AP Human Geography: Key Concepts and Theories Review

Environmental determinism

A nineteenth and early twentieth-century approach to the study of geography which argues that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical science.

Place

A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.

Toponym

The name of a place.

Site

The physical character of the place.

Situation

Relative location; where it is situated.

Mathematical location

Absolute location.

Definition of Human Geography

Where and why human activities are located where they are.

Relative location

The location of a place relative to another place.

Absolute location

The description of the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude.

Time Zones

Latitude lines are the east-west lines on the graph and every hour in difference is 15 degrees.

Greenwich Mean Time

The local mean time at the prime meridian.

GPS

Global Positioning System; a system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.

Latitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.

Longitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian.

Hearth

A place from which an innovation originates.

Distance Decay

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

Diffusion

The process by which a feature spreads across space from one place to another over time.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one to another.

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons of nodes of authority or power to another person or places.

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

Centripetal force

A cultural value that tends to unify people.

Centrifugal force

A cultural value that tends to pull people apart.

Indo-European language family

Includes branches such as Indo-Iranian, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, and Romance.

Standard language

The form of a language used for official government, business, education, and mass communication.

Official language

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

Hinduism

3rd largest religion in the world, polytheistic, no founding prophet, no one holy book, and caste system.

Christianity

Founded upon the teachings of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem.

Islam

The prophet of Islam is Muhammad.

Buddhism

The founder of Buddhism is Siddartha Gautama.

Universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Ethnic religion

A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location.

Animism

The belief that objects or natural events have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Polytheism

The belief in or worship of more than one God.

Lingua franca

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

Hearth of Islam

Mecca is the pillar of Islam; Five pillars of Islam include belief in one God (Allah), praying 5 times a day, fasting during Ramadan, giving to the poor, and pilgrimage to Mecca.

Jerusalem

Judaism's holiest city; the most important Muslim structure in Jerusalem is the Dome of the Rock.

Russian language

The most widely used Slavic language, spoken by more than 80 percent of the Russian people.

Language family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

Language branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that can be confirmed through archeological evidence.

Language group

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and displays relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Most spoken language

Most spoken language in the world is Mandarin, second is Wu, and third is Yve.

Religion in Latin America vs. North America

Around 90% of Latin Americans and more than 70% of North Americans identify themselves as adhering to Christianity.

Sunnis

Comprise 88 percent of Muslims and are the most numerous branch in most Muslim countries in Southwest Asia & North Africa, as well as in Southeast Asia.

Shiites

The largest branch in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. Nearly 40 percent of all Shiites live in Iran, 15 percent in Pakistan, 12 percent in India, and 10 percent in Iraq.

Kurds

The Kurds are divided among several countries in western Asia, areas comprising parts of eastern Turkey, western Iran, and northern Syria and Iraq.

Balkanization

The process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.

Sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Arithmetic density

The total number of people divided by the total land area.

Physiological density

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

Agricultural density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of arable land.

Demographic Transition

The process of change in a society's population from a condition of high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population.

Natural increase rate

The percentage growth of a population in a year (CBR-CDR).

Dependency ratio

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

Total Fertility Rate

The average of children that a woman would have in her childbearing years in a lifetime.

General Fertility Rate

In 1 year how many women in the fecund range would have a child.

Fecund range

The childbearing years which is 15 to 49 years old.

Thomas Malthus theory

The population was growing much more rapidly than Earth's food supply because increased geometrically, whereas food supply increased arithmetically.

Replacement rate

Replacement rate is 2.1 and above is growth and lower is decreasing.

Brain drain

Large-scale emigration by talented people.

Compact state

A state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly; efficient; circle.

Elongated state

A state with a long, narrow shape; potential isolation.

Prorupted state

An otherwise compact state with a large projecting extension; access or disruption.

Perforated state

A state that completely surrounds another one.

Fragmented state

A state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory; problematic.

Landlocked states

States that do not have a direct outlet to the sea.

Enclave

A state, or part of a state, surrounded completely by another state.

Exclave

When an enclave is land that is a political extension of another state.

Supranationalism

The growing trend of three or more countries forming an alliance for cultural, economic, or military reasons.

Devolution

The process of transferring some power from the central government to regional government.

Federal states

An internal organization of a state that allocates most powers to units of local government.

Unitary states

An internal organization of a state that places most power in the hands of central government officials.

Stateless nation

A group of people with a common culture occupying a particular territory that does not operate as an independent political unit.