AP Human Geography - Vocab Quiz 2 Unit 3

For Mrs. Yi's class :)

Animism

The belief that non living objects, such as rivers or mountains, possess spirits.

Autonomous Religion

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

Branch

Large and fundamental division within a religion.

Caste System

System in India that gives every Indian a particular place in social hierarchy from birth.

Cosmogony

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

Denomination

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

Ethnic Religion

Belief traditions that emphasize strong cultural characteristics among their followers.

Fundamentalism

Strict adherence to basic principles of a religion.

Hierarchical Religion

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

Ghetto

Area of poverty occupied by a minority group as a result of discrimination.

Missionaries

Individuals who help to diffuse a universalizing religion.

Monotheism

Belief in a single god.

Pagan

Followers of polytheistic religions in ancient times.

Pilgrimage

A religious journey taken by a person to a sacred place of his or her religion.

Polytheism

Belief in multiple gods.

Sect

A relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination.

Sharia Law

Legal framework of a country derived from Islamic edicts taken from the holy book.

Universalizing Religion

Actively seeks converts to its faith regardless of their ethnic backgrounds.

Apartheid

Laws in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Balkanization

Fragmentation of a state or region into smaller, often hostile, units along etho-linguistic lines.

Blockbusting

When people of an ethnic group sold their homes upon learning that members of another ethnic group were moving into the neighborhood.

Centrifugal Force

Those that divide a group of people or a region.

Centripetal Force

Those that unify a group of people or a region.

Ethnic Cleansing

A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent or terror inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from a certain geographic areas.

Multi-Ethnic State

A state that contains more than one ethnicity.

Multinational State

Country that contains more than one nation.

Nationalism

A sense of national pride and acceptance of national goals.

Nationality

Based on people’s connection to a particular country.

Nation-State

A nation of people who fulfill the qualifications of a state.

Racism

The belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities.

Self-Determination

Right of a group to choose their own political status and governance.

“Separate But Equal”

Legal doctrine in the US that justified racial segregation.

Triangular Slave Trade

A practice in which European ships transported slaves from Africa to Caribbean Islands, molasses from Caribbean to Europe and goods from Europe to Africa.

Blue Laws

Laws that restrict certain activities, such as the sale of alcohol, on Sunday.

Buddhism

This religion is founded by Siddhartha Gautama and explained the way to salvation through self-discipline and poverty,

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Colonialism

Physical process whereby the colonizer takes over another place, putting its own government in charge and either moving its own people into the place or bringing in indentured outsiders to gain control of the people and the land.

Diaspora

When a group of people are scattered to various locations.

Ethnic Neighborhood

An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background.

Ethnic Separatism

Advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental, gender separation from the larger group.

Ethnic Nationalism

A form of nationalism wherein the “nation” is defined in terms of ethnicity.

Ethnocentrism

The belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group.

Genocide

A premeditated effort kill everyone from a particular ethnic group.

Hinduism

One of the oldest religions in the modern world, dating back over 4000 years, and originated in the Indus River Valley. Unique among the World’s religions in that it does not have a single founder, single theology, or agreement on its origin.

Imperialism

The policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas.

Indigenous communities

Ethnic groups who are the original settlers of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied, or colonized the area more recently.

Islam

The monotheistic religion of Muslims founded in Arabia in the 7th Century and based on the teachings of Muhammad as laid down in the Koran. Approximately 1.3 Billion people practice this religion which means “submission to the will of God”.

Judaism

The monotheistic religion of the Jews having its spiritual and ethnic principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people.

Karma

Idea that behaviors have consequences in the present life or a future life.

Multistate Nation

An ethnicity that is dispersed throughout several countries.

Nation

A culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future who relate to a territory and have political goals (ranging from autonomy to statehood).

Neo Colonialism

The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.

Sequent Occupancy

The succession of groups and cultural influences throughout a place’s history.

Shaman

The single person who takes on the roles of a priest, counselor and physician, and acts as a conduit to the supernatural world in a shamanist culture.

Sikhism

The doctrines of a monotheistic religion founded in Northern India in the 16th century by Guru Nanak and combining elements of Hinduism and Islam.

State

A politically organized territory that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community.

Stateless Nation

A group of people with a common culture occupying a particular territory that does not operate as an independent political unit with a defined, permanently populated territory and has no sovereign control over its internal and foreign affairs. Essentially, it refers to a people without a state.

Theocracies

Governments that are run by religious leaders through the use of religious laws.

Zionism

Movement to create a Jewish nation (homeland) in the Middle East. 

Distribution

Pattern of human settlement- the spread of people across the Earth.

Diffusion

The spread of information, ideas, behaviors, and other aspects of culture from their hearths to wider areas.

Connections

Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Sense of Place

Humans tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their personal beliefs.