AP Human Geography Unit 5 Notes: How Agriculture Began, Spread, and Shaped Rural Landscapes

Agriculture

The purposeful cultivation of plants and raising of animals for food, fiber, fuel, and other products, characterized by intentional human control to increase reliability and yield.

Hunting and gathering

A food-getting strategy based on collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals, generally supporting smaller populations because it depends on natural ecosystems rather than intensifying production.

Cultural landscape

The visible imprint of human activity on the land; in agriculture this includes fields, boundaries, terraces, irrigation canals, farm roads, storage/processing buildings, and settlement forms.

Subsistence agriculture

Farming primarily to feed the farmer’s household and local community; may sell limited surplus, but the main goal is food security rather than profit.

Commercial agriculture

Farming primarily to sell products for profit; typically linked to regional/global markets and often involves specialization, mechanization, and agribusiness systems.

Intensive agriculture

Agriculture using high inputs per unit of land (labor, fertilizer, irrigation, technology) to produce high yields on relatively small areas; can be labor-intensive, not just machine-based.

Extensive agriculture

Agriculture using fewer inputs per unit of land and spreading production over large areas (e.g., large-scale ranching or broad-acre grain farming).

Pastoralism

A form of agriculture focused on raising livestock (e.g., cattle, sheep, goats, camels), often adapted to dry, mountainous, or marginal environments where crops are difficult to grow.

Nomadic pastoralism

A pastoral system in which herders move with their animals to follow seasonal pastures rather than staying in one permanent location.

Transhumance

A pastoral system involving regular, seasonal movement of livestock between summer and winter pastures.

Dispersed settlement

A rural settlement pattern in which farmhouses are spread out across the countryside, often on individual land parcels; commonly associated with private holdings and mechanized farming.

Nucleated settlement

A rural settlement pattern in which homes are clustered in a village, with fields extending outward; often linked to cooperation needs, shared/open-field traditions, or historical defense/social factors.

Metes and bounds

A land survey system defining property boundaries using natural features (rivers, trees, ridgelines) and human-made markers, usually producing irregular parcel shapes that can shift as features change.

Township and range (rectangular survey system)

A planned land division system that uses straight lines to create a grid of rectangular parcels; roads and property lines often align with the grid (common in parts of the U.S. Midwest).

Long-lot survey system

A land division system creating long, narrow parcels extending back from a river, road, or canal so each landowner has frontage/access to a key transportation route.

Neolithic Agricultural Revolution

The long transition (beginning roughly 10,000–12,000 years ago in multiple regions) from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture and domestication, enabling food surpluses and permanent settlements.

Independent hearths of domestication

Multiple origin regions where different societies domesticated plants/animals independently (without copying), such as Southwest Asia, East/Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mesoamerica, and Andean South America.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of agricultural practices through the movement of people who bring seeds/animals/knowledge to a new area and adapt farming to local conditions.

Contagious diffusion

The spread of agricultural practices through direct contact from neighbor to neighbor, often expanding outward across adjacent areas.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of agricultural innovations through nodes of power or influence (e.g., governments, wealthy landowners, major cities) and then outward to others.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of the idea of a practice while adapting it into a new form (e.g., adopting farming but changing crops/techniques to fit local environments).

Columbian Exchange

The post-1492 transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Americas and the Eastern Hemisphere, reshaping diets, economies, and agricultural landscapes globally.

Second Agricultural Revolution

A period of major agricultural changes (especially in parts of Europe) that increased productivity and supported urbanization, linked to innovations (e.g., improved rotations, selective breeding, tools/mechanization) and land-tenure change.

Crop rotation

A soil-management practice of changing which crops are grown in a field over time to reduce nutrient depletion, limit pests/diseases, and maintain or improve long-term yields.

Enclosure movement

A land-tenure change (notably in England) consolidating scattered strips and common lands into larger privately controlled farms, increasing efficiency/investment but often displacing small farmers and encouraging rural-to-urban migration.