APHG 2-3 Vocab: Key Terms in Human Geography

Independent Invention

Innovations developed in two or more unconnected locations by individuals or groups acting independently

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of ideas, behaviors, or other culture traits from one place to another through direct or indirect contact and exchange of information; the diffusion increases the number of people or cultural groups practicing the trait while leaving the trait intact or intensified in its are of origin

Innovation

Introduction of new culture traits, whether ideas, practices, or material objects

Acculturation

Cultural modification or change that results when one culture group or individual adopts traits of a dominant or host society; cultural development or change through "borrowing"

Contagious Diffusion

A pattern of diffusion in which cultural innovations spread to closer places before they spread to further places. Contagious expansion diffusion typically results from direct contact between actual and potential adopters of the innovation, in a manner analogous to the spread of contagious diseases

Syncretism

The development of a new form of culture trait by the fusion of two or more distinct parental traits

Hierarchical Diffusion

A pattern of diffusion in which cultural innovations spread by "jumping" between places of more importance (such as larger cities) before they spread to places of less importance; reverse hierarchical diffusion from less important to more important places occurs less often

Relocation Diffusion

The transport of ideas, behaviors, or articles from one place to another through the migration of those processing the feature when transported

Diffusion

The spread or movement of a phenomenon over space and through time. The dispersion of a culture trait, such as a new idea or practice, from an origin area