Human Geography Concepts and Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental geography concepts, regions, processes, and general analytical terms from the provided lecture notes.

Innovation

Turning a new idea into a practical reality that adds real value (e.g., smartphones, solar panels, subways, automation in factories).

Formal Region

Area of land with common cultural or physical traits (e.g., Rocky Mountains, Sahara Desert, the United States).

Activity (action) Spaces

Places within the rounds of daily activity (e.g., workplace, school, grocery store, places of worship, homes).

Acculturation

The process where a weaker or immigrant culture adapts the traits, values, or customs of a dominant host culture, while still keeping major parts of their own original cultural identity (e.g., mixing food styles to create new dishes, using new language in public and native tongue at home).

Assimilation

When a minority group loses distinct cultural traits, such as dress, food, or speech, and adopts the customs of the dominant culture; can happen voluntarily or by force (e.g., Native American reeducation camps).

Cartography

The art and science of making maps.

Epidemic

Widespread, rapid diffusion of disease among a people in a particular location or region at a particular time (e.g., Ebola, smallpox, yellow fever).

Pandemic

An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide (e.g., Covid-19, Spanish Flu).

"the why of where"

Asking why things are located in specific places and how those locations affect human life.

Environmental Possibilism

The concept that the natural environment places limits or sets bounds on human society, but human culture, tech, and individual choices ultimately decide how a place develops (e.g., wind powered pumps in Holland allow living on land below sea level; multi-story buildings allow more people to live in a city).

Mental Maps (cognitive maps)

Maps of an area made from memory or experience by individuals or groups (e.g., walking path to school navigating by landmarks).

Hearth

Area or place where an idea, innovation, or technology originates (e.g., Fertile Crescent is the hearth for wheat + barley, Mecca is the hearth of Islam).

Human Geography

One of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of human phenomena, including population, cultures, activities, and landscapes.

Scale

Geographical scope (local, national, or global) in which we analyze and understand a phenomenon (e.g., wealth distribution, language dialects).

Spatial Interaction

Degree of connectedness or contact among people or places (e.g., youth at schools, people at work).

Globalization

Processes heightening interactions, increasing interdependence, and deepening relations across country borders (e.g., global supply chains, labor migration, food diffusion).

Spatial Distribution

Physical locations of geographic phenomena, usually shown on a map.

Environmental Determinism

Sets of theories that use environmental differences to explain everything from intelligence to wealth.

Diffusion

Spread of an idea, innovation, or technology from its hearth to other people and places (e.g., fashion trends, memes, printing press).

Sequent Occupance

Imprints left on the cultural landscape by a series of successive societies, where each society contributed to the cumulative cultural landscape (e.g., Aztec ruins in Mexico City).

Sense of Place

Infusing a place with meaning as a result of experiences in a place (e.g., Chinatowns across the country, your hometown).

Carrying Capacity

The idea that land can hold a measurable amount of plant and animal life.

Cultural Landscape

The visible human imprint on the landscape (e.g., buildings, roadways, canals, power distribution).

Functional Region

Area of land defined as sharing a common purpose in society (e.g., canals, farmland, city parks).

Perceptual Regions

Area of land that an individual perceives as being similar (e.g., "The South" region in the United States).

Perception of Place

How a place is envisioned (e.g., cities are busy and overcrowding, rural areas are more quiet and have less people).

Adapt

To make fit (as for a new use), often by modification.

Assertion

A confident and forceful declaration of a belief or supposed fact.

Compelling

Very interesting; able to capture and hold your attention; capable of causing someone to believe or agree.

Bypass

To go around or avoid an obstacle, place, or rule.

Concentrated

Contained or existing or happening together in a small or narrow space or area; not spread out.

Distributed

Spread out, divided, or shared among many different places, people or things rather than staying in one central spot.

Uniformity

The quality or state of being the same, regular, or consistent without any changes, variety, or difference.