AP Human Geography Unit 3 - Key Terms

Acculturation

When a people in a culture adopt some traits of another culture while they simultaneously maintain their own cultural traits.

Assimilation

When people assume almost all of the characteristics of the culture around them. Can be forced or voluntary.

Centrifugal Forces

Factors (like language, religion, ethnicity) that drive people apart.

Centripetal Forces

Factors (like language, religion, ethnicity) that bring people together.

Colonialism

When one powerful state establishes a settlement in another place for the purpose of economic or political gain.

Contagious Diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion where a cultural trait spreads rapidly to adjacent populations without regard for class, race, or other cultural categories.

Creolization

Occurs when two languages are combined to form a new, distinct language.

Cultural Convergence

The process where two or more cultures interact and adopt one another's traits and ideas, causing them to become more similar.

Cultural Diffusion

The process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another.

Cultural Divergence

The process where cultures become more distinct, often in reaction to globalizing forces.

Cultural Hearth

The place where people of particular ethnic and cultural identities originate.

Cultural Landscape

How people modify a physical landscape in a way that reflects their culture.

Cultural Relativism

The evaluation of another culture by that culture's own standards.

Cultural Traits

The shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors passed down by a society; observable elements like language, clothing, food preferences, architecture, etc.

Culture

The shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors passed down by a society.

Dialect

A unique way of speaking a particular language.

Ethnic Neighborhood

A concentrated area where migrants of the same ethnicity find each other and live together, shaping the landscape according to their cultural values.

Ethnic Religions

Religions that are tied very closely to particular ethnic groups in particular regions and do not spread easily. (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism)

Ethnicity

The cultural traits that a group shares that distinguish them from other groups.

Ethnocentrism

The evaluation of another culture by a group's own cultural standards, often leading to the view that one's own culture is superior.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a cultural trait itself while the people to whom it belongs remain in their cultural hearth.

Globalization

The increasing interweaving and growing dependence of peoples throughout the world on each other economically, politically, and socially.

Hierarchical Diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion describing a top-down spread of a cultural trait, originating in a person, group, or place of power.

Imperialism

When a powerful state enacts policies to extend power over another place.

Language Branch

A category of languages that developed from the same language family, sharing similarities in grammar and syntax.

Language Family

The largest categorization of related languages, which all share a common ancestral language that no longer exists.

Lingua Franca

A single language adopted by many people of different languages that facilitates communication.

Multiculturalism

When members of a cultural group don't fully assimilate but still maintain their own cultural identities while other groups around them do the same.

Placelessness

A sense that a location is generic and could be anywhere, often resulting from industrial or economic activity (e.g., a corner with a gas station and a McDonald's).

Placemaking

The act of modifying a landscape to live in a place.

Post-modern Architecture

An architectural style that arose in the 1960s emphasizing form over function, making it more culturally expressive.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits as people migrate or relocate.

Sense of Place

The meaning and feeling with which people think about a place.

Sequent Occupance

The cultural marks left on the landscape by each group of people that have occupied a place over the course of history.

Stimulus Diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion where an original cultural trait does not itself spread but inspires or stimulates the creation or innovation of a new but related cultural trait.

Syncretism

When two or more cultural traits blend together to create a new cultural trait.

Time-Space Compression

The idea that the world is "shrinking" as a result of advancements in technology and communication.

Time-Space Convergence

The phenomenon where the time it takes to travel between two places is significantly shortened due to advances in transportation technology, making cultures less distinct.

Toponyms

The name of a place.

Traditional Architecture

Buildings constructed with local materials available that reflect the needs of the local people.

Universalizing Religions

Religions that appeal to people of a wide variety of cultures and lend themselves to diffusion. (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism)

Urbanization

The movement of people from rural areas into cities.

Xenophobia

A fear or a dislike of foreigners who possess different cultural traits.