Peoples, Cultures, and Environments - Exam 1

What are the two parts of the discipline of geography?

Human and Physical

What is human geography?

The branch of geography that studies the interrelationships between people, place, and environment.

What are some examples of disciplines connected to human geography?

Political maps, population distribution.

What is the difference between site and situation?

Site refers to local conditions; situation refers to connections with other places.

How do New Orleans and Denver illustrate the concept of site and situation?

Denver has a situation as a telecommunications headquarters; New Orleans was built for transport but is prone to hurricanes.

What are some scales and perspectives in geography?

Global, regional, and local levels.

How does the relationship between wind turbines and bats demonstrate 'thinking like a geographer'?

It connects location, environment, human activity, scale, and spatial problem-solving.

What is cartography?

The art and science of map making.

What is a map?

A graphic representation of the real world.

What are the three categories of maps?

Reference, Cartograms, Thematic.

What are geospatial technologies?

Technologies to visualize, measure, and analyze the earth.

What are some examples of geospatial technologies?

GPS, Remote Sensing, GIS, Google Earth, Drones.

What are regions?

Arbitrary human constructs to categorize and classify different areas.

What are the different types of regions?

Formal (Defined by a specific homogeneous characteristic, Middle East), Perceptual (Possess regional identity but are defined more subjectively, Middle east = known for oil) , Functional (A coherent structure of areal units organized into a functioning system, sports teams).

What is relocation diffusion?

Diffusion through the movement or relocation of people.

What is contagious diffusion?

Diffusion through rapid spread among people of all social classes.

What is hierarchical diffusion?

Diffusion influenced by power, size, and status.

What is stimulus diffusion?

Diffusion to another culture but modified to adapt to the new culture.

What is culture?

Learned behavior and a human construct that provides guidance for our lives.

What are the three groups culture is classified into?

Mentifacts, Artifacts, Sociofacts.

What are culture hearths?

Recognizable cultures have places of origin called culture hearths.

What does the term 'placeless' mean?

A place that has no site or situation.

What are geospatial technologies and what are some examples?

Technologies to visualize, measure, and analyze the earth. GPS (gives directions to people), Google Earth (can be used for various things) and High altitude ballooning (uses a balloon to capture pictures of the earth).

What is a cartogram?

type of map where the size of a region is changed to represent data, like population or election results, instead of showing true geographic size.