AP Human Vocab Exam Review

Absolute Location

The actual space a place occupies on the Earth's surface. (coordinates)

Acculturation

The change that occurs within a culture when it adopts a practice from another culture.

Agglomeration effects

The cost advantages (external economies) for an individual company gained by locating near similar functional industries or companies.

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture in which large corporations own and operate various steps in the production process with an emphasis on profit.

Agricultural Density

The number of people living in rural areas per unit of arable land.

Alliance

An association among countries for the purpose of mutual defense or trade.

Animism

The belief that spirits (including ancestral) live within objects such as animals, rivers, rocks, trees, and mountains.

Antecedent Boundary

A boundary placed before the cultural landscape was developed.

Artifact

Tangible piece of material culture.

Assimilation

The process in which immigrants become totally integrated into the host culture.

Backwash Effect

The negative impact to the peripheral region sometimes caused by increased flows of labor and capital into a nearby high-growth region.

Basic Sector

Goods and services produced for individuals outside the urban work area.

Bid-Rent Curve

The concept that concentric circles in Burgess's concentric zone model are based on the amount of people willing to pay for land in each zone.

Biotechnology

The application of scientific techniques to modify and improve plants, animals, and microorganisms to enhance their value.

Built Environment

The material culture of an enviornment.

Carrying Capacity

The number of people an area can support on a sustained basis.

Central Business District (CBD)

The business area found at the center of every older central city and urban area.

Central Place Theory

A theory developed by Walter Christaller that states that cities exist for economic reasons and that people gather in cities to share goods and ideas.

Centrifugal Force

A strong, divisive force, such as religious differences or a weak communications system, at work in a country.

Centripetal Force

A strong unifying force, such as a charismatic leader or nationalism, at work in a country.

Chain Migration

The part of a migrant flow (usually relatives and friends) that follows former migrants to an area.

Channelized Migration

Repetitive pattern of migration not linked to family or ethnicity (senior citizens moving to the Sun Belt).

Charter Group

The first group of settlers to establish a new and lasting culture and society in an area.

Compact State

A state that is basically round in shape, such as Poland or Lesotho.

Colonialism

A system in which a country declares control over a territory or people outside its own boundaries, usually for economic purposes.

Commodity Chain

A chain of activities from the manufacturing to the distribution of a product.

Concentric Zone Model

The model of urban land use developed by Burgess that demonstrates the invasion and succession processes that occur as the city grows and expands outward.

Confederation

A loose association of states organized for the purpose of retaining cohesion, such as the former republics of the USSR.

Congregation

An ethnic group's grouping together in a specific part of the city to support each other and minimize conflicts with the non-ethnic group(s).

Consequent Boundary

A type of subsequent boundary that is drawn to accommodate existing linguistic, cultural, or religious boundaries.

Conservation Agriculture

A modern method of farming that balances maximum crop yield with sustainable farming methods and protection of the environment.

Creative Destruction

The reinvestment of funds in new, profitable ventures and regions that were once used to fund ventures and regions that are now not as profitable.

Creole

A simplified measure of two or more languages that is adopted in areas of cultural diversity.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of babies born per 1,000 people per year.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

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

Arithmetic density

The number of people per unit of land (also called crude density).

Cultural Barrier

Hindrances to cultural diffusion that occur in a society and keep cultural traits from spreading.

Cultural Diffusion

The process in which culture is spread from one region to another.

Cultural Landscape

The unique landscape made up of all parts of a culture-both material and nonmaterial.

Culture

The cluster of traits that make a group of people unique.

Culture Region

A portion of Earth's surface occupied by populations sharing recognizable and distinctive cultural characteristics.

Culture Hearth

A place where innovations and new ideas originate and spread outward (diffuse) to other regions.

Culture Trait

A single feature of a culture, such as religion or language.

Decolonization

The process by which former colonies gain their independence from the mother country.

Deindustrialization

The reduction in industrial activity that occurs when decreased profits and declining business cause a reduction in industrial employment.

Demographic Transition Model

A model that shows the link between population growth and economic development using four or five stages of economic development.

Demography

The scientific study of population characteristics.

Density

The number of an item per unit of area.

Dependency Ratio

The ratio of people under age 15 and those 65 and older to those age 15 to 65.

Dependency Theory

A theory of economic development proposed by Andre Gunder Frank based on the periphery's dependence on the core.

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Developed Countries (DCs)

Countries such as the United States, Germany, and Australia that have the highest levels of economic development.

Developmentalism

The idea that every country and region will eventually make economic progress toward a high level of mass consumption if they compete to the best of their ability within the world economy.

Devolution

The breakdown of central authority in a country.

Distance Decay

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

Distribution

The array of items on Earth's surface. All spatial distributions have density, dispersion, and some type of pattern.

Domino Theory

The theory prevalent during the Cold War Era that once a country became communist, its neighbors were likely to also become communist in the near future.

Doubling Time

The length of time it takes for a country's population to double in size if the growth rate stays the same.

Dialect

A speech variant of a language, which reflects the local region in which it is spoken.

Ecumene

The part of Earth that is inhabited by humans.

Edge City

A new urban complex that consists of a large node of office buildings and commercial operations with more workers than residents.

Elongated State

A state that is long and narrow, such as Vietnam or Chile.

Enclave

A piece of territory completely surrounded by another territory if which it is not a part. (Lesotho)

Environmental Determinism

The theory that human behavior is controlled by the physical environment.

Ethnic Enclave

A residential community where the residents either voluntarily live, or are forced to live, in a segregated fashion due to race, religion, or ethnicity.

Ethnic Island

A small ethnic settlement centered n the middle of a larger group of the population.

Ethnic Religion

A religion that is a part of a particular ethnic or political group (Judaism).

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own ethnic group is superior to all others.

Exclave

An outlier, or piece of territory, that is completely enclosed within the borders of another territory. (Kaliningrad)

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Am expanse of water up to 200 nautical miles off a country's coast that is designated for that countries natural resource exploration and exploitation.

Export-Processing Zones (EPZs)

Small areas of a country with exceptional investment and trading conditions that are created by its government to stimulate and attract foreign investors and business.

Federal State

A type of government that gives local political unites such as states or provinces within a country a measure of power.

First Agricultural Revolution

The domestication of plants and animals and the resulting start of a sedentary society. (Also called the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution)

First Effective Settlement

The first group (charter group) of settlers who establish a new and lasting culture and society in an area. (Jamestown)

Fixed Cost

The cost of land, plant, and machinery that is not variable.

Folk Culture

A homogeneous group of people with a strong family structure who follow a simple, traditional lifestyle of self-sufficiency and independence from the society's cultural mainstream.

Footloose Firms

Firms that produce something that requires minimal transport costs.

Fordism

The process (named after Henry Ford, its founder) of using assembly-line techniques and scientific management in manufacturing.

Formal Region

An area within which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics.

Forward Capital

A capital city that is located away from the core region for economic or political reasons in a symbolic gesture.

Fragmented State

A state that has two or more areas of territory separated by another country.

Functional Region

An area organized around a node or focal point. Also called nodal region.

Gateway City

A city that served as the control center for a former colonial power.

Gentrification

The process of renovating an older, run-down neighborhood near the center city by middle-class and high income families.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

Gerrymandering

The process of redrawing territorial district boundaries to favor a certain political party.

Ghetto

An ethnic enclave where the residents live segregated (separated) by race, religion, or ethnicity in a voluntary or sometimes, forced, manner.

Ghettoization

The concentration of a certain group of residents in a certain residential area against their will through legal means or social discrimination.

Globalization

The increasing interconnection of all regions in the world through politics, communication, transportation, marketing, manufacturing, and social and cultural processes.

GMO (Genetically Modified Organism)

An organism that is created when scientists take one or more specific genes from an organism and introduce them to another organism thus creating a new version.

Gravity Model

A law of spatial interaction that states that larger places attract people, ideas, and goods more strongly than smaller places.

Green Revolution

The development and transfer from the developed world to the developing world, of higher-yield and fast-growing crops through new and improved technology, pesticides, and fertilizers, for the purpose of alleviating world hunger.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The approximate value of all final goods and services produced in a country per year.

Gross National Product (GNP)

The GDP plus the value of income from abroad such as earnings from a US company based abroad.

Growth Pole

An urban center deliberately placed by a country's government to stimulate economic growth in the hinterland.

Heartland-Rimland Theory

Halford Macknider's theory that the country that dominated the landmass of Eurasia (heartland) would eventually rule the world (rimland).

Hierarchical Diffusion

The diffusion of a cultural trait, such as language or religion, from those in power downwards to others in a society.

Hinterlands

The surrounding trade area of an urban area.

Host Society

The dominant culture group in an area receiving a minority group.

Human Capital Theory of Migration

The migration theory that states that educated workers often migrate from poor countries to wealthy countries seeking better-paying jobs.