All vocab

Connections

Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Density

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

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Distance Decay

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process

Formal Region

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

Functional Region

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

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope

Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places

Region

An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects

Space-Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communications and transportation systems

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected

Sustainability

The use of Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future

Syncretism

The combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature

Uneven Development

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy

Vernacular Region

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

Agricultural Density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture

Agricultural Revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

Anti-Natalism

An attitude that asserts a negative value towards birth in order to limit population growth

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area

Census

A complete enumeration of a population

Crude birth rate (CBR)

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

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

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

Demography

The scientific study of population characteristics

Dependency Ratio

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

Ecumene

The portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement

Epidemiology

Branch of medical science concerned with the incidence, distribution and control of diseases that are prevalent among a population at a special time and are produced by some special causes not generally present in the affected locality

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The total number of deaths in a year among infants under one year old for every 1,000 live births in a society

Life expectancy

The average number of years an individual can be expected to live, givin current social, economic, and medical conditions. Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live.

Medical Revolution

Medical technology invented in Europe and North America that is diffused to the poorer countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Improved medical practices have eliminated many of the traditional causes of death in poorer countries and enabled more people to live longer and healthier lives

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

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

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture

Pro-Natalism

A attitude that encourages childbearing

Sex Ratio

The number of males per 100 females in the population

total fertility rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years

Brain Drain

Large-scale emigration by talented people

Chain migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there

Diaspora

The dispersion or spreading of something that was originally localized (as people or language or culture), the scattering of people who have a common background or beliefs from their homeland

Emigration

Migration from a location

Forced Migration

Permanent movement compelled usually by cultural factors

Guest workers

Workers who migrate to the more developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, usually from Southern and Eastern Europe or from North Africa, in search of higher-paying jobs.

Immigration

Migration to a new location

Internal Migration

Permanent movement within a particular country

International migration

Permanent movement from one country to another

Interregional Migration

Permanent movement from one region of a country to another

Intervening obstacle

An environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that hinders migration

Intraregional Migration

Permanent movement within one region of a country

Migration Transition

Change in the migration pattern in a society that results from industrialization, population growth, and other social and economic changes that also produce the demographic transition

Net Migration

The difference between the level of immigration and the level of emigration

Pull Factors

Factors that induce people to move to a new location

Push factors

Factors that induce people to leave old residences

Quota

In reference to migration, a law that places maximum limits on the number of people who can immigrate to a country each year

Refugees

People who are forced to migrate from their home country and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion

Remittances

Money immigrants send back to family and friends in their home countries, often in cash, forming an important part of the economy in many poorer countries

Undocumented immigrants

People who enter a country without proper documents

Acculturation

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another

Assimilation

The process through which people lose originality differentiating traits, such as dress, speech, particularities, or mannerisms, when they come into contact with another society or culture

Creole or creolized language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated

Cultural complex

The group of traits that defines a particular culture

Cultural landscape

Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group

Cultural trait

The specific customs that are part of everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and aspects of popular culture

Culture realm

The entire region throughout which a culture prevails, Criteria that may be chosen to define culture realms include religion, language, diet, customs, or economic development

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation

Ethnic enclave

A place with high concentration of an ethnic group that is distinct from those in the surrounding area

Ethnic Island

A small rural area settled by a single, distinctive ethnic group that placed its imprint on the landscape

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate

Lingua franca

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

Multiculturalism

The coexistence of several cultures in one society, with the ideal of all cultures being valued and worthy of study.

Maladaptive Diffusion

An idea or innovation that is not suitable for the environment in which it spreads into

Nativist

A person against immigration

Official language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents

Pidgin language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a little city to a big one

Sequent occupance

Successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place that add up to the cultural landscape

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life

Caste System

the class or distinct hereditary order into which a Hindu is assigned according to religious law

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic and cultural principles in another territory

Cultural convergence

the contact and interaction of one culture with another

Cultural divergence

the restriction of a culture from outside cultural influences

Cultural relativism

the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individuals own culture (contrasts with ethnocentrism)

Diaspora (2)

from the Greek "to disperse," a term describing forceful or voluntary dispersal of a people from their homeland to a new place

Ethnocentrism

Belief in superiority of one's own ethnic group

Fundamentalism

Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion (or a religious branch, denomination, or sect.)

Imperialism

Control of a territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous group

Karma

In religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, the notion that every action a person takes, whether good or bad has a consequence in the future

Monotheistic

The doctrine or belief of the existence of only one god

Neolocalism

the seeking out of the regional culture and reinvigoration of it in response to the uncertainty of the modern world

Pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposed

Polytheistic

Belief in or worship of more than one god.

Sharia Law

The system of Islamic law, sometimes called Qu'ranic law. Unlike most Western systems of law that are based on legal precedence, Sharia is based on varying degrees of interpretation of the Qu'ran

Syncretism (2)

The blending traits from two different cultures to from a new trait

Terroir

The contribution of a location's distinctive physical features to the way food tastes

Theocracy

A state whose government is under control of a ruler who is deemed to be divinely guided or under the control of a group of religious leaders

Toponym

The study of place names