Chatper 1 Vocbulary

What is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these?

Stimulus Diffusion

Geography

What field of study is primarily focused on how humans make places, how we organize space and society, how we interact with each other in places, and how we make sense of others and ourselves in relation to place?

Human Geography

What is a set of processes that are increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and heightening interdependence across national borders?

Globalization

What is defined as the rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population, like a wave?

Contagious Diffusion

What is the study of phenomena in terms of their spatial arrangement, frequency, density, or concentration across a landscape?

Patterns

What field of study is primarily focused on the natural environment and physical characteristics of the Earth?

Physical Geography

The general term for the distribution of a feature or phenomenon across the Earth's surface is what?

Spatial distribution

What is the term for a disease outbreak that is local or regional in scope?

Epidemic

What is the geographical viewpoint that emphasizes the importance of location, distance, and relationships between places?

Spatial perspective

What are tools for understanding the world used by geographers, such as location, distance, and region?

Geographic concepts

What term is used to describe the position or spot where something is situated?

Location

What type of location is expressed by a precise system of coordinates, such as latitude and longitude?

Absolute location

What is the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places?

Hierarchical Diffusion

What is a theory primarily concerned with the geographic location of economic activities?

Location theory

The theme of geography that looks at the relationship between human societies and the natural environment is what?

Human-environment interactions

What is the theory that the physical environment causes social and cultural development?

Environmental determinism

What is the place of origin or the beginning of a cultural trait or trend?

Hearth

The theory that the environment sets limits on human action, but people choose from possibilities is called what?

Possibilism

What is the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that an environment can support without significant detrimental effects?

Carrying capacity

What is the study of the relationship between a culture group and the natural environment?

Cultural Ecology

What is the study of the relationship between political, economic, and social factors with environmental issues and changes?

Political Ecology

What is the term for an area on the Earth's surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogeneity of some phenomenon?

Region

What type of region is defined by a shared characteristic, whether physical (e.g., climate) or cultural (e.g., language)?

Formal Region

What are the single, distinguishing features of a culture, such as dress, language, or religious beliefs?

Cultural traits

What type of region is defined by a set of social, political, or economic activities and has a focal point (node)?

Functional Region

What is the term for a central point or focus, especially of a functional region?

Nodes

What type of region is defined by peoples' feelings, attitudes, and opinions about an area, also called a vernacular region?

Perceptual/Vernacular Region

What is the unique combination of characteristics that gives an area its distinct personality?

Place

What is the set of objective and subjective bonds that individuals form with an area?

Sense of Place

What is the belief or understanding about a place developed through books, movies, stories, or pictures?

Perception of Place

What theme of geography involves the travel of people, goods, and ideas from one place to another?

Movement

What is the term for the process through which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time?

Diffusion

What is the term for the amount of connectivity and contact that exists between people and places?

Spatial Interaction

What is the measured space between two points?

Distance

What is the ease with which a destination may be reached from some other place?

Accessibility

What is the spread of an underlying principle, even though the characteristic itself fails to diffuse?

Stimulus Diffusion

What is the spread of a feature through the physical movement of people from one place to another?

Relocation Diffusion

What is the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape?

Cultural landscape

What is the process by which a succession of dominant cultures leaves their mark on a landscape?

Sequent occupance

What is the ratio of a distance on a map to the corresponding distance on the ground?

Scale

What is the action or process of reducing the size of an area to be shown on a map?

Rescale

What is the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event or situation?

Context

What is the science and art of map making?

Cartography

What type of maps show locations of places and geographic features?

Reference maps

What type of maps tell a story about the degree of an attribute, movement, or relationship of a geographic phenomenon?

Thematic maps

What satellite-based system allows us to locate things on the surface of the Earth with great precision?

Global Positioning System (GPS)

What are maps that exist in a person's mind, consisting of a collection of personal geographic knowledge?

Mental maps

What are the spaces within which daily activities occur?

Activity spaces

What is Latin for "unknown land"; areas on maps left blank because they were unexplored?

Terra Incognita

What is the collection of data about Earth's surface from a distance, typically from aircraft or satellites?

Remote sensing

What is the computer-based system used to capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data?

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

What is the total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a society?

Culture

What is a related set of culture traits descriptive of one culture's activities?

Culture Complex

What is the type of diffusion characterized by the spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process, often by contiguous spread?

Expansion Diffusion

What is the term for a disease outbreak that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects a very high proportion of the population?

Pandemic