Economies of scale
cost reductions that occur when production rises (pg 285, 339)
Ethnic cleansing
the process by which a state attacks an ethnic group and tries to eliminate it through expulsion, imprisonment, or killing (page 278)
Ethnic separatism
the process by which people of a particular ethnicity in a multinational state identify more strongly as members of their ethnic group than as citizens of the state (page 277)
Ethnonationalism / Ethnic Nationalism
the process by which the people of a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religious belief, and language, creating a sense of pride and identity that is tied to the territory; also called ethnic nationalism (page 283)
Supranational organization
an alliance of three or more states that work together in pursuit of common goals or to address an issue or challenge (page 283)
Administer
to manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them (pg 250)
Antecedent boundaries
a border established before an area becomes heavily settled (pg 254)
Autonomous
having the authority to govern territories independently of the national government; for example, by having a separate currency (page 244)
Choke point
a narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass (page 245)
Colonialism
the practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories (pg 245)
Consequent boundary
a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account the differences that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits (page 254)
Define
to explicitly state in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where boundaries are located, using reference points such as natural features or lines of latitude and longitude (page 250)
Delimit
to draw boundries on a map, in accordance with a legal agreement (pg 250)
Demarcated
to place physical objects such as stones, pillars, walls, or fences to indicate where a boundary exists (page 250)
Devolution
the process that occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders (page 249)
Exclusive economic zone (EEZ)
an area that extends 200 nautical miles from a state's coast; a state has sole access to resources found within the waters or beneath the sea floor of its EEZ (page 256)
Geometric boundaries
a mathematically drawn boundary that typically follows lines of latitude and longitude or is a straight-line arc between two points (page 254)
Imperialism
the push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples (page 247)
Irredentism
attempts by a state to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation (page 243)
Multinational state
a country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders (page 243)
Multistate nation
people who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country (page 243)
Nations
a cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity- often all four of these (page 242)
Nation-state
a politically organized and recognized territory composed of a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation (page 242)
Neocolonialism
the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies (page 245)
Political geography
the study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power different groups hold over territory (page 241)
Relics
a former boundry that no longer has a offical function (pg 255)
Self determination
the right of all people to choose their own political status (pg 247)
Semiautonomous
describing a region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government (page 244)
Shatterbelts
a region where states form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of more powerful outside states (page 246)
Sovereignty
the right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders (page 241)
State
a politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population; a country (page 241)
Stateless nation
a people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state (page 244)
Subsequent boundaries
a border drawn in an area that has been settled and where cultural landscapes exist or are in the process of being established (page 254)
Superimposed boundary
a border drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force (pg 254)
Territoriality
the attempt to influence or control people and events by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area; the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land (page 245)
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
the international agreement that established the structure of maritime boundaries (page 256)
Concurrent
sharing authority (pg 266)
Electoral College
a set of people, called electors, who are chosen to elect the president and vice president of the United States (page 269)
Federal state
the organization of a state in which power is shared between the federal government and its internal regional units (page 261)
Gerrymandering
the drawing of legislative boundries to give on political party an advantage in elections (pg 270)
Majority-minority districts
an electoral district in which the majority of voters are members of an ethnic or racial minority (pg 270)
Reapportionment
the redistribution of representative seats among states based on shifts in population (pg 269)
Redistricting
the redrawing of internal territorial and political boundaries (pg 270)
Unitary state
an organization of a state in which power is concentrated in a central goverment (pg 261)
Acculturation
the process by which people within one culture adopt some of the traits of another while still retaining their own distinct culture (page 194)
Assimilation
a category of acculturation in which the interaction of two cultures results in one culture adopting almost all of the customs, traditions, language, and other cultural traits of the other (page 195)
Collectivist cultures
a culture in which people are expected to conform to collective responsibility within the family and to be obedient to and respectful of elder family members (page 197)
Contagious diffusion
the process by which an idea or cultural trait spreads rapidly among people of all social classes and levels of power (page 181)
Creolization
the blending of two or more languages that may not include the features of either original language (page 186)
Cultural appropriation
the act of adopting elements of another culture (pg 197)
Cultural convergence
the process by which cultures become more similar through interaction (pg 189)
Cultural hearth
an area where cultural traits develop and from behavior cultural traits diffuse (pg 179)
Diffusion
the process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another over time (pg 179)
Expansion diffusion
the spread of culture trait outward from where it originated (pg 181)
Hierarchical diffusion
the spread of an idea or trait from one person or place of power or authority to another people or place (pg 181)
Lingua franca
a common language used among speakers of different languages (pg 186)
Multiculturalism
a situation in which different cultures live together without assimilating (pg 196)
Stimulus diffusion
the process by which a cultural trait or idea spreads to another culture or region but is modified to adapt to the new culture (page 182)
Syncretism
process of innovation combining different cultural features into something new (page 195)
Buddhism
the oldest universalizing religion, which arose from a hearth in northeastern India sometime between the mid-sixth and mid-fourth centuries B.c.e. and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha (page 221)
Christianity
a universalizing religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that began in what is now the West Bank and Israel around the beginning of the common era and has spread to all continents (page 219)
Ethnic religions
a religion that is closely tied with a particular ethnic group often living in a particular place (page 223)
Hinduism
an ethnic religion that arose a few thousand years ago in South Asia and is closely tied to India (page 223)
Islam
a universalizing religion based on the teachings of Muhammad that originated in the hearth of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century (page 220)
Isolate
a language that is unrelated to any other known language (page 202)
Judaism
the world's first monotheistic religion, which developed among the Hebrew people of Southwest Asia about 4,000 years ago (page 224)
Language branch
a collection of languages within a language family that share a common origin and separated from other branches in the same family several thousand years ago (page 202)
Language family
a group of languages that share a common ancestral language from a particular hearth, or region of origin (page 201)
Language groups
languages within a language branch that share a common ancestor in the relatively recent past and have vocabularies with a high degree of overlap (page 203)
Secularized
focused on worldly rather than spiritual concerns (pg 225)
Sikhism
the newest universalizing religion; founded by Guru Nanak, who lived from 1469 to 1539, in the Punjab region of northwestern India (page 222)
Universalizing religions
a religion that tries to appeal to all humans and is open to membership by everyone (page 219)
Adherents
a person who is loyal to a belief, religion, or organization (pg 171)
Artifacts
a visible object or techonolgy that a culture creates (pg 153)
Centrifugal force
a force that divides a group of people (pg 174)
Centripetal force
a force that unites a group of people (pg 174)
Cultural landscape
a natural landscape that has been modified by humans, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values (page 157)
Cultural norms
a shared standard or pattern that guides the behavior of a group of people (page 155)
Cultural relativism
the evaluation of a culture by its own standards (page 155)
Cultural trait
a shared object or cultural practice (page 153)
Culture
the beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a Society and passed down from generation to generation (page 153)
Denominations
a separate church organization that unites a number of local congergations (pg 171)
Dialects
a variation of a standard language specific to a general area, with differences in pronunciation, degree of rapidity in speech, word choice, and spelling (page 170)
Ethnic neighborhoods
a cultural landscape within a community of people outside of their area of origin (page 158)
Ethnicity
the state belonging to a group of people who share common cultural characteristics (page 158)
Ethnocentrism
the tendency of ethnic groups to evaluate other groups according to preconceived ideas originating from their own culture (page 155)
Gender identity
an individual's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither (page 166)
Gendered spaces
a space designed and deliberately incorporated into the landscape to accommodate gender roles (page 164)
Gentrification
the renovations and improvements conforming to middle-class preferences (page 167)
Identity
the ways in which humans make sense of themselves and how they wish to be viewed by others (page 157)
Language
a distinct system of communication that is the carrier of human thoughts and cultural identities (page 161)
Mentifact
a central, enduring element of a culture that reflects its shared ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs (page 153)
Pilgrimage
a journey to a holy place for spiritual reasons (pg 161)
Placemaking
a community-driven process in which people collaborate to create a place where they can live, work, play, and learn (page 168)
Popular culture
the widespread behaviors, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people in society at a given point in time (page 154)
Postmodern architecture
a building style that emerged as a reaction to "modern" designs, and values diversity in design (page 159)
Religion
a system of spiritual beliefs that helps form cultural perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and values (page 161)
Safe spaces
a space of acceptance for people who are sometimes marginalized by society (page 167)
Sect
a relatively small group that has separated from an established religious denomination (page 171)
Sense of place
the subjective feelings and memories people associate with a geographic location (page 168)