Unit 3 AP Human Geography Key Terms

culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

custom

a repetitive act of a group performed to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group

habit

A repetitive act performed by a particular individual

culture complex

A collection of social customs that are performed by a group of people

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process, and staying strong in their places of origin

Heirachical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places

Contagious Diffusion

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

Folk Culture

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

popular culture

Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.

Menifact

Customary beliefs, things you believe and care about

Artifact

physical objects of culture

Sociofact

Behaviors/social forms that people contain

adaptive

The way humans adapt to the physical and cultural landscape they are living in

Maladaptive

an 'action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or social groups.

Acculturation

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

Assimilation

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

culture region

An area in which people have many shared culture traits

culture realm

A cluster of regions in which related culture systems prevail,

Taboo

a restriction of behavior imposed by social customs

cultural hearth

cultures spread outward, carried by people involved in trade, travel, conquest or immigration

Globalization

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

Ecotourism

responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of the local people

Culturual landscape

they link culture to the physical environments in which people live

sequent occupance

The current cultural landscape of a region, as a combination of all the cultures which have 'sequentially' occupied the region from the past to the present. In other words, a region may be occupied by one civilization, followed by another which took its place, and so on. However, the cultural imprint of each civilization is never completely lost, and its traces can be seen to the present day.

Core-Domain-Sphere

a model that shows the place where the concentration of culture traits that characterize a region is the greatest

official language

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

Dialect

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

Isogloss

borders of individual word usages or pronunciations

langauge family

a group of different languages that all descend from a particular common language

Langauge Branch

a collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago

monolingual state

countries or places in which only one language is spoken

bilingual/multilingual state

being able or knowing how to use more tha none language

linguistic heterogeneity

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

extinct language

a language that was once used daily but is no longer in use

Revived Language

a language that was once extinct being brought back into society

Isolated Language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.

Indo-European Family

the lanague family that includes all European languages

Agriculture Theory

deals with both the location-allocation process of land used by farmers and the spatial organization of agricultural land use

conquest theory

One major theory of how Proto-Indo-European diffused into Europe which holds that the early speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread westward

Pidgin

A simplified form of speech developed from two or more languages

Creole

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

lingua franca

a language that speaks over a wide area where it is not the mother tongue

Franglais/Spanglish/Chinglish

new languages are created by mixing a language with English
Franglais = French + English
Spanglish = Spanish + English (ex: verb textear)
Chinglish = Chinese + English

material culture

anything that can be physically seen on the landscape

nonmaterial culture

Anything on the landscape that comprises culture that cannot be physically touched

Universalizing Religion

Offer belief systems that are attractive to the universal population

ethnic religion

a religion that is particular to one culturally distinct group of people

branch

largest and most fundamental division within a religion

Denomination

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body.

sect

a religious group that is a subset of a religion or denomination, these groups typically share the same beliefs with the religion, but with important differences

Monotheism

Belief in one God

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Animism

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

Pilgrimage

voluntary travel by an adherent to a sacred site to pay respects or participate in a ritual at the site

Hajj

The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam

Tirtha

Place of crossing over between the transcendent world and our world. Point of meditation between two realms. Pilgrimages are made to tirthas.

Cosmogony

A set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe.

Autonomous religion

A religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates informally.

Hierarchial Religion

A religion in which a central authority exercises a high degree of control.

Fundamentalism

strict interpretation of holy text: found mostly in pre-industrial societies

Law of Sharia

The legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles

syncretic religion

religion adapts to new area by incorporating key tenets of local faith

Secularism

ethics without organized religions: found mostly in post-industrial societies

toponymy

the study of place names

Interfaith boundary

the boundaries between the world's major faiths

Intrafaith boundary

The boundaries within a major religion.

Diaspora

a community of people who are dispersed throughout the world, but retain their cultural, religious, or ethnic differences

sacred space

a place that is considered holy to certain people