Unit I
The exact location of a place marked with latitude and longitude
Absolute Location
Government policies designed to reduce the rate of natural increase
Anti-Natalist Policies
A “common language,” a language used among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerce
Lingua Franca
A boundary that has been imposed on an area by an outside or conquering power and that largely ignores the considerations of cultural groups that already exist in said area
Superimposed boundaries
The theory that physical geography can limit the possibilities of a culture but it doesn’t control them
Possibilism
The science of making maps
People who have fled their country because of political persecution and seek asylum in another country
Refugee
Belief system in which one supreme being is revered as creator and arbiter of all the exists in the universe
Monotheistic Religion
Delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level
Devolution
Government policies that encourage large families and raise the rate of population growth
Pronatalist policies
The theory that the climate and the physical landscape of an area greatly affect the behavior and culture of the people living there
Environmental Determinism
Money migrants send back to family and friends in their home countries
Remittances
The rapid and widespread diffusion throughout a population as a result of contact
Contagious Diffusion
A nation that stretches across borders and across states
Multistate nation
An area with certain political, economic or social activity that unifies it, which contains at least one node that is the center of activity and connects it to the market area around it
Functional Region
An area defined by a person’s beliefs or feelings, created by an individual’s own associations and attachment to the area, and the borders vary from person to person
Perceptual/Vernacular region
The number of people per unit area of land
Arithmetic Density
A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place
Stimulus Diffusion
Regions or areas that are deeply internally divided based on ethnic, religious, or other cultural differences
Shatterbelts
The effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions
Distance decay
The process whereby distances become ‘shortened in time’ as the speed of modes of transportation increases
Time-space convergence
Established limits by governments on the number of immigrants who can enter a country each year
Quotas
When an immigrant selectively adopts certain customs of the dominant host society in order to advance socioeconomically, while still retaining much of his or her native culture
Acculturation
Any political or popular movement that seeks to claim or reclaim and occupy a land that the movement's members consider to be "lost"
Irredentism
When an aspect of two or more distinct cultures blend together to create a new custom idea, practice, or philosophy
Syncretism