Global Cities Midterm Study Guide

A study guide for the midterm

Culture

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation.

Cultural Landscape

Cultural Landscapes are the accumulation of artifacts that help present information about the people(s) that have lived there. Alterations to the landscape that reflect their identity. (provide evidence about the spread and development of cultures)

Material Culture

The visible, material landscape and culture that groups create as they inhabit the earth. i.e. Clothing, buildings, farming patterns, and technology

Non-Material Culture

Mankind's mark on the landscape is left behind through the process of construction, agriculture, landscaping, and conservation. i.e. Language, religion, political organization, and customs or traditions

Characteristics of Culture - Food, Dress, Language, etc.

Learned, unique, dynamic, universal, integrative, and symbolic.

Cultural Relativism - Assess Only Using The Culture

Practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one's own culture.

Ethnocentrism - Your Own Comparison To Another Culture

Evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one's own cultural norms.

Cultural Hearth

The location from which a certain culture or cultural trait originates. i.e. Yoga - India, Ukulele - Hawaii, Rap Music - NYC. Culture diffuses

Customs = Actions, Traditional

An action that is usual or traditional for a group of people; expected amongst one peoples. i.e Showering every day, saying "bless you" after someone sneezes, shaking hands

Taboos

Behavior heavily discouraged by a culture, looked down upon. i.e. Rude to finish food (China), "Divorce," "Hairstyles", and eating certain foods (kosher, halal). Taboo changes over time.

Folk Culture = Homogeneous (Smaller, No Significant Differences)

Little variation from person to person, has little variation over time, changes drastically from place to place, generally isolated communities, homogeneous, provides a unique sense of place and belonging, and often connects to the physical geography of its origin

Traits Of Folk Culture = Slide

Unique traits usually based on location and available resources, or shared history. i.e. Dress, food, and language

Popular Culture

Cultural traits such as clothing, music, movies, and the built landscape that spread quickly over a large area and are adopted by various groups. Usually begin in urban areas and diffuse quickly through media. i.e. Soccer, Bollywood movies, and anime. Often promote uniformity in beliefs, values, and cultural landscape across many cultures

Traits Of Popular Culture = Slide

Widespread, global in scale (internet, tv, magazines). Changes [sometimes rapidly] over time. Universal experiences, might vary by region. i.e. Language, food, and dress

Habit

A habit is a regular practice or routine that individuals engage in, often unconsciously, which shapes their behavior and daily life. Accepted behaviors within a group of people, sharing some common backgrounds, such as language, family heritage, education, living, and socializing environment.

Norm

An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe "proper" behavior in cultures. i.e. Politeness, eating manners, being respectful to elders

Relocation Diffusion

People move from one place to another and bring their culture with them. i.e. Food → restaurants and grocery stores, Religion → places of worship

Contagious Diffusion

Distance-controlled spreading; spreads rapidly from one source to another in many directions

Hierarchical Diffusion

Starts with one person of power, trickles down from them

Expansion Diffusion

The number of people affected grows continuously.

Stimulus Diffusion

An idea is taken and changed slightly, so the original idea does not look the same once it spreads

Diffusion of Culture

is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages etc.—between individuals, whether within a single culture or from one culture to another.

Learned (Characteristics of Culture)

Culture is not inherited, it is not instinctive

Unique (Characteristics of Culture)

No two cultures are exactly alike

Dynamic (Characteristics of Culture)

Culture is never static, but some cultures change faster than others

Universal (Characteristics of Culture)

Every human being has a culture

Integrative (Characteristics of Culture)

Cultural traits form a cultural system; a change in one trait influences others

Look at 3.3 graph

Review terms/match up

Demography

The study of statistics (births, deaths, etc.) surrounding the structure of human populations.

Population Distribution

The pattern of human settlement; where people live on the Earth's surface. Shows places that are crowded, sparsely settled, or even empty.

Population Density

Measure of the average population per square mile or kilometer of an area. It measures how crowded a place is.

Arithmetic Density

Divide a region's population by its total area.

Infant Mortality Rate

The annual number of deaths of infants under 1 year compared with total live births.

Ecumene

The place where people live.

Carrying Capacity

Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support.

Pro-/Anti-Natalist policies (economic, social, etc.)

An anti-natalist policy is a government policy to slow down the fertility rate of a country. Where as a pro-natalist policy actively encourages people to procreate. Some times these are encouraged by incentives and others they are enforced.

Physiological Density

Number of people supported by a unit area of arable land: land that is good for growing crops.

Agricultural Density

The ratio of farmers to arable land.

Demographic Transition Model

A sequence of demographic changes in which a country moves from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates through time.

Stages of the DTM

In stage 1 the two rates are balanced. In stage 2 they diverge, as the death rate falls relative to the birth rate. In stage 3 they converge again, as the birth rate falls relative to the death rate. Finally in stage 4 the death and birth rates are balanced again but at a much lower level.

Life Expectancy

Measures the average number of years a newborn can expect to live (in a place)

Less Developed Countries (LDC)

countries with low-income to middle income, high death rate (and infant mortality rate), low birth rate. Ex.: most from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Dependency Ratio

The number of people under age 15 and over age 64 compared to the number of people active in the labor force.

Crude Birth Rate

The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

Crude Death Rate

The number of deaths per year per 1,000 people.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.

Total Fertility Rate

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

Population Pyramid

A bar graph that displays the percentage of a place's population for each age and gender.

More Developed Countries (MDC)

Countries with high average income, population, and population growth. Ex.: U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most European countries.

Zero Population Growth

A decline of the total fertility rate to the point where the natural increase rate equals zero and there are no babies being born.

Continents (there are 6 inhabited ones)

Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.

Toponym

The name given to a specific surface on the Earth.

Formal Region

An area where everyone shares a common distinctive characteristic.

Globalization

Force or process that involves the whole world, and results in making it worldwide.

Density

The frequency in which something exists within a given unit of an area.

Functional Region

An area around a node or focal point. It has a use or purpose, such as pizza delivery and cellular service.

Glocalization

The people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is a combination of economic, tech, socio-cultural, and political forces.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Vernacular Region

Regions defined by personal beliefs, helps form cultural identity.

Transnational Corporation

A company that handles, researches, and produces companies in 2 or more countries.

Geography

"geo" Earth and "graphy" to write

Geography

From the Greek 'geographia.' The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.

Absolute Location

Exact address, coordinates, or specific location which never changes.

Cartography

The science of map making.

Cultural Landscape

A historically significant property that shows evidence of human interaction with the physical environment.

Equator

An imaginary line drawn around the earth equally distant from both poles, dividing the earth into northern and southern hemispheres and constituting the parallel of latitude 0°.

Five Themes (Place, Location)

(Location) The position that something occupies on Earth's surface.

Region

(Physical) Characteristics that places share (climate, landforms). (Human) Characteristics that places share (economic or political systems, social and cultural concerns).

Human Environment Interaction

(Depend) How humans depend on the environment (food, shelter, clothing). (Modify) How humans modify the environment (houses, irrigation, dams). (Adapt) How humans adapt to the environment (air conditioning, building-to-building tunnels).

Movement

Ideas, migration, housing (movement), highways, rivers, telephone lines (transportation), storms that move land, tornadoes, tsunamis, erosion (systems), etc.

Latitude

The angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, or of a celestial object north or south of the celestial equator, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

Longitude

The angular distance of a place east or west of the meridian at Greenwich, England, or west of the standard meridian of a celestial object, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

Prime Meridian

A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°.

Projection

The method used to portray a part of the spherical Earth on a flat surface.

Relative Location

Where something is in relation to something else, and is determined by people, and changes depending on perspective or what is around you.

Regions of the World

Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America, Africa, South America, Americas, Central America, and Central Asia

Place (Physical)

Climate, landforms, animals, etc.

Place (Human)

Language, population density, religion, politics, etc.

Epidemiological Transition Model

The theory that says that there is a distinct cause of death in each stage of the demographic transition model. It can help explain how a country's population changes so dramatically.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

Language Tree/Branches

Shows relations and growth out of one another. Language trees reflect human migrations

Indo-European Languages

Nearly half of the world's population speaks one of the languages in the Indo-European language family. Latin is an example of how languages change and evolve. As people move away from the languages' cultural hearth, contact with other languages or isolation from other languages impacts changes to words and tones

Romance Languages

Derived from Latin under the Roman empire (i.e. Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Romansch)

Accent

How words sound when pronounced; often reflect social class or geographic region

Pidgin

When speakers of two different languages have extensive contact with each other, sometimes they develop a pidgin language, a simplified mixture of two languages that has fewer grammar rules and a similar vocabulary, but is not the native language of either group.

Dying/Extinct Languages

Loss of a language means loss of cultural history and practices/A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

Dialect

Variations in accent, grammar, usage, and spelling; regional variations of a language

Abrahamic Religions

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity

Judaism - Israel

The land of Israel is central to the Jewish faith and is mentioned throughout the Bible. In the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God promises the land of Israel to Abraham, the first Jew, and then reaffirms the promise to Abraham's son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Eventually, descendants settle kingdoms in modern-day Israel

Judaism - Shabbat

The Jewish holy day, Jews are expected to keep and practice shabbat

Judaism - Torah

Holy text; a scroll that contains the first five books of the Hebrew Bible

Judaism - Western Wall

a wall in Jerusalem where Jews, on certain occasions, assemble for prayer and lamentation, a place of prayer and pilgrimage, many Jews are seen praying at the Kotel. People are divided by gender

Judaism - Synagogue

Jewish place of worship, walk to synagogue on Shabbat, so neighborhoods are formed around temples

Christianity - Jesus Christ

Jesus was the Messiah, or final prophet from God (same as the Jewish god) who would bring eternal life in heaven for those who believed, Jesus healed the sick in order to draw crowds and then taught them about his heavenly father. After Jesus was crucified, women found his tomb empty and spread word that he had been raised from the dead

Christianity - Bible

The holy book of Christianity, the first testament (Hebrew Torah) and the New Testament (life and teachings of Jesus and his disciples)

Christianity - Catholic/Protestant/Eastern Orthodox

The large body of Christians who follow the faith and practices that were defined by the first seven ecumenical councils/A branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone

Islam - Saudi Arabia

The practices of Islam were established by the Prophet Muhammad in early 7th century in Saudi Arabia, Muhammad lived in Saudi Arabia 600 years

Islam - Muhammad

The greatest messenger sent by God to guide humanity in the right way, the practices of Islam were established by the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that the archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad and dictated the Koran. Muhammad was both a political and spiritual leader

Islam - Dome of the Rock (Mosque)

a shrine in Jerusalem at the site from which Muhammad ascended through the seven heavens to the throne of God: built on the site of the Jewish Temple, muslims believe that the Rock commemorates the night journey of Muhammad

Islam - 5 Pillars of Islam

Shahadah: Declaration of faith- "I bear witness that there is no god, but God; I bear witness that Muhammad is the prophet of God." Salah: Pray 5 times a day facing Mecca, cleanse before praying. Zakat: Giving to charity. Saum: Fasting during Ramadan