Illegal housing settlements, usually made up of temporary shelters, that surround large cities; often referred to as squatter settlements. (Chapter 10)

basic sector

/Those products or services of an urban economy that are exported outside the city itself, earning income for the community.

behavioral assimilation (cultural assimilation)

/The process of integration into a common cultural life through acquisition of the sentiments, attitudes, and experiences of other groups.

birthrate (birth rate)

Number of births in one year per 1000 persons in the population./The ratio of the number of live births during one year to the total population, usually at the midpoint of the same year, expressed as the number of births per year per 1000 population. (Chapter 2)

beneficiation

/The enrichment of low-grade ores through concentration and other processes to reduce their waste content and increase their transferability.

bilingualism

/Describing a society's use of two official languages.

biomass

/The total dry weight of all living organisms within a unit area; plant or animal matter that can in any way be used as a source of energy.

biome

/A major ecological community, including plants and animals, occupying an extensive Earth area.

biosphere (ecosphere)

/The thin film of air, water, and earth within which we live, including the atmosphere, surrounding and subsurface waters, and the upper reaches of the Earth's crust.

birthrate

Also called natality.  The ratio of total live births to total population over a specified period of time. The birthrate is often expressed as the number of live births per 1,000 of the population per year.  Links: Dictionary of Sociology | crude birth rate | CIA World Factbook | exponential growth | World Birth-Rate

Buddhism

The religion represented by the many groups, especially numerous in Asia, that profess varying forms of this doctrine and that venerate Buddha.

buffer state

An independent but small and weak country lying between two powerful countries. (Chapter 4)

bulk-gaining product

A product in which volume is added to the raw materials in the manufacturing process. (Chapter 12)

built environment

/That part of the physical landscape that represents material culture; the buildings, roads, bridges, and similar structures large and small of the cultural landscape.

C

cadestral pattern/cadastral survey

The shapes formed by property borders; the pattern of land ownership. (Chapter 3)

capital

A town or city that is the official seat of government in a political entity, such as a state or nation.  Links: What is the capital city of ...? | Capitals.com | About.com (capital)

Carl Ritter

See Ritter, Carl

Carl O Sauer

See Sauer, Carl

carrying capacity

/The maximum population numbers that an area can support on a continuing basis without experiencing unacceptable deterioration; for humans, the numbers supportable by an area's known and used resources -- usually agricultural ones.

cartogram

/A map that has been simplified to present a single idea in a diagrammatic way; the base is not normally true to scale.

caste

/One of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that determine one's occupation and position in society.

CBD

/The central business district of a city. (Chapter 11)

cenote

A water-filled limestone sinkhole of the Yucatán.  Links: cenotes | cenote formation | cenote | Sacred Cenote of Chichén ltzá

Small districts used by the United States Census Bureau to survey the population. (Chapter 11)

central business district (CBD)

/The nucleus or "downtown" of a city, where retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated, mass transit systems converge, and land values and building densities are high.

central city

/That part of the metropolitan area contained within the boundaries of the main city around which suburbs have developed.

centralizing forces

Diffusion forces that encourage people or business to locate in the central city. (Chapter 11)

central place

A town or city engaged primarily in the service stages of production; a regional center./An urban or other settlement node whose primary function is to provide goods and services to the consuming population of its hinterland, complementary region, or trade area. (Chapter 10)

central-place theory

A set of models designed to explain the spatial distribution of service urban centers./A deductive theory formulated by Walter Christaller (1893-1969) to explain the size and distribution of settlements through reference to competitive supply of goods and services to dispersed rural populations. (Chapter 10)

centrifugal force

Any factor that disrupts the internal order of a country./In urban geography, economic and social forces pushing households and businesses outward from central and inner-city locations.  In political geography, forces of disruption and dissolution threatening the unity of a state. (Chapter 4)

centripetal force

Any factor that supports the internal unity of a country./In urban geography, a force attracting establishments or activities to the city center.  In political geography, forces tending to bind together the citizens of a state. (Chapter 4)

chain migration

 The tendency of people to migrate along channels, over a period of time from specific source areas to specific destinations./The process by which migration movements from a common home area to a specific destination are sustained by links of friendship or kinship between first movers and later followers. (Chapter 9)

channelized migration

/The tendency for migration to flow between areas that are socially and economically allied by past migration patterns, by economic and trade connections, or by some other affinity.

charter group

/In plural societies, the early arriving ethnic group that created the first effective settlement and established the recognized cultural norms to which other, later groups are expected to conform.

checkerboard development

A mixture of farmlands and housing tracts. (Chapter 11)

chlorofluorocarbons (CFOs)

/A family of synthetic chemicals that have significant commercial applications but whose emissions are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer.

choropleth map

/A thematic map presenting spatial data as average values per unit area.

Christaller, Walter

/Walter Christaller (1893-1969), German geographer credited with developing central place theory (1933).

Christianity

/A monotheistic, universalizing religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and of the Bible as sacred scripture.

circular and cumulative causation

/A process through which tendencies for economic growth are self-reinforcing; an expression of the multiplier effect, it tends to favor major cities and core regions over less-advantaged peripheral regions.

city

/A multifunctional nucleated settlement with a central business district and both residential and nonresidential land uses.

cleavage model

Political geographical model suggesting that persistent regional patterns in voting behavior, sometimes leading to separatism, can usually be explained in terms of tensions pitting urban versus rural, core versus periphery, capitalists versus workers, and power-group versus minority culture. (Chapter 4)

climate

/A summary of weather conditions in a place or region over a period of time.

clustered (agglomerated) settlement

The houses here are compact having narrow, winding streets separating the two rows of houses. Sometimes such settlements have a definite layout plan which may be linear rectangular, L-shaped or shapeless. Links: Nodes and hierarchies | Tenacious Cities | India

cluster migration

/A pattern of movement and settlement resulting from the collective action of a distinctive social or ethnic group.

cognitive map

/See mental map.

cohort

/A population group unified by a specific common characteristic, such as age, and subsequently treated as a statistical unit during their lifetimes.

collective farm

/In the former Soviet planned economy, the cooperative operation of an agricultural enterprise under state control of production and market, but without full status or support as a state enterprise.

colonial city

A city founded by colonialism, or an indigenous city whose structure was deeply influenced by Western colonialism. (Chapter 10)

colony

/In ethnic geography, an urban ethnic area serving as point of entry and temporary acculturation zone for a specific immigrant group.

commercial economy

/A system of production of goods and services fro exchange in competitive markets where price and availability are determined by supply and demand forces.

compact state

/A state whose territory is nearly circular.

comparative advantage

/The principle that an area produces the items for which it has the greatest ratio of advantage or the least ratio of disadvantage in comparison to other areas, assuming free trade exists.

complementarity

/The actual or potential relationship of two places or regions that each produce different goods or services for which the other has an effective demand, resulting in an exchange between the locales.

complementary region

/The area served by a central place.

concentration

/In spatial distributions, the clustering of a phenomenon around a central location.

concentric zone model

A social model that depicts a city as five areas bounded by five concentric rings. /A model describing urban land uses as a series of circular belts or rings around a core central business district, each ring housing a distinct type of land use. (Chapter 11)

conformal projection

/A map projection that retains correct shapes of small areas; lines of latitude and longitude cross at right angles and scale is the same in all directions at any point in the map.

confomality

/The map property of correct angles and shapes of small areas.

Confuciansim

/A Chinese value system and ethnic religion emphasizing ethics, social morality, tradition, and ancestor worship.

conic projection

/A map projection employing a cone placed tangent or secant to the globe as the presumed developable surface.

connectivity

/The directness of routes linking pairs of places; an indication of the degree of internal connection in a transport network.  More generally, all of the tangible and intangible means of connection and communication between places.

consequent boundary (ethnic boundary)

/A boundary line that coincides with some cultural divide, such as religion or language.

conservation

/The wise use or preservation of natural resources so as to maintain supplies and qualities at levels sufficient to meet present and future needs.

contact conversion

 The spread of religious beliefs by personal contact. (Chapter 6)

containment

/A guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War period: to prevent or restrict the expansion of the Soviet Union's influence or control beyond its then existing limits.

contagious diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion; the spread of cultural innovation by person-to-person contact, moving wavelike through an area and population without regard to social status./A form of expansion diffusion that depends on direct contact.  The process of dispersion is centrifugal, strongly influenced by distance, and dependent on interaction between actual and potential adopters of the innovation.  Its name derives from the pattern of spread of contagious diseases. (Chapter 1)

continent

One of the principal land masses of the earth, usually regarded as including Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Links: About.com (continent)

continental shelf

/A gently sloping seaward extension of the landmass found off the coasts of many continents; its outer margin is market by a transition to the ocean depths at about 200 meters (660 feet).

conurbation

/A continuous, extended urban area formed by the growing together of several formerly separate, expanding cities.

convergence hypothesis

A hypothesis holding that cultural differences between places are being reduced by improved transportation and communications systems, leading to a homogenization of popular culture. (Chapter 8)

Convention on the Law of the Sea

/See United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

core area

The territorial nucleus from which a country grows in area and through time, often containing the national capital and the main center of commerce, culture, and industry./In economic geography, a "core region," the national or world districts of concentrated economic power, wealth, innovation, and advanced technology.  In political geography, the heartland or nucleus of a state containing its most developed area, greatest wealth, densest populations, and clearest national identity. (Chapter 4)

core-periphery

A concept based on the tendency of both formal and functional culture regions to consist of a core or node, in which defining traits are purest or functions are headquartered, and a periphery that is tributary and displays fewer of the defining traits. (Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 12)

core-periphery model

/A model of the spatial structure of an economic system in which underdeveloped or declining peripheral areas are defined with respect to their dependence on a dominating core region.

core region

/See core area.

cosmomagical

 A type of city that is laid out in accordance with religious principles; characteristics of very early cities, particularly in China. (Chapter 10)

cottage industry

A traditional type of manufacturing in the preindustrial revolution era, practiced on a small scale in individual rural households as a part-time occupation and designed to produce handmade goods for local consumption. (Chapter 12)

counter migration (return migration)

/The return of migrants to the regions from which they earlier emigrated.

country

A nation or state. /See state.

Links: About.com (country)

creole

/A language developed from a pidgin to become the native tongue of a society.

critical distance

/The distance beyond which cost, effort, and/or means play a determining role in the willingness of people to travel.

crop rotation

/The annual alteration of crops that make differential demands on or contributions to soil fertility.

crop rotation

/The annual alteration of crops that make differential demands on or contribute to soil fertility.

crude birth rate (CBR)

/See birth rate.

crude death rate (CDR)

/See death rate.

crude density (arithmetic density)

/The number of people per unit area of land.

cultural adaptation

The concept, central to cultural ecology, that culture is the uniquely human method of meeting physical environmental challenges -- that culture is an adaptive system. (Chapters 1, 9) Links: cultural adaptation | stages of cultural adaptation | cultural adaptation

cultural assimilation

/See behavioral assimilation.

cultural convergence

/The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly use technology and organizational structures in the modern world united by improved transportation and communication.

cultural determinism

The viewpoint that the immediate causes of all cultural phenomena are other cultural phenomena. (Chapter 1)

cultural diffusion

The spread of elements of culture from the point of origin over an area. (Chapter 1)

cultural divergence

/The likelihood or tendency for cultures to become increasingly dissimilar with the passage of time.

cultural ecology

Broadly defined, the study of the relationships between the physical environment and culture; narrowly (and more commonly) defined, the study of culture as an adaptive system serving to facilitate human adaptation to nature and environmental change. (Chapter 1)  /The study of the interactions between societies and the natural environments they occupy.  Links: Cultural Ecology and it's critics | Cultural Ecology | The Cultural Ecology Specialty Group | Cultural Ecology

cultural geography

The description and explanation of spatial patterns and ecological relationships in human culture./A branch of systematic geography that focuses on culturally determined human activities, the impact of material and nonmaterial human culture on the environment, and the human organization of space. (Chapter 1)

cultural integration

The relationship of different elements within a culture./The interconnectedness of all aspects of a culture, no part can be altered without creating an impact on other components of the culture. (Chapter 1)

cultural lag

/The retention of established cultural traits despite changing circumstances rendering them inappropriate.

cultural landscape

he artificial landscape; the visible human imprint on the land. The natural landscape as modified by human activities and bearing the imprint of a culture group or society, the built environment. (Chapter 1)

culture region

An area occupied by people who have something in common culturally; or a spatial unit that functions politically, socially, or economically as a distinct entity./A formal or functional region within which common cultural characteristics prevail.  It may be based on single culture traits, on culture complexes, or on political, social, or economic integration. (Chapter 1)

culture system

/A generalization suggesting shared, identifying traits uniting two or more culture complexes.

culture trait

/A single distinguishing feature of regular occurrence within a culture, such as the use of chopsticks or the observance of a particular caste system.  A single element of learned behavior.

cumulative causation

/See circular and cumulative causation.

custom

/The body of traditional practices, usages, and conventions that regulate social life.

cylindrical projection

/A map projection employing a cylinder wrapped around the globe as the presumed developable surface.

D

death control

The opposite of birth control, the ability through sanitation, nutrition and medication to reduce or limit the death rate.  Links:

death rate (mortality rate)

The number of deaths in one year per 1000 persons in the population./A mortality index usually calculated as the number of deaths per year per 1000 population.  (Chapter 2)  Links: World Factbook | Counter | per 1000 population | mortality | by state

decentralizing forces or decentralization

Diffusion forces that encourage people or businesses and industry to locate outside the central city. (Chapters 10, 11)

defensive site

An easily defended place to locate a city. (Chapter 10)

deindustrialization

Decline of primary and secondary industry, accompanied by a rise of the service sectors of the industrial economy./The cumulative and sustained decline in the contribution of manufacturing to a national economy.  (Chapters 11, 12)

demographic region

A culture region based on the characteristics of demography. (Chapter 2) Links: 

demographic transformation

A change in population growth that occurs when a nation moves from a rural, agricultural society with high birth and death rates to an urban, industrial society in which death rates decline first and birthrates decline later. (Chapter 2)

demography

The statistical study of population size, composition, distribution, and change. (Chapter 2)

density

/The quantity of anything (people, buildings, animals, traffic, etc.) per unit area.

dependency ratio

/The number of dependents, old and young, that each 100 persons in the economically productive years must on average support.

desertification

A process whereby human actions unintentionally render productive lands into deserts through agricultural and pastoral misuse, destroying vegetation and soil to the point where they cannot regenerate./Extension of desert like landscapes as a result of overgrazing, destruction of the forests, or other human-induced changes, usually in semiarid regions. (Chapter 3)

developable surface

/Projection surface (such as a plane, cone, or cylinder) that is or can be made flat without distortion.

development

/The process of growth, expansion, or realization of potential, bringing regional resources into full productive use.

devolution

/The transfer of certain powers from the state central government to separate political subdivisions within a state's territory.

dialect

A distinctive local or regional variant of a language that remains mutually intelligible to speakers of other dialects of that language; a subtype of a language./A language variant marked by vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation differences from other variants of the same common language.  When those variations are spatial or regional, they are called geographic dialects, when they are indicative of socioeconomic or educational levels, they are called social dialects. (Chapter 5)

dialect geography

/See linguistic geography.

dibble

/Any small hand tool or stick to make a hole for planting.

diffusion

/The spread or movement of a phenomenon over space or through time.  The dispersion of a culture trait or characteristic or new ideas and practices from an origin area (e.g. language, plant domestication, new industrial technology).  Recognized types include relocation, expansion, contagious, and hierarchical diffusion.

diffusion barrier

/Any condition that hinders the flow of information, the movement of people, or the spread of an innovation.

direction bias

/A statement of movement bias observing that among all possible directions of movement or flow, one or only a very few are favored and dominant.

dispersed settlement

/

dispersion

/In spatial distributions, a statement of the amount of spread of a phenomenon over area or around a central location.  Dispersion in this sense represents a continuum from clustered, concentrated, or agglomerated (at one end) to dispersed or scattered (at the other).

distance bias

/A statement of movement bias observing that short journeys or interchanges are favored over more distant ones.

distance decay

/The declining intensity of any activity, process, or function with increasing distance from its point of origin.

domesticated animals

Animals kept for some utilitarian purpose whose breeding is controlled by humans and whose survival is dependent on humans; genetically and behaviorally they differ from wild animals. (Chapter 3)

domesticated plants

Plants willfully planted and tended by humans that are genetically distinct from their wild ancestors as a result of selective breeding. (Chapter 3)

domestication

/The successful transformation of plant or animal species from a wild state to a condition of dependency on human management, usually with distinct physical change from wild forebears.

domino theory

/A geopolitics theory made part of American containment (of the former Soviet Union) policy beginning in the 1950s.  The theory maintained that if a single country fell under Soviet influence or control, its neighbors would likely follow, creating a ripple effect like a line of dominos.

double-cropping

Harvesting twice a year from the same parcel of land. (Chapter 3)

doubling time

/The time period required for any beginning total experiencing a compound growth to double in size.

dust dome

A pollution layer over a city that is thickest at the center of the city. (Chapter 11)

E

ecology

The study of the relationship between an organism and its physical environment./The scientific study of how living creatures effect each other and what determines their distribution and abundance. (Chapter 1)

economic base

/The manufacturing and service activities performed by the basic sector of a city's labor force; functions of a city performed to satisfy demands external to the city itself and, in that performance, earning income to support the urban population.

economic determinism

The social scientific belief that human behavior, including spatial or geographical attributes, is largely or wholly dictated by economic factors and motivation. (Chapter 1)

economic geography

/That branch of systematic geography concerned with how people support themselves, with the spatial patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, and with the areal variation of economic activities over the surface of the earth.

ecosphere

/See biosphere.

The functioning ecological system in which biological and cultural Homo sapiens live and interact with the physical environment; a unit through which the flow of matter or energy is traced./A population of organisms existing together in a small, relatively homogeneous area (pond, forest, small island), together with the energy, air, water, soil, and chemicals upon which it depends. (Chapter 1, Chapter 11)

A form of tourism pursued by many ecologically concerned perople, who visit regions having pristine ecosystems and, in the process, to inflict no environmental damage. (Chapter 12)

/That part of the earth's surface physically suitable for permanent human settlement; the permanently inhabited areas of the earth.

A term to describe the new urban clusters of economic activity that surround our nineteenth-century downtowns. (Chapter 10)

/The study of the geographical elements of the organization and results of elections.

/A state whose territory is long and narrow.

A city of current developing or emerging country. (Chapter 10)

A piece of territory surrounded by, but not part of, a country./A small bit of foreign territory lying within a state but not under its jurisdiction. (Chapter 4)

/Surroundings; the totality of things that in any way may affect an organism, including both physical and cultural conditions; a region characterized by a certain set of physical conditions

The school of thought based on the belief that cultures are, directly or indirectly, shaped by the physical environment, that cultures are molded by physical surroundings./The concept that people of different cultures will differently observe and interpret their environment and make different decisions about its nature, potentialities, and use. (Chapter 1)

The school of thought based on the belief that cultural attitudes shape perception of the environment, causing people of different cultures to perceived their surroundings differently and to make different decisions as a result. (Chapter 1)

/See pollution.

/The reduction of periodically high mortality rates from epidemic diseases as those diseases become essentially continual within a population that develops partial immunity to them.

/A map projection designed so that a unit area drawn anywhere on the map always represents the same area on the earth's surface.

/An imaginary east-west line that encircles the globe halfway between the North and South poles.

/A map projection showing true distances in all directions from one or two central points; all other distances are incorrect.

/In map projections, the characteristic that a unit area drawn on the map always represents the same area on the earth's surface, regardless of where drawn.  See also equal-area projections.

/The wearing away and removal of rock and soil particles from exposed surfaces by agents such as moving water, wind, or ice.

An area shared by people of similar ethnic background, who are of the same race or language. (Chapter 11)

/A small area occupied by a distinctive minority culture.

The study of the spatial and ecological aspects of ethnicity./The study of spatial distributions and interactions of ethnic groups and of the cultural characteristics on which they are based. (Chapter 9)

A group of people sharing common ancestry and cultural tradition living as a minority in a larger society./People sharing a distinctive culture, frequently based on common national origin, religion, language, or race. (Chapter 9)

A sizeable area inhabited by an ethnic minority exhibiting a strong sense of attachment to the region and often exercising some measure of political and social control over it. (Chapter 9)

A small ethnic area in the rural countryside; sometimes called a ""folk island.""/A small rural area settled by a single, distinctive ethnic group that placed its imprint on the landscape. (Chapter 9)

An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background; a voluntary segregation of urban people along ethnic lines. (Chapter 9)

/A large territory, urban and rural, dominated by or closely associated with a single ethnic group.

A religion identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group; does not seek converts./A religion identified with a particular ethnic group and largely exclusive to it.  Such a religion does not seek converts. (Chapter 6)

/Desired regional autonomy expressed by a culturally distinctive group within a larger, politically dominant culture.

Regional cultural distinctiveness that remains following the assimilation of an ethnic homeland. (Chapter 9)

/Ethnic quality; affiliation with a group whose racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics or national origins distinguish it from a larger population within which it is found.

/Conviction of the evident superiority of one's own ethnic group.

A political boundary that follows some cultural border, such as a  linguistic or religious border./See consequent boundary. (Chapter 4)

/An economic association established in 1957 by a number of Western European countries to promote free trade among members; often called the Common Market; expanded on January 1, 1995, to include 15 member states.

/The return of water from the land to the atmosphere through evaporation from the soil surface and transpiration from plants.

A piece of a country separated from the main body of it by the intervening territory of another country./A portion of a state that is separated from the main territory and surrounded by another country. (Chapter 4)

/As established in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a zone of exploitation extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) seaward from a coastal state that has exclusive mineral and fishing rights over it.

The spread of innovations within an area in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers become greater and the area of occurrence grows./The spread of ideas, behaviors, or articles through a culture area or from one culture to neighboring areas through contact and exchange of information; the dispersion leaves the phenomenon intact or intensified in its area of origin. (Chapter 1)

/A crop or livestock system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit area of land.  It may be part of either a subsistence or commercial economy.

/Primary activities involving the mining and quarrying of nonrenewable metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources.

/The practice of allowing plowed or cultivated land to remain (rest) uncropped or only partially cropped for one or more growing seasons.

The center of farm operations, containing the house, barn, sheds, and livestock pens. (Chapter 2)

A clustered rural settlement of moderate size, inhabited by people who are engaged in farming. (Chapter 2)

/A state with a two-tier system of government and a clear distinction between the powers vested in the central government and those residing in the governments of the component regional subdivisions.

The output of a system that is returned in modified form and becomes an input. (Chapter 11)

A factory-like farm, devoted to either livestock fattening or dairying; all feed is imported and no crops are grown on the farm. (Chapter 3)

feng shui (geomancy)

The Chinese art of placement. Links: Earth Mysteries | About.com (geomancy) | geomancy | Feng Shui | geomancy.net

fertility rate

/The average number of live births per 1000 women of childbearing age.

Multiuse redevelopment projects that are built around a particular setting, often one with historical association. (Chapter 11)

Multiuse redevelopment projects that are built around a particular setting, often one with historical association. (Chapter 11)

/In urban geography, a process whereby individuals of a lower-income group replace, in a portion of an urban area, residents who are of a higher-income group.

Occurs when a preadapted immigrant group establishes a viable, self-perpetuating culture in a colonization area./The influence that the characteristics of an early dominant settlement group exert on the later social and cultural geography of the area. (Chapter 9)

/An activity cost (as of investment in land, plant, and equipment) that must be met without regard to level of output; an input cost that is spatially constant.

/See terminal costs

Traditional, rural, nonpopular. (Chapter 7)

Structures built by members of a folk society or culture in a traditional manner and style, without the assistance of professional architects or blueprints, using locally available raw materials. (Chapter 7)

A small, cohesive, stable, isolated, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race; characterized by a strong family or clan structure; order maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family; little division of labor other than between the sexes; frequent and strong interpersonal relationships; and a material culture consisting mainly of handmade goods./The body of institutions, customs, dress, artifacts, collective wisdoms, and traditions of a homogeneous, isolated, largely self-sufficient, and relatively static social group. (Chapter 7)

A stronghold area with natural defensive qualities, useful in the defense of a country against invaders. (Chapter 7)

The study of the spatial patterns of elements of folklife; a branch of cultural geography. (Chapter 7)

All aspects of folk culture, including both material and non-material (folkloric) elements. (Chapter 7)

Nonmaterial folk culture; the teachings and wisdom of a folk group; the traditional tales, sayings, beliefs, and superstitions that are transmitted orally./Oral traditions of folk culture, including talks, fables, legends, customary observations, and moral teachings. (Chapter 7)

/A descriptive term applied to manufacturing activities for which the cost of transporting material or product is not important in determining location of production; and industry or firm showing neither market nor material orientation.

/The learned manner of thinking and feeling and a prescribed mode of conduct common to a traditional social group.

/A value increasing change in the form -- and therefore in the ""utility"" -- of a raw material or commodity.

A region inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common. (Chapter 1)

/A region distinguished by uniformity of one or more characteristics that can serve as the basis for areal generalization and of contrast with adjacent areas.

/A capital city deliberately sited in a state's frontier.

/Any of the fuels derived from decayed organic material converted by earth processes, especially, coal, petroleum, and natural gas, but also including tar sands and oil shales.

/That portion of a country adjacent to its boundaries and fronting another political unit.

/A belt lying between two states or between settled and uninhabited or sparsely settled areas.

/A state whose territory contains isolated parts, separated and discontinuous.

/In urban geography, that part of the central business district characterized by such low-intensity uses as warehouses, wholesaling, and automobile dealers.

/The charge levied by a transporter for the loading, moving, and unloading of goods, includes line-haul costs and terminal costs.

/

/A measure of the retarding or restricting effect of distance on spatial interaction.  Generally, the greater the distance, the greater the "friction" and the less the interaction or exchange, or the greater the cost of achieving the exchange.

An area that functions as a unit politically, socially, or economically. (Chapter 1)

/In political geography, a disagreement between neighboring states over policies to be applied to their common border; often induced by differing customs regulations, movement of nomadic groups, or illegal immigration or emigration.

/A region differentiated by what occurs within it rather than by a homogeneity of physical or cultural phenomena; an earth area recognized as an operational unit based upon defined organizational criteria.  The concept of unit is based on interaction and interdependence between different points within the area.

The division of the city into different areas for different functions, such as industry and housing. (Chapter 10)

G

/Primary activities involving the subsistence or commercial harvesting of renewal natural resources of land or water.  Primitive gathering involves local collection of food and other materials from nature, both plant and animal; commercial gathering usually implies forestry and fishing industries.

/See gross domestic product.

/In the cultural sense, a reference to socially created -- not biologically based -- distinctions between femininity and masculinity.

The descriptive part of many place-names, often repeated throughout a culture area. (Chapter 5)

Replacement of lower-income groups by higher-income people as buildings are restored./The movement into the inner portions of American cities of middle- and upper-income people who replace low-income populations, rehabilitate the structures they occupied, and change the social characters of neighborhoods. (Chapter 11)

The study of the spatial and ecological aspects of population, including distribution, density per unit of land area, fertility, gender health, age, mortality, and migration. (Chapter 2)

/See absolute distance

/See dialect.

The study of spatial patterns, of differences and similarities from one place to another in environment and culture. (Chapter 1)

The cultural geographical study of languages and dialects./The study of local variations within a speech area by mapping word choices, pronunciations, or grammatical constructions. (Chapter 5)

A traditional East Asian form of environmental perception, also called <<feng-shui>>, by which particular configurations of terrain, compass directions, soil textures, and watercourse patterns become more auspicious than others, influencing the siteing of houses, villages, cities, temples, and graves. (Chapter 1, 6) Links: Earth Mysteries | About.com (geomancy) | geomancy | Feng Shui | geomancy.net

A political border drawn in a regular, geometric manner, often a straight line, without regard for environmental or cultural patterns./A boundary without obvious physical geographic basis; often a section of a parallel of latitude or a meridian longitude. (Chapter 4)

/The trace of the graticule shadow projected on a developable surface from a light source placed to a transparent globe.

The deliberate eating of earth./The practice of eating earthy substances, usually clay. (Chapter 7)

See <<political geography>>./That branch of political geography treating national power, foreign policy, and international relations as influenced by geographic considerations of location, space, resources, and demography.

See Marsh, George Perkins

Drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in an awkward pattern to enhance the voting impact of one constituency at the expense of another./To redraw voting district boundaries in such a way as to give one political party maximum electoral advantage and to reduce that of another party, to fragment voting blocks, or to achieve other nondemocratic objectives. (Chapter 4)

A segregated ethnic area within a city, caused by residential discrimination against the will of the people involved./A forced or voluntary segregated residential area housing a racial, ethnic, or religious minority. (Chapter 9)

Also called multinationals or transnationals, these corporations are industries that operate in more than one country, dispersing their factories, headquarters, marketing, and service facilities across international boundaries. (Chapter 12)

/The set of imaginary lines of latitude and longitude that intersect at right angles to form a coordinate reference system for locating points on the surface of the earth.

/A geometrical projection produced with the light source at the center of the earth.

/See gross national product.

/A graduate line included in a map legend by means of which distances on the map may be measured in terms of ground distances.

/The network of meridians and parallels on the globe; the globe grid.

/A mathematical prediction of the interaction between two bodies (places) as a function of their size and of the distance separating them.  Based on Newton's law, the model states that attraction (interaction) is proportional to the product of the masses (population sizes) of two bodies (places) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

/Line formed by the intersection with the earth's surface of a plane passing through the center of the earth; an arc of a great circle is the shortest distance between two points on the earth's surface.

/See globe grid.

The results from the increased addition of carbon dioxide and certain trace gases to the atmosphere through industrial activity and deforestation causing more of the sun's heat to be retained, thus warming the climate of the Earth./Heating of the earth's surface as shortwave solar energy passes through the atmosphere, which is transparent to it but opaque to reradiated long-wave terrestrial energy; also, increasing the opacity of the atmosphere through addition of increased amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat. (Chapter 12)

The recent introduction of high-yield hybrid crops and chemical fertilizers and pesticides into traditional Asian agricultural systems, most notably paddy rice farming, with attendant increases in production and ecological damage./A term suggesting the great increases in food production, primarily in subtropical areas, accomplished through the introduction of high-yielding crops, particularly wheat, maize, and rice. (Chapter 3)

Organizations, including political parties, whose central concern is addressing environmental deterioration. (Chapter 12)

green village

/

/The total value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country during a specified time period, usually a calendar year.

/The total value of goods and services (with some adjustments) including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country during a specified period (usually a year).

/Subsurface water that accumulates in the pores and cracks of rock and soil.

/A foreign worker, usually male and frequently under contract, who migrates to secure permanent work in a host country without intention to settle permanently in that country; particularly, workers from North Africa and countries of Easter, Soughern, and southwestern Europe employed in industrialized countries of Western Europe.

A traditional type of manufacturing in the preindustrial revolution era, involving handmade goods of high quality manufactured by highly skilled artisans who resided in towns and cities. (Chapter 12)

H

Hägerstrand, Torsten

Swedish geographer who first proposed the idea of time lines or lifelines and a parallel construct called prisms. Also worked in the area of diffusion.  Links: Torsten Hägerstrand | time lines | About.com (Torsten Hägerstrand)

Halford J Mackinder

See: Halford J Mackinder

hamlet

/

heartland

The interior of a sizable landmass, removed from maritime connections; in particular, the interior of the Eurasian continent. (Chapter 4)

heartland theory/heartland-rimland

A 1904 proposal by Sir Halford John Mackinder that the key to world conquest lay in control of the interior of Eurasia./The belief of Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) that the interior of Eurasia provided a likely base for world conquest. (Chapter 4)

heat island

An area of warmer temperatures in the center of a city, caused by the urban concentration of heat-retaining concrete, brick, and asphalt. (Chapter 11)

hierarchical diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion; innovations spread from one important person to another or from one urban center to another, temporarily bypassing persons of lesser importance and rural areas./A form of diffusion in which spread of an innovation can proceed upward or downward through a hierarchy. (Chapter 1)

high-tech corridors

Areas along limited-access highways that house offices and other services associated with high-tech industries. (Chapters 11, 12)

hinterland

The area surrounding a city and influenced by it./The market area or region served by an urban center. (Chapter 10)

homelessness

A condition of temporary or permanent nature that describes people who do not have a legal home address. (Chapter 11)

host culture

The dominant, majority cultural group within a country or society, which usually occupies a dominant social-economic position. (Chapter 9)

humanistic geography

Subfield of geography that stresses the subjectivity and individuality of humans as essential to analysis of spatial variations; deals with the uniqueness of each region and place; rejects the notion that geography is a social science. (Chapter 1)

hunting and gathering

Killing of wild game and the harvesting of wild plants to provide food in traditional cultures. (Chapter 3)

hydraulic civilization

A civilization based on large-scale irrigation. (Chapter 10)

hazardous waste

/Discarded solid, liquid, or gaseous material that poses a substantial threat to human health or to the environment when improperly disposed of or stored.

hierarchical migration

/The tendency for individuals to move from small places to larger ones.  See also step migration.

hierarchy of central places

/The step like series of urban units in classes differentiated by both size and function.

high-level waste

/Nuclear waste with a relatively high level of radioactivity.

Hinduism

/An ancient and now dominant value system and religion of India, closely identified with Indian culture but without central creed, single doctrine, or religious organization.  Dharma (customary duty and divine law) and caste are uniting elements.

homeostatic plateau (carrying capacity)

/The application of the concept of homeostasis, or relatively stable state of equilibrium, to the balance between population numbers and areal resources; the equilibrium level of population that available resources can adequately support.

horticultural farming

/See truck farming.

host society

/The established and dominant society within which immigrant groups seek accomodation.

human geography

/One of  two major divisions (the other is physical geography) of systematic geography; the spatial analysis of human populations, their cultures, their activities and behaviors, and their relationship with and impact on the physical landscapes they occupy.

hunter-gatherer/hunting-gathering

/As economic and social system based primarily or exclusively on the hunting of wild animals and the gathering of food, fiber, and other materials from uncultivated plants.

hydrologic cycle

/The natural system by which water is continuously circulated through the biosphere by evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.

hydrosphere

All water at or near the earth's surface that is not chemically bound in rocks, including the oceans, surface waters, groundwater, and water held in the atmosphere.

I

/The tendency for certain kinds of air pollutants to lower temperatures on earth by reflecting incoming sunlight back into space and thus preventing it from reaching (and heating) the earth.

/In political geography, a term denoting the study of symbols that unite a country.

/The complex of ideas, beliefs, knowledge, and means of their communication that characterize a culture.

Cultural innovations that are developed in two or more locations by persons or groups working independently. (Chapter 1)  Links:  independent invention | independent invention of coins | Valid Archaeological Data for Diffusion | independent invention of horticulture

/A facility designed to burn waste.

/Innovations developed in two or more unconnected locations by individuals or groups acting independently.  See also multilinear evolution.

indigenous city

A city formed by local forces. (Chapter 10)

The tendency by industries to remain in their original locations, even after the forces that originally attracted them there have disappeared. (Chapter 12)

A series of inventions and innovations, arising in England in the 1700s, which led to the use of machines and inanimate power in the manufacturing process./The term applied to the rapid economic and social changes in agriculture and manufacturing that followed the introduction of the factory system to the textile industry of England in the last quarter of the 18th century. (Chapter 12)

The number of infants per 1000 live births that die before reaching one year of age./A refinement of the death rate to specify the ratio of deaths of infants age 1 year or less per 1000 live births. (Chapter 2)

infanticide

/

/The basic structure of services, installations, and facilities needed to support industrial, agricultural, and other economic development; included are transport and communications, along with water, power, and other public utilities.

 New building on empty parcels of land within a checker-board pattern of development. (Chapter 11)

/Introduction of new ideas, practices, or objects; usually, an alteration of custom or culture that originates within the social group itself.

A component that is put into a system. (Chapter 11)

 The solar radiation received at the earth's surface.

insurgent stage

/

The expenditure of much labor and capital on a piece of land to increase its productivity.  In contrast, extensive agriculture involves less labor and capital./Any agricultural system involving the application of large amounts of capital and/or labor per unit of cultivated land; this may be part of either a subsistence or a commercial economy. (Chapter 3)

/See gravity model.

/The outer limit of a state's claim to land or water surface, projected downward to the center of the earth and, less certainly, upward to the height the state can effectively control.

/By international agreement, the designated line where each new day begins, generally following the 180th meridian.  The line compensates for accumulated 1-hour time changes for each 15 degrees of longitude by adding (from east to west) or subtracting (from west to east) 24 hours for travelers crossing the line.

/A condition that delays the rate of diffusion of an innovation or that deflects the path.

The raising of different crops mixed together in the same field, particularly common in shifting cultivation. (Chapter 3)

/The concept that closer opportunities will materially reduce the attractiveness of interaction with more distant -- even slightly better -- alternatives;  a closer alternative source of supply between a demand point and the original source of supply.

/The application of a single-haul freight rate between origin and destination even though the shipment is halted for processing en route, after which the journey is completed.

/The policy of a state wishing to incorporate within itself territory inhabited by people who have ethnic or linguistic links with the country but that lies within a neighboring state.

/A monotheistic, universalizing religion that includes belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Mohammed as his prophet completing the work of earlier prophets of Judaism and Christianity.

/A line connecting points equidistant in travel time from a common origin.

The border of usage of an individual word or pronunciation./A mapped boundary line marking the limits of a particular linguistic feature. (Chapter 5)

/A map line connecting points of equal value.

/A hypothetical portion of the earth's surface assumed to be unbounded, uniformly flat plain with uniform and unvarying distribution of population, purchasing power, transportation costs, accessibility and the like.

J

/A curve shaped like the letter J, depicting exponential or geometric growth (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 …).

/See  von Thünen, Johan Heinrich

/A monotheistic, ethnic religion first developed among the Hebrew people of the ancient Near East; its determining conditions include descent from Israel (Jacob), the Torah (law and scripture), and tradition.

K

/A form of marine plankton composed of crustaceans and larvae.

L

An industry for which labor costs represent a large proportion of total production costs. (Chapter 12)

The belief that economic competition without government interference produces the most public good. (Chapter 10)

/A genetically diverse, naturally adapted, native food plant.

land rent

The amount of money charged for use of real property.

/Describing a state which lacks a sea coast.",

A distinctive form of speech that is not mutually intelligible to the speakers of other languages./The system of words, their pronunciation, and methods of combination used and mutually understood by a community of individuals. (Chapter 5)

A group of related languages derived from a common ancestor./A group of languages thought to have descended from a singe, common ancestral language. (Chapter 5)

Traveling from one suburb to another in going from home to work. (Chapter 11)

/Angular distance north or south of the equator, measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds.  Grid lines marking latitudes are called parallels.  The equator is 0 degrees; the North Pole is 90 degrees N, and the South Pole is 90 degrees S.  Low latitudes are considered to fall within the tropics (23 degrees 30 minutes N; 23 degrees 30 minutes S), midlatitudes  extend from the tropics to the Arctic and Antarctic circles (66 degrees 30 minutes N and S); high latitudes occur from those circles to the North and South poles. Links: About.com (latitude)

/The observation that a government's awareness of or concern with regional problems decreases with the square of the distance of an outlying region from the capital city.

/The contaminated liquid discharged from a sanitary landfill to either surface or subsurface land or water.

A city that is easy to decipher, with clear pathways, edges, nodes, districts, and landmarks. (Chapter 11)

/The distribution of an organism or the structure of an ecosystem can be explained by the control exerted by the single factor (such as temperature, light, water) that is most deficient, that is, that falls below the levels required.

An existing, well-established language used widely where it is not a mother tongue, for the purposes of government, trade, business, and other contacts among persons./Any of various auxiliary languages used as common tongues among people of an area where several languages are spoken; literally, "Frankish language". (Chapter 5)

An area, isolated or protected by environmental conditions, in which language or dialect has survived. (Chapter 5)

/A transportation or communication connection or route within a network.

lithosphere

/The earth's solid crust.

livestock ranching

/

/The circumstance under which the locational decision of a particular firm is influenced by the locations chosen by competitors.

/A simple graphic model in Weberian analysis to illustrate the derivation of the least-transport-cost location of an industrial establishment.

/The costs involved in the actual physical movement of goods (or passengers); costs of haulage (including equipment and route way costs), excluding terminal cost.

/A farm or other property consisting of a long, narrow strip of land extending back from a river or road.

/Angular distance of a location in degrees, minutes, and seconds measured east or west of a designated prime meridian given the value of 0 degrees.  By general agreement, the globe grid prime meridian passes through the old observatory of Greenwich, England.  Distances are measured from 0 degrees to 180 degrees both east and west, with 180 degrees east and west being the same line.  For much of it's extent the 180 degree meridian also serves as the International Date Line.  Because of the period of the earth's axial rotation, 15 degrees of longitude are equivalent to a difference of 1 hour in local time. Links: About.com (longitude)

/The view that the optimum location of a manufacturing establishment is at the place where the costs of transport and labor and the advantages of agglomeration or deglomeration are most favorable.

/Nuclear waste with relatively moderate levels of radioactivity.

M

Occurs when a group pursues an adaptive strategy that, in the short run, fails to provide the necessities of life or, in the long run, destroys the environment that nurishes them. (Chapters 9, 12)

/Food intake insufficient in quantity or deficient in quality to sustain life at optimal conditions of health.

/Thomas R. Malthus (1766-1843).  English economist, demographer, and cleric who suggested that unless self-control, war, or natural disaster checks population, it will inevitably increase faster than will the food supplies needed to sustain it.  This view is know as Malthusianism.  See also neo-Malthusianism.

/A systematic method of transferring the globe grid system from the earth's curved surface to the flat surface of a map.  Projection automatically incurs error, but an attempt is usually made to preserve one or more (though never all) of the characteristics of the spherical surface: equal area, correct distance, true direction, proper shape.

/See scale.

A strip of territory, traditionally on day's march for infantry, that served as a boundary zone for independent countries in premodern times. (Chapter 4)

/The additional cost of producing each successive unit of output.

/Production and harvesting  of fish and shellfish in fenced confinement areas along coasts and in estuaries.

/The point of intersection of demand and supply curves of a given commodity; at equilibrium the market is cleared of the commodity.

A farm devoted to specialized fruit, vegetable, or vine crops for sale rather than consumption./The intensive production of fruits and vegetables for market rather than for processing or canning. (Chapter 3)

/The tendency of an economic activity to locate close to its market; a reflection of large and variable distribution costs.

Conservationist, diplomat, and linguist.  His thesis that humans have abused the land and must therefore restore it is regarded as a fountainhead of ecology and conservation.  Links: biography.com (George Perkins Marsh) | Clark University | George Perkins Marsh | George Perkins Marsh Online Research Center

Large-scale residential developments that include, in addition to architecturally compatible housing units, planned recreational facilities, schools, and security measures. (Chapter 11)

All physical, material objects made and used by members of a cultural group, such as clothing, buildings, tools and utensils, instruments, furniture, and artwork; the visible aspect of culture./The tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies. (Chapter 7)

/The tendency of an economic activity to locate near or at its source of raw material; this is experienced when material costs are highly variable spatially and/or represent a significant share of total costs.

/See absolute location.

/The systematic rendering of the globe grid on a developable surface to achieve graticule characteristics not obtainable by visual means of geometrical  projects.

/The maximum rate at which a renewable resource can be exploited without impairing its ability to be renewed or replenished.

/An agricultural system based upon the mild, moist winters, hot, sunny summers, and rough terrain of the Mediterranean basin.  It involves cereals as winter crops, summer tree and vine crops (olives, figs, dates, citrus, and other tree fruits, and grapes), and animals (sheep and goats).

A large urban region formed as several urban areas spread and merge, such as Boswash, the region including Boston, New York, and Washington, DC./ A large, sprawled urban complex with contained open, non-urban land, created through the spread and joining of separate metropolitan areas.  When capitalized, the name applied to the continuous functionally urban area of coastal northeastern United States from Main to Virginia. (Chapter 10)

Meitzen, August

/

/The map-like image of the world, country, region, city, or neighborhood a person carries in mind.  The representation is therefore subjective; it includes a knowledge of actual locations and spatial relationships and is colored by personal perceptions and preferences related to place.

/The central, enduring elements of a culture expressing its values and beliefs, including language, religion, folklore, artistic traditions, and the like.  Elements in the ideological subsystem of culture.

/A true conformal cylindrical projection first published in 1569, useful for navigation.

/A north-south line of longitude; on the globe grid, all meridians are of equal length and converge at the poles. Links: About.com (meridian)

/Middle Stone Age.  The culture stage of the early postglacial period, during which the earliest stages of domestication of animals and plants occurred, refined and specialized tools were developed, pottery was produced, and semi-permanent settlements were established as climate change reduced the game-animal herds earlier followed for food.

/A system of property description using natural features (streams, rocks, trees, etc.) to trace and define the boundaries of individual parcels.

/See unified government.

/In the United States, a large functionally integrated settlement area comprising one or more whole country units and usually containing several urbanized areas, discontinuously built up, it operates a a coherent economic whole.

/The basic neighborhood planning unit characteristic of new urban residential construction in the planned East European city under communism.

/An imprecise term for a state or territory small in both population and area.  An informal definition accepted by the United Nations suggests a maximum of 1 million population combined with a territory of less than 700 square kilometers (270 square miles).

/The permanent (or relatively permanent) relocation of an individual or group to a new, usually distant, place of residence and employment.

/The area from which a given city or place draws the majority of its in-migrants.

migration region

/

/A natural inorganic substance that has a definite chemical composition and characteristic crystal structure, hardness, and density.

/See fossile fuel.

/See microstate.

An abstraction, an imaginary situation, proposed by geographers to simulate laboratory conditions so that they may isolate certain causal forces for detailed study./An idealized representation, abstraction, or simulation of reality.  It is designed to simplify real-world complexity and eliminate extraneous phenomena in order to isolate  for detailed study study causal factors and interrelationships of spatial systems. (Chapter 1)

A person able to speak only one language. (Chapter 5)

The worship of only one god./The belief that there is but a single God. (Chapter 6)

A model that depicts a city growing from several separate focal points. (Chapter 11)

The process by which industrial profits "drain" back to major industrial districts from factories established in outlying provinces or countries. (Chapter 12)

/Agricultural system dominated by a single crop.

/A society's or country's use of only one language of communication for all purposes.

/Any aggregate control on or regularity of movement of people, commodities, or communication.  Included are distance bias, direction bias, and network bias.

/A concept of independent but parallel cultural development advanced by anthropologist Julian Steward (1902-1972) to explain cultural similarities between widely separated people existing in similar environments but who could not have benefited from shared experiences, borrowed ideas, or diffused technologies.  See independent innovation.

/The common use of two or more languages in a society of country.

multinational state

/

/A large business organization operating in a number of different national economies; the term implies a more extensive form of transnational corporation.

/The postulate that large cities develop by peripheral spread not from one central business district but from sepal nodes of growth, each of specialized use.  The separately expanding use districts eventually coalesce at their margins.

/The direct, indirect, and induced consequences of change in an activity.  In industrial agglomerations, the cumulative processes by which a given change (such as a new plant opening) sets in motion a sequence of further industrial employment and infrastructure growth.  'In urban geography, the expected addition of non-basic workers and dependents to a city's total employment and population that accompanies new basic employment.

N

An independent country dominated by a relatively homogeneous cultural group./A state whose territory is identical to that occupied by a particular ethnic group or nation. (Chapter 4)

/ A sense of unity binding the people of a state together; devotion to the interests of a particular country or nation; an identification with the state and an acceptance of national goals.

A political border that follows some feature of the natural environment, such as a river or mountain ridge./A boundary line based on recognizable physiographic features, such as mountains or rivers. (Chapter 4)

/A process or event in the physical environment that has consequences harmful to humans.

/The growth of a population through excess of births over deaths, excluding the effects of immigration or emigration.

/The physical environment unaffected by human activities.  The duration and near totality of human occupation of the earth's surface assure that little or no "natural landscape" so defined remains intact.  Opposed to cultural landscape.

/A physically occurring item that a population perceives to be necessary and useful to its maintenance and well-being.

/The plant life that would exist in an area if humans did not interfere with its development.

A small social area within a city where residents share values and concerns and interact with one another on a daily basis.  (Chapter 11)

The rapid acceptance of an innovation in a small area or cluster around an initial adopter.  (Chapter 1)  Links: neighborhood effect | Understanding Tecnological Change

/A disparaging reference to economic and political policies by which major developed countries are seen to retain or extend influence over the economies of less developed countries and peoples.

/New Stone Age.  The culture (succeeding that of the Mesolithic) of the middle postglacial period, during which polished stone tools were perfected, the economy was solely or largely based on cultivation of crops and domestication of animals, and the arts of spinning, weaving, smelting and metal working were developed and trade routes were established.

/The advocacy of populations control programs to preserve and improve general national prosperity and well-being.

/The difference between in-migration and out-migration of an area.

/The areal pattern of sets of places and the routes (links) connecting them along which movement can take place.

/The view that the pattern of links in a network will affect the likelihood of flows between specific nodes.

/Two or or more cities, potentially or actually complementary in function, that cooperate by developing transportation links and communications infrastructure joining them.

In a functional culture region, a central point where functions are coordinated and directed./ In network theory, an origin, destination, or intersection in a communication network.  (Chapter 1)

/See functional region.

/Migratory but controlled movement of livestock solely dependent on natural forage.

/Those economic activities of an urban unit that supply the resident populations with goods and services that have no "export" implication.

/That portion of the earth's surface that is uninhibited.  See also ecumene.

Includes the oral aspect of a culture, such as songs, dialect, tales, beliefs, and customs./The oral traditional, songs, and stories of a culture group along with its beliefs and customary behaviors. (Chapter 7)

Resources that must be depleted in order to be used, such as minerals./A natural resource that is not replenished or replaced by natural processes or is used at a rate that exceeds its replacement rate. (Chapter 12)

/The general term applied in the Brandt Report to the developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere plus Australia and New Zealand.

O

A cluster of office buildings usually located along an interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city. (Chapter 11)

/A governmentally designated language of instruction, of government, of the courts, and other official public and private communication.

/A geometrical projection that results from placing the light source at infinity.

Elements produced by and flowing out of an ecosystem; for example, water may leave a system in many forms -- as sewage, as a component of food or drinks for export, or as vapor produced by industry. (Chapter 11)

/Producing abroad parts or products for domestic use or sale.  Subcontracting production or services rather than performing those activities "in house."

/A value judgment that the resources of an area are insufficient to sustain adequately its present population numbers.

/See long-haul costs.

/A gas molecule consisting of three atoms of oxygen (O3) formed when diatomic oxygen (O2) is exposed to ultraviolet radiation.  In the upper atmosphere it forms a normally continuous, thin layer that blocks ultraviolet light, in the lower atmosphere it constitutes a damaging component of photochemical smog.

P

paddy rice farming

Cultivation of rice on a paddy, or small flooded field enclosed by mud dikes, practiced in the humid areas of the Far East. (Chapter 3)

Paleolithic

/Old Stone Age.  An early stage of human culture largely coinciding with the Pleistocene glacial period.  Characterized by hunting gathering economies and the use of fire and simple stone tools, especially those made from flint.

palimpset

A term used to describe cultural landscapes with various layers and historical "messages."  Geographers use this term to reinforce the notion of the landscape as a text that can be read; a landscape palimpset has elements of both modern and past periods.  (Chapter 11)

parallel invention

/See independent invention.

parallel (of latitude)

/An east-west line of latitude indicating distance north or south of the equator.  Links: About.com (parallel)

particulate pollutants

Bits of matter spewed into the air by incinerators, car exhausts, tire wear, industrial combustion, and so forth.  (Chapter 11, 12)

pattern

/The design or arrangement of phenomena in earth space.

peak value intersection

/The most accessible and costly parcel of land in the central business district and, therefore, in the entire urbanized area.

perception

/The acquisition of information about a place or thing through sensory means; the subjective organization and interpretation of acquired information in light of cultural attitudes and individual preferences or experiences.  See environmental perceptions.

perceptual region

/A region perceived to exist by its inhabitants or the general populace.  Also known as a vernacular region or popular region, it has reality as an element of popular culture or folk culture represented in the mental maps of average people.

perforated state

/A state whose territory is interrupted ("perforated") by a separate, independent state totally contained within it's borders.

periodic market

/A market operating at a particular location (village, city, neighborhood) on one or more fixed days per week or month.

periphery/peripheral

/The outer regions or boundaries of an area.  See also core-periphery model.

permeable barrier

A barrier that permits some aspects of an innovation to diffuse through but weakens and retards continued spread; an innovation can be modified in passing through a permeable barrier./An obstacle raised by a culture group or one culture group's reluctance to accept some, but not all, innovations diffused from a related but different culture.  Acceptance or rejection may be conditioned by religious, political, ethnic, or similar considerations of suitability or compatibility.

personal space

The amount of space that individuals feel "belongs" to them as they move about their everyday business. /An invisible, usually irregular space around person into which he or she does not willing admit others.  The sense (and extent) of personal space is a situational and cultural variable.  (Chapter 2)

perspective projection

/See geometrical projection.

photochemical smog

/A form of polluted air produced by the interaction of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen in the presence of sunlight.

physical boundary

/See natural boundary.

physical environment

All aspects of the natural physical surroundings, such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, and wildlife.  (Chapter 1)  Links: Physical Environment | Physical Environment | The Physical Environment

physical geography

/One of two major divisions (the other is human geography) of systematic geography; the study of structures, processes, distributions, and change through time of the natural phenomena of the earth's surface that are significant to human life.

physical landscape

/The natural landscape plus visible elements of material culture.

physiological density

/The number of persons per unit area of cultivable land.

pidgin

A composite language consisting of a small vocabulary borrowed from the linguistic groups involved in international commerce./An auxiliary language derived, with reduced vocabulary and simplified structure, from other languages.  Not a native tongue, it is used for limited communication between people with different languages.  (Chapter 5)

pilgrimage

A journey to a place of religious importance.  (Chapter 6)

place

 A term used to connote the subjective, idiographic, humanistic, culturally oriented type of geography that seeks to understand the unique character of individual regions and places, rejecting the principles of science as flawed and unknowingly biased.  (Chapter 1)

place perception

/See perception.

place utility

/In human movement and migration studies, a measure of an individual's perceived satisfaction or approval of a place in its social, economic, or environmental attributes.  In economic geography, the value imparted to goods or services by tertiary activities that provide things needed in specific markets.

placelessness

May result from the spread of popular culture, which can diminish or destroy the uniqueness of place through cultural standardization on a national or even worldwide scale.  (Chapter 8)

planar projection (azmuthal projection)

/A map projection employing a plane as the presumed developable surface.

plankton

/Microscopic freely floating plant and animal organisms of lakes and oceans.

planned economy

/A system of production of goods and services, usually consumed or distributed by a governmental agency, in quantities, at prices, and in locations determined by governmental program.

plantation

A large landholding devoted to specialized production of a tropical cash crop. (Chapter 3) /A large agricultural holding, frequently foreign owned, devoted to the production of a single export crop. 

Pleistocene

 /The geological epoch dating from 2 million to 11 thousand years ago during which four stages of continental glaciation occurred.

political geography

The study of spatial and ecological aspects of political behavior, from nationalism and the independent country to voting patterns, sectionalism, and regional separatism./A branch of human geography concerned with the spatial analysis of political of political phenomena.  (Chapter 4)

political unit

A governmental unit with political responsibilities.  Links: About.com (political unit)
 

pollution

/The introduction into the biosphere of materials that because of their quantity, chemical nature, or temperature have a negative impact on the ecosystem or that cannot be readily disposed of by natural recycling processes.

polyglot

Characterized by many different languages.  (Chapter 5)

polytheism

The worship of many gods. /Belief in or worship of many gods.  (Chapter 6)

popular culture

A dynamic culture based on large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change; having a money-based economy, division of labor into professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties; producing and consuming machine-made goods./The constantly changing mix of material and nonmaterial elements available through mass production and the mass media to an urbanized, heterogeneous, nontraditional society.  (Chapters 7, 8)

popular region

/See vernacular region.

population density

The number of people in an area of land, usually expressed as people per square mile or people per square kilometer./A measurement of the numbers of persons per unit area of land within predetermined limits, usually political or census boundaries.  See also physiological density.  (Chapter 2)

population diffusion

/

population explosion

The rapid, accelerating increase in world population since about 1650 and especially since 1900.  (Chapter 2)

population geography

/A division of human geography concerned with spatial variations in distribution, composition, growth, and movements of population and the relationship of those concerns with the geographic character of areas.  See geodemography.

population momentum

/See demographic momentum.

population projection

/A statement of a population's future size, age, and sex composition based on the application of stated assumptions to current data.

population pyramid

A bar graph used to show the age and sex composition of a population. /A bar graph in pyramid form showing the age and sex composition of a population, usually a national one. (Chapter 2)

possibilism

The school of thought based on the belief that humans, rather than the physical environment, are the primary active fore; that any environment offers a number of different possible ways for a culture to develop; and that the choices among these possibilities are guided by cultural heritage. /The philosophical viewpoint that the physical environment offers human beings a set of opportunities from which (within limits) people may choose according to their cultural needs and technological awareness.  The emphasis is on a freedom of choice and action not allowed under environmental determinism.  (Chapter 1)

positional dispute (boundary dispute)

/In political geography, disagreement about the actual location of a boundary.

postcolonialism

/

postindustrial

/A stage of economic development in which service activities become relatively more important than goods production; professional and technical employment supersedes employment in agriculture and manufacturing; and level of living is defined by the quality of services and amenities rather than by the quantity of goods available.

postindustrial phase or period

The way of life produced by dominance of the tertiary, quaternary, and quinary sectors of economic activity.  (Chapter 12)

postmodernism

In geography, the ideology that rejects theory, science, and the search for universal principles; denies the attainability of absolute truth, definitions, and classifications; challenges all academic authority; and tolerates conflicting or contradictory ideas.  (Chapter 1)

potential model

/A measurement of the total interaction opportunities available under gravity model assumptions to a center in a multicenter system.

preadaption

A complex of adaptive traits and skills possessed in advance of migration by a group, giving them survival ability and competitive advantage in occupying the new environment.  (Chapters 2, 9)

precipitation

/All moisture -- solid and liquid -- that falls to the earth's surface from the atmosphere.

predevelopment annexation

/The inclusion within the central city of non-urban peripheral areas for the purpose of securing to the city itself the benefits of their eventual development.

primary industry (primary activities)

An industry engaged in the extraction of natural resources, such as agriculture, lumbering, and mining. /Those parts of the economy involved in making natural resources available for use or further processing; included are mining, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and grazing.  (Chapter 12)

primate city

A city of large size and dominant power within a country. /A country's leading city, disproportionately larger and functionally more complex than any other; a city dominating an urban hierarchy composed of a base of small towns and an absence of intermediate-sized cities.  (Chapter 10)

prime meridian

/A imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the 0 degree line of longitude. Links: About.com (prime meridian).

private plot

/In the planned economies under communism, a small garden plot allotted to collective farmers and urban workers.

projection

/See map projection.

prorupt state

 / A state of basically compact form but with one or more narrow extensions of territory.

proselytic religion

A religion that actively seeks converts and has the goal of converting all humankind.  (Chapter 6)

protolanguage

/An assumed, reconstructed, or recorded ancestral language.

proved reserves

/That portion of a natural resource that has been identified and can be extracted profitably with current technology.

psychological distance

/The way an individual perceives distance.

pull factors

/Characteristics of a locale that act as attractive forces, drawing migrants form other regions.  See push-pull factors.

purchasing power parity (PPP)

/A monetary measurement which takes account of what money actually buys in each country.

push factors

/Unfavorable characteristics of a locale that contribute to the dissatisfaction of its residents and impel their emigration.  See push-pull factors.

push-and-pull factors

Unfavorable, repelling conditions and favorable, attractive conditions that interact to affect migration and other elements of diffusion.  (Chapter 2)

Q

The producer-oriented service sector of industry; includes business services as trade, insurance, banking, advertising, research, and wholesaling./Those parts of the economy concerned with research, with the gathering and dissemination of information, and with administration -- including administration of other economic activity levels; often considered only as a specialized subdivision of tertiary activities. (Chapter 12)

R

Commercial raising of herd livestock, on a large landholding.  (Chapter 3)

A practice by banks and mortgage companies of demarking areas considered to be high risk for housing loans. (Chapter 11)

A grouping of like places or the functional union of places to form a spatial unit; see also culture region./Any earth area with distinctive and unifying physical or cultural characteristics that set it off and make it substantially different from surrounding areas.  A region may be defined on the basis of its homogeneity or its functional integration as a single organizational unit.  Regions and their boundaries are devices of areal generalization, intellectual concepts rather than visible landscape entities. (Chapter 1) Links: region | 

regional autonomy

/See crop rotation.

Sahel

/A semiarid zone between the Sahara desert and the grassland areas to the south in West Africa; a district of recurring drought, famine, and environmental degradation and desertification.

salinization

/The process by which soil becomes saturated with salt, rendering the land unsuitable for agriculture.  This occurs when land that has poor drainage is improperly irrigated.

sanitary landfill

/Disposal of solid wastes by spreading them in layers covered with enough soil to control odors, rodents, and flies; sited to minimize water pollution from runoff and leachate.

satellite state

A small, weak country dominated by one powerful neighbor to the extent that some or much of its independence is lost. Chapter 4

satisficing location

/A less than ideal best location, but one providing a acceptable level of utility or satisfaction.

Sauer, Carl O

/

scale

/In cartography, the ratio between the size of area on a map and the actual size of that same area on the earths surface.  In more general terms, scale refers to the size of the area studied, from local to global.

S-curve

/The horizontal bending, or leveling of an exponential or J-curve.