region).

Vernacular region

An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity (perceptual region).

Globalization

A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.

Absolute (mathematical) location

A description of the position of a place in a way that never changes (latitude/longitude).

Diffusion

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

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 though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

Hearth

A place from which an innovation originates. E

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.

Distance decay

The phenomenon in which contact diminishes with increasing distance and eventually disappears.

GPS

The Global Positioning System, a system that determines the precise position of something on Earth.

Scale (map)

The level of detail and the amount of area covered on a map.

Prime Meridian

The meridian that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

Cultural Ecology

The geographic study of human and environment relationships.

Globalization

The ever increasing connectedness of the world.

Environmental determinism

The idea that the environment makes us who we are.

The study of the movement of diseases

Epidemiology.

Friction of distance

Interactions that take place more often over lesser distances.

The concept of place

Features that contribute to the uniqueness of a particular spot on Earth.

Human geography

Where and when human activities are located where they are.

Material culture traits

Anything you can touch.

Non-material cultural traits

Non-tangible traits (ex. Christianity).

Map Projections

Peters (good at area, bad at shape), Mercator(good at direction, bad at area), & Robinson (jack of all trades).

Time zones & longitudes

Time zones are separated into around 15 degrees longitude.

Absolute vs. relative distance

Exact distance to something vs. it’s relative distance to something.

Pop culture vs. folk culture

Something that is popular now but will fade eventually, while folk culture is traditional and older culture from a smaller group.

Greenwich Mean Time

All time is based off of Greenwich.

Friederich Ratzel

Established geography as an academic discipline