GLOSSARY
absolute population density A country’s population divided by its total land area. Also known as arithmetic population density. [Chapter 3]
absorbing barrier A barrier that completely halts diffusion of innovations and blocks the spread of cultural elements. [Chapter 1]
acculturation The adoption by an ethnic group of enough of the ways of the host society to be able to function economically and socially. [Chapter 5]
acid rain Rainfall with much higher acidity than normal, caused by sulfur and nitrogen oxides derived from the burning of fossil fuels being flushed from the atmosphere by precipitation, with lethal effects for many plants and animals. [Chapter 9]
adaptive strategy The unique way in which each culture uses its particular physical environment; those aspects of culture that serve to provide the necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter, and defense. [Chapter 1]
agglomeration A snowballing geographical process by which secondary and service industrial activities become clustered in cities and compact industrial regions in order to share infrastructure and markets. [Chapter 11]
agribusiness Highly mechanized large-scale farming, usually under corporate ownership. [Chapter 8]
agricultural landscape The cultural landscape of agricultural areas. [Chapter 8]
agricultural region A geographic region defined by a distinctive combination of physical environmental conditions; crop type; settlement patterns; and labor, cultivation, and harvesting practices. [Chapter 8]
agricultural surplus The amount of food grown by a society that exceeds the demands of its population. [Chapter 10]
agriculture The tilling of crops and the raising of domesticated animals to produce food, feed, drink, and fiber. [Chapter 8]
amenity landscape Landscape that is prized for its natural and cultural aesthetic qualities by the tourism and real estate industries and their customers. [Chapter 2]
Anatolian hypothesis A theory of language diffusion holding that the movement of Indo-European languages from the area in contemporary Turkey known as Anatolia followed the spread of plant domestication technologies. [Chapter 4]
animist An adherent of animism, the idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment. [Chapter 7]
apartheid In South Africa, a policy of racial segregation and discrimination against non-European groups. [Chapter 10]
aquaculture The cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions. [Chapter 8]
architectural style The exterior and interior designs and layouts of the cultural and physical landscape. [Chapter 1]
assimilation The complete blending of an ethnic group into the host society resulting in the loss of many or all distinctive ethnic traits. [Chapter 5]
axis mundi The symbolic center of cosmomagical cities, often demarcated by a large, vertical structure. [Chapter 10]
barriada See squatter settlement. [Chapter 10]
bilingualism The ability to speak two languages fluently. [Chapter 4]
biofuel Broadly, any form of energy derived from biological matter, increasingly used in reference to replacements for fossil fuels in internal combustion engines, industrial processes, and the heating and cooling of buildings. [Chapter 8]
border zone An area where different regions meet and sometimes overlap. [Chapter 1]
buffer state An independent but small and weak country lying between two powerful countries. [Chapter 6]
cadastral pattern The shapes formed by property borders; the pattern of land ownership. [Chapter 8]
carrying capacity The maximum number of people who can be supported in a given area. [Chapter 3]
census tract A small district used by the U.S. Census Bureau to survey the population. [Chapter 11]
central business district (CBD) The central portion of a city, characterized by high-density land uses. [Chapter 11]
central place A town or city engaged primarily in the service stages of production; a regional center. [Chapter 10]
central-place theory A set of models designed to explain the spatial distribution of urban service centers. [Chapter 10]
centralizing force A diffusion force that encourages people or businesses to locate in the central city. [Chapter 11]
centrifugal force Any factor that disrupts the internal order of a country. [Chapter 6]
centripetal force Any factor that supports the internal order of a country. [Chapter 6]
chain migration The tendency of people to migrate along channels, over a period of time, from specific source areas to specific destinations. [Chapter 5]
channelization A migration process in which a specific source location becomes linked to a particular destination, so that neighbors in the old place become neighbors in the new place. [Chapter 5]
checkerboard development A mixture of farmlands and housing tracts. Also called leapfrog development. [Chapter 11]
cityscape An urban landscape. [Chapter 11]
cleavage model A political-geographic model suggesting that persistent regional patterns in voting behavior, sometimes leading to separatism, can usually be explained in terms of tensions pitting urban against rural, core against periphery, capitalists against workers, and power group against minority culture. [Chapter 6]
colonialism The building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people based elsewhere; the forceful appropriation of a territory by a distant state, often involving the displacement of indigenous populations to make way for colonial settlers. [Chapter 6]
commemorative toponym A place name that honors a famous or important person. [Chapter 4]
commercial agriculture The growing of crops, including nonfood crops, for sale rather than strictly for consumption by one’s own family. [Chapter 8]
concentric-zone model A social model, developed by Ernest Burgess, that depicts a city as five areas bounded by concentric rings. [Chapter 11]
consumer nationalism Local consumers’ favoring of nationally produced goods over imported goods as part of a nationalist political agenda. [Chapter 2]
consumer services The range of services provided to the general public, including education, government, recreation and tourism, and health care. [Chapter 9]
contact conversion The spread of religious beliefs by personal contact. [Chapter 7]
contagious diffusion A type of expansion diffusion in which cultural innovation spreads by person-to-person contact, moving wavelike through an area and population without regard to social status. [Chapter 1]
convergence hypothesis A hypothesis holding that cultural differences among places are being reduced by improved transportation and communications systems and networks, leading to a homogenization of popular culture. [Chapter 2]
cool chain The refrigeration and transport technology that allows for the distribution of perishables. [Chapter 8]
core area The territorial nucleus from which a country grows in area and over time, often containing the national capital and the main center of commerce, culture, and industry. [Chapter 6]
core-periphery A concept based on the tendency of both formal and functional culture regions to consist of a core in which defining traits are purest or functions are headquartered, and a periphery that is tributary and displays fewer of the defining traits. [Chapter 1]
cosmomagical city A type of city that is laid out in accordance with religious principles, characteristic of very early cities, particularly in China. [Chapter 10]
cottage industry A traditional type of manufacturing before the industrial revolution, practiced on a small scale in individual rural households as a part-time occupation and designed to produce handmade goods for local consumption. [Chapter 9]
creole A language derived from a pidgin language that has acquired a fuller vocabulary and become the native language of its speakers. [Chapter 4]
crude birthrate The annual number of births per thousand population. [Chapter 3]
crude death rate The annual deaths per thousand persons in the population. [Chapter 3]
cultural adaptation The adaptation of humans and cultures to the challenges posed by the physical environment. [Chapter 1]
cultural diffusion The spread of elements of culture from the point of origin over an area. [Chapter 1]
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 that facilitates human adaptation to nature and environmental change. [Chapter 1]
cultural geography The study of spatial variations among cultural groups and the spatial functioning of society. [Chapter 1]
cultural interaction The relationship of various elements within a culture. [Chapter 1]
cultural landscape The artificial landscape; the visible human imprint on the land. [Chapter 1]
cultural maladaptation Poor or inadequate adaptation that 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 nourishes it. [Chapter 5]
cultural preadaptation A set of adaptive traits and skills possessed in advance of migration by a group, giving it survival ability and competitive advantage in occupying the new environment. [Chapter 5]
cultural simplification The process by which immigrant ethnic groups lose certain aspects of their traditional culture in the process of settling elsewhere, creating a new culture that is less complex than the old. [Chapter 5]
culture A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including such learned features as speech, ideology, behavior, livelihood, technology, and government; or the local, customary way of doing things—a way of life; an ever-changing process in which a group is actively engaged; a dynamic mix of symbols, beliefs, speech, and practices. [Chapter 1]
culture hearth A focused geographic area where important innovations are born and from which they spread. [Chapter 7]
culture region A geographical unit based on characteristics and functions of culture. [Chapter 1]
cybergeography A branch of geography that studies the Internet as a virtual place. Cybergeographers examine locations in cyberspace as sites of human interaction with structures that can be mapped. [Chapter 1]
decentralizing force A diffusion force that encourages people or businesses to locate outside the central city. Also called suburbanizing force. [Chapter 11]
defensive site A location from which a city can be easily protected from invaders. [Chapter 10]
deindustrialization The decline of primary and secondary industry, accompanied by a rise in the service sectors of the industrial economy. [Chapters 9, 11, pp. 258, 311]
demographic transition The movement from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. [Chapter 3]
dependency ratio The number of dependent individuals (those under age 15 or over age 64) in a population divided by the number of productive individuals, expressed as a percentage. [Chapter 3]
depopulation A decrease in population that sometimes occurs as the result of sudden catastrophic events, such as natural disasters, disease epidemics, and warfare. [Chapter 3]
descriptive toponym A place name that describes a physical feature or environmental characteristic of a place. [Chapter 4]
desertification A process whereby human actions unintentionally turn productive lands into deserts through agricultural and pastoral misuse, destroying vegetation and soil to the point where they cannot regenerate. [Chapter 8]
dialect Distinctive local or regional variant of a language that remains mutually intelligible to speakers of other dialects of that language. [Chapter 4]
dispersed A settlement form in which people live relatively distant from each other. [Chapter 1]
domesticated animal An animal that depends on people for food and shelter and that differs from wild species in physical appearance and behavior as a result of controlled breeding and frequent contact with humans. [Chapter 8]
domesticated plant A plant deliberately planted, protected, cared for, and used by humans; it is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors as a result of selective breeding. [Chapter 8]
double-cropping Harvesting twice a year from the same parcel of land. [Chapter 8]
dust dome A layer of pollution over a city that is thickest at the center of the city. [Chapter 11]
economic development The process by which an agricultural society moves toward industrialization and (usually) higher patterns of income. [Chapter 9]
ecosystem A territorially bounded system consisting of interacting organic and inorganic components. [Chapter 1]
ecotheology The study of the interaction of religious belief and habitat modification. [Chapter 7]
ecotourism Responsible travel that does not harm ecosystems or the well-being of local people. [Chapter 9]
edge city A new urban cluster of economic activity that surrounds a nineteenth-century downtown. [Chapter 11]
electoral geography The study of the interactions among space, place, and region and the conduct and results of elections. [Chapter 6]
enclave A piece of territory surrounded by, but not part of, a country. [Chapter 6]
environmental determinism The belief that cultures are directly or indirectly shaped by the physical environment. [Chapter 1]
environmental perception The belief that culture depends more on what people perceive the environment to be than on the actual character of the environment; perception, in turn, is colored by the teachings of culture. [Chapter 1]
environmental racism The targeting of areas where ethnic or racial minorities live with respect to environmental contamination or failure to enforce environmental regulations. [Chapter 5]
ethnic cleansing The removal of unwanted ethnic minority populations from a nation-state through mass killing, deportation, or imprisonment. [Chapter 5]
ethnic culture region An area occupied by people of similar ethnic background who share traits of ethnicity, such as language and migration history. [Chapter 11]
ethnic flag A readily visible marker of ethnicity on the landscape. [Chapter 5]
ethnic geography The study of the spatial aspects of ethnicity. [Chapter 5]
ethnic group A group of people who share a common ancestry and cultural tradition, often living as a minority group in a larger society. [Chapter 5]
ethnic homeland A sizable area inhabited by an ethnic minority that exhibits a strong sense of attachment to the region and often exercises some measure of political and social control over it. [Chapter 5]
ethnic island A small ethnic area in the rural countryside; sometimes called a folk island. [Chapter 5]
ethnic neighborhood A voluntary community where people of like origin reside by choice. [Chapter 5]
ethnic religion A religion identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group; it does not seek converts. [Chapter 7]
ethnic substrate Regional cultural distinctiveness that remains following the assimilation of an ethnic homeland. [Chapter 5]
ethnicity See ethnic group. [Chapter 5]
ethnoburb A suburban ethnic neighborhood, sometimes home to a relatively affluent immigration population. [Chapters 5, 11, pp. 129, 313]
ethnographic boundary A political boundary that follows some cultural border, such as a linguistic or religious border. [Chapter 6]
ethnomedicine An interdisciplinary area of study that focuses on the natural ingredients and traditional practices used in folk cultures to treat illness and disease, as well as on cultural differences in perceptions of health and disease. [Chapter 2]
European Union (EU) A supranational organization composed of 27 European nations. [Chapter 6]
exclave A piece of national territory separated from the main body of a country by the territory of another country. [Chapter 6]
expansion diffusion The spread of innovations within an area in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers or users becomes greater and the area of occurrence grows. [Chapter 1]
export processing zone (EPZ) Designated area of a country where the government provides conditions conducive to export-oriented production. Called special economic zone (SEZ) in China. [Chapter 9]
extended metropolitan region (EMR) A new type of urban region, complex in both landscape form and function, created by the rapid spatial expansion of a city in the developing world. [Chapter 10]
extensive agriculture A less capital-intensive form of agriculture that is highly influenced by local environmental characteristics, and often produces low crop yields per unit of land being farmed. [Chapter 8]
farm village A clustered, tightly bunched rural settlement inhabited by people who are engaged in farming. [Chapter 3]
farmstead The center of farm operations, containing the house, barn, sheds, livestock pens, and garden. [Chapter 3]
federal state An independent country that gives considerable powers and even autonomy to its constituent parts. [Chapter 6]
feedlot A factorylike farm devoted to livestock feeding or dairying; typically all feed is imported and no crops are grown on the farm. [Chapter 8]
festival setting A multiuse redevelopment project built around a particular setting, often a waterfront or a location with a historical association. [Chapter 11]
folk Traditional, rural; the opposite of “popular.” [Chapter 2]
folk architecture 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 2]
folk culture Small, cohesive, stable, isolated, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and ethnicity; characterized by a strong family or clan structure, order maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family, little division of labor other than that between the sexes, frequent and strong interpersonal relationships, and material cultures consisting mainly of handmade goods. [Chapters 2, 8, pp. 31, 218]
folk fortress A stronghold area with natural defensive qualities, useful in the defense of a country against invaders. [Chapter 6]
folk geography The study of the spatial patterns and ecology of traditional groups. [Chapter 2]
foodway Customary behavior associated with food preparation and consumption. [Chapter 5]
forced migrant A migrant whose movements are coerced by threats to life and livelihood or by threats arising from natural or human-made causes. [Chapter 3]
formal culture region A cultural region inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common. [Chapter 1]
formal demographic region A demographic region based on the single trait of population density. [Chapter 3]
functional culture region A cultural area that functions as a unit politically, socially, or economically. [Chapter 1]
functional zonation The pattern of land uses within a city; the existence of areas with differing functions, such as residential, commercial, and governmental. [Chapter 11]
fundamentalism A movement to return to the founding principles of a religion, which can include literal interpretation of sacred texts, or the attempt to follow the ways of a religious founder as closely as possible. [Chapter 7]
gateway city A city that acts as a port of entry, early settlement area, and distribution center for immigrants to a country because of its relative proximity to the homeland. [Chapter 5]
gender role What it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman, in different cultural and historical contexts. [Chapter 3]
generic toponym The descriptive part of many place names, often repeated throughout a culture area. [Chapter 4]
genetically modified (GM) crop New organism whose genetic characteristics have been programmed through gene splicing between plant and/or animal species. [Chapter 8]
gentrification The displacement of lower-income residents by higher-income residents as buildings in deteriorated areas of city centers are restored. [Chapter 11]
geodemography Population geography; 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 3]
geography The study of spatial patterns and of differences and similarities from one place to another in environment and culture. [Chapter 1]
geometric boundary A political border drawn in a regular, geometric manner, often a straight line, without regard for environmental or cultural patterns. [Chapter 6]
geopolitics The influence of geography and the habitat on political entities. [Chapter 6]
gerrymandering The drawing of electoral district boundaries in an awkward pattern to enhance the voting impact of one constituency at the expense of another. [Chapter 6]
ghetto Traditionally, an area within a city where an ethnic group lives, either by choice or by force. Today in the United States, the term typically indicates an impoverished African-American urban neighborhood. [Chapter 5]
global city A city that is a control center of the global economy. [Chapter 10]
global warming The pronounced climatic warming of Earth that has occurred since about 1920 and particularly since the 1970s. [Chapter 9]
globalization The binding together of all the lands and peoples of the world into an integrated system driven by capitalistic free markets, in which cultural diffusion is rapid, independent states are weakened, and cultural homogenization is encouraged. [Chapter 1]
globalizing city A city being shaped by the new global economy and culture. [Chapter 10]
green revolution The fairly recent introduction of high-yield hybrid crops and chemical fertilizers and pesticides into traditional agricultural systems, most notably paddy rice farming, with attendant increases in production and ecological damage. [Chapter 8]
greenhouse effect A process by which thermal radiation from a planet’s surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is reradiated in all directions. Because part of this reradiation is back towards the planet’s surface and the planet’s lower atmosphere, the result is an elevation of the planet’s average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases. Earth’s natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible. However, human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests, have intensified the natural greenhouse effect, causing global warming. [Chapter 9]
Greens Activists and organizations, including political parties, whose central concern is addressing environmental issues. [Chapter 9]
gross domestic product (GDP) A measurement of the total value of all goods and services produced within a particular region or country within a set time period. [Chapter 9]
guild industry A traditional type of manufacturing before the industrial revolution, involving handmade goods of high quality manufactured by highly skilled artisans who resided in towns and cities. [Chapter 9]
hamlet A small rural settlement, smaller than a farm village. [Chapter 8]
heartland The interior of a sizable landmass, removed from maritime connections; in particular, the interior of the Eurasian continent. [Chapter 6]
heartland theory A 1904 proposal by Mackinder that the key to world conquest lay in control of the interior of Eurasia. [Chapter 6]
heat island An area of warmer temperatures at 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 in which innovations spread from one important person to another or from one urban center to another, temporarily bypassing other persons or rural areas. [Chapter 1]
high-tech corridor An area along a limited-access highway that contains offices and other services associated with high-tech industries. [Chapters 9, 11, pp. 254, 325]
hinterland The area surrounding a city and influenced by it. [Chapter 10]
homelessness A temporary or permanent condition of not having a legal home address. [Chapter 11]
hunting and gathering The killing of wild game and the harvesting of wild plants to provide food in traditional cultures. [Chapter 8]
hydraulic civilization A civilization based on large-scale irrigation. [Chapter 10]
in-filling New building on empty parcels of land within a checkerboard pattern of development. [Chapter 11]
independent invention A cultural innovation that is developed in two or more locations by individuals or groups working independently. [Chapter 1]
industrial revolution A series of inventions and innovations, arising in England in the 1700s, that led to the use of machines and inanimate power in the manufacturing process. [Chapter 9]
industrialization The transformation of raw materials into commodities or the process by which a society moves from subsistence agriculture toward mass production based on machinery and industry. [Chapter 9]
infant mortality rate The number of infants per 1000 live births who die before reaching one year of age. [Chapter 3]
intensive agriculture A form of agriculture using mechanization, labor, and other capital to produce large crop yields relative to the amount of land being farmed. [Chapter 8]
intercropping (intertillage) The practice of growing two or more different types of crops in the same field at the same time. [Chapter 8]
intergovernmental organization An international organization that does not require member states to relinquish sovereignty in order to benefit from cooperation between states in the association. [Chapter 6]
international organization A general term used to describe varying types of organizations that attempt to promote cooperation and coordination among their member states. [Chapter 6]
involuntary migration Also called forced migration, refers to the forced displacement of a population, whether by government policy (such as a resettlement program), warfare or other violence, ethnic cleansing, disease, natural disaster, or enslavement. [Chapter 5]
isogloss The border of usage of an individual word or pronunciation. [Chapter 4]
Kurgan hypothesis A theory of language diffusion holding that the spread of Indo-European languages originated with animal domestication; originated in the Central Asian steppes; and was later, more violent, and swifter than proponents of the Anatolian hypothesis maintain. [Chapter 4]
labor-intensive industry An industry whose labor costs represent a large portion of total production costs. [Chapter 9]
land-division pattern The spatial pattern of various types of land use. [Chapter 1]
language A mutually agreed-on system of symbolic communication that has a spoken and usually a written expression. [Chapter 4]
language family A group of related languages derived from a common ancestor. [Chapter 4]
language hotspot Place on Earth that is home to a unique, misunderstood, or endangered language. [Chapter 4]
lateral commuting Traveling from one suburb to another in going from home to work. [Chapter 11]
legible city A city that is easy to decipher, with clear pathways, edges, nodes, districts, and landmarks. [Chapter 11]
leisure landscape A landscape that is planned and designed primarily for entertainment purposes, such as ski and beach resorts. [Chapter 2]
lingua franca A language of communication and commerce used widely where it is not a mother tongue. [Chapter 4]
linguistic refuge area An area protected by isolation or inhospitable environmental conditions in which language or dialect has survived. [Chapter 4]
livestock feeding A commercial type of agriculture that produces cattle and hogs for meat. [Chapter 8]
local consumption cultures A set of distinct consumption practices and preferences in food, clothing, music, and so forth, formed in a specific place and/or historical moment. [Chapter 2]
Malthusian Those who hold the views of Thomas Malthus, who believed that overpopulation is the root cause of poverty, illness, and warfare. [Chapter 3]
manufactured toponym A place name that is “made up,” often by early founders of a settlement or an influential member of a community. [Chapter 4]
maquiladora A U.S.-owned assembly plant located on the Mexican side of the U.S.–Mexico border, [Chapter 9]
mariculture A branch of aquaculture specific to the cultivation of marine organisms, often involving the transformation of coastal environments and the production of distinctive new landscapes. [Chapter 8]
market The geographical area in which a product may be sold in a volume and at a price profitable to the manufacturer. [Chapter 9]
market gardening Farming devoted to specialized nontropical fruit, vegetable, or vine crops for sale rather than consumption. Also known as truck farming. [Chapter 8]
mass culture A form of culture that is produced, distributed, and marketed through mass media, art, and other forms of communication. [Chapter 2]
master-planned community A large-scale residential development that includes, in addition to architecturally compatible housing units, planned recreational facilities, schools, and security measures. [Chapter 11]
material culture All physical, tangible objects made and used by members of a cultural group. Examples are clothing, buildings, tools and utensils, musical instruments, furniture, and artwork; the visible aspect of culture. [Chapter 2]
mechanistic view of nature The view that humans are separate from nature and hold dominion over it and that the habitat is an integrated mechanism governed by external forces that the human mind can understand and manipulate. [Chapter 1]
medical geography The branch of geography that deals with health and disease-related topics. [Chapter 3]
megacity A particularly large urban center, one with a population over 10 million. [Chapter 10]
megalopolis A large urban region formed as several urban areas spread and merge, such as Boswash, the region including Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. [Chapter 11]
migration The large-scale movement of people between different regions of the world. [Chapter 1]
model An abstraction, an imaginary situation, proposed by geographers to simulate laboratory conditions so that they may isolate certain causal forces for detailed study. [Chapter 1]
monoculture The raising of only one crop on a huge tract of land in agribusiness. [Chapter 8]
monotheism The worship of only one god. [Chapter 7]
multiple-nuclei model A model, developed by Chauncey Harris and Edward Ullman, that depicts a city growing from several separate focal points. [Chapter 11]
nation-state An independent country dominated by a relatively homogeneous culture group. [Chapter 6]
nationalism The sense of belonging to and self-identification with a national culture. [Chapter 6]
natural boundary A political border that follows some feature of the natural environment, such as a river or mountain ridge. [Chapter 6]
natural decrease The birthrate minus the death rate. [Chapter 3]
natural hazard An inherent danger present in a given habitat, such as flooding, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes; often perceived differently by different peoples. [Chapter 1]
neighborhood A small social area within a city where residents share values and concerns and interact with one another on a daily basis. [Chapter 11]
neighborhood effect Microscale diffusion in which acceptance of an innovation is most rapid in small clusters around an initial adopter. [Chapter 1]
node A central point in a functional culture region where functions are coordinated and directed. [Chapter 1]
nomadic livestock herder A member of a group that continually moves with its livestock in search of forage for its animals. [Chapter 8]
nonmaterial culture The wide variety of tales, songs, lore, beliefs, superstitions, and customs that pass from generation to generation as part of an oral or written tradition. [Chapter 2]
North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) An intergovernmental organization composed of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, designed to serve as a trading bloc. [Chapter 6]
nucleation A settlement form characterized by density. [Chapter 1]
office park A cluster of office buildings, usually located along an interstate highway, often forming the nucleus of an edge city. [Chapter 11]
organic agriculture A form of farming that relies on manuring, mulching, and biological pest control and rejects the use of synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, and genetically modified crops. [Chapter 8]
organic view of nature The view that humans are part of, not separate from, nature and that the habitat possesses a soul and is filled with nature-spirits. [Chapter 1]
orthodox religion A strand within most major religions that emphasizes purity of faith and is not open to blending with elements of other belief systems. [Chapter 7]
outsource The physical separation of some economic activities from the main production facility, usually for the purpose of employing cheaper labor. [Chapter 9]
paddy rice farming The cultivation of rice on a paddy, or small flooded field enclosed by mud dikes, practiced in the humid areas of the Far East. [Chapter 8]
palimpsest 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 palimpsest has elements of both modern and past periods. [Chapter 11]
peasant A farmer belonging to a folk culture and practicing a traditional system of agriculture. [Chapter 8]
peripheral model A geographic model, created by Chauncey Harris, that explains how suburban edge cities are linked by ring roads or beltways that allow for commuter traffic to conveniently avoid passing through major urban centers. [Chapter 11]
permeable barrier A barrier that permits some aspects of an innovation to diffuse through it but weakens and retards continued spread. An innovation can be modified in passing through a permeable barrier. [Chapter 1]
personal space The amount of space that individuals feel “belongs” to them as they move about their daily business. [Chapter 3]
physical environment All aspects of the natural physical surroundings, such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, and wildlife. [Chapter 1]
physiological population density A country’s population divided by its total arable land. [Chapter 3]
pidgin A composite language consisting of a small vocabulary borrowed from the linguistic groups involved in trade and commerce. [Chapter 4]
pilgrimage A journey to a place of religious importance. [Chapter 7]
place A term used to connote the subjective, 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]
placelessness A spatial standardization that diminishes regional variety; may result from the spread of popular culture, which can diminish or destroy the uniqueness of place through cultural standardization on a local, national, or worldwide scale. [Chapter 2]
plantation A large landholding devoted to specialized production of a single tropical cash crop. [Chapter 8]
plantation agriculture A system of monoculture for producing export crops requiring relatively large amounts of land and capital; originally dependent on slave labor. [Chapter 8]
political geography The geographic study of politics and political matters. [Chapter 6]
polyglot A mixture of different languages. [Chapter 4]
polytheism The worship of many gods. [Chapter 7]
popular culture A dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change; features include a money-based economy, division of labor into professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties; used to describe a common set of cultural ideas, values, and practices that are consumed by a population. [Chapter 2]
population density A measurement of population per unit area (for example, per square mile). [Chapter 3]
population doubling time The time it takes a population to double in size from any given numerical point. Determined by dividing the growth rate for a population into the number 72. [Chapter 3]
population explosion The rapid, accelerating increase in world population since about 1650 and especially since 1900. [Chapter 3]
population geography Geodemography; 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 3]
population growth rate The increase in a country’s population during a period of time (usually one year), expressed as a percentage of the population at the start of that period. [Chapter 3]
population pyramid A graph used to show the age and sex composition of a population. [Chapter 3]
possibilism A school of thought based on the belief that humans, rather than the physical environment, are the primary active force; that any environment offers a number of possible ways for a culture to develop; and that the choices among these possibilities are guided by cultural heritage. [Chapter 1]
postindustrial phase A society characterized by the dominance of the service sectors of economic activity. [Chapter 9]
primary industry An industry engaged in the extraction of natural resources, such as fishing, farming, hunting, lumbering, and mining. [Chapter 9]
primate city A city of large size and dominant power within a country. [Chapter 10]
producer services The range of economic activities required by producers of goods, including insurance, legal services, banking, advertising, wholesaling, retailing, information generation, and real-estate transactions. [Chapter 9]
proselytic religion A religion that actively seeks new members and aims to convert all humankind. [Chapter 7]
push-and-pull factors Unfavorable, repelling conditions and favorable, attractive conditions that interact to affect migration and other elements of diffusion. [Chapter 3]
race A classification system that is sometimes understood as arising from genetically significant differences among human populations, or visible differences in human physiognomy, or as a social construction that varies across time and space. [Chapter 5]
racism The belief that certain individuals are inferior because they are born into a particular ethnic, racial, or cultural group. Racism often leads to prejudice and discrimination, and it reinforces relationships of unequal power between groups. [Chapter 5]
ranching The commercial raising of herd livestock on a large landholding. [Chapter 8]
range In central-place theory, the average maximum distance people will travel to purchase a good or service. [Chapter 10]
redlining A practice by banks and mortgage companies of demarcating areas considered to be high risk for defaulting on housing loans. [Chapter 11]
refugee A person fleeing from persecution in his or her country of nationality. The persecution can be religious, political, racial, or ethnic. A refugee is a forced migrant. [Chapter 3]
regional trading bloc Entity formed by an agreement made among geographically proximate countries to reduce trade barriers and to better compete with other regional markets. [Chapter 6]
relic boundary A former political border that no longer functions as a boundary. [Chapter 6]
religion A relatively structured set of beliefs and practices through which people achieve mental and physical harmony with the universe and attempt to accommodate or influence the forces of nature, life, and death. [Chapter 7]
relocation diffusion The spread of an innovation or other element of culture that occurs with the bodily relocation (migration) of the individual or group responsible for the innovation. [Chapter 1]
renewable resource A resource that can be replenished naturally at a rate sufficient to balance its depletion by human use. [Chapter 9]
restrictive covenant A statement written into a property deed that limits the use of the land in some way; often used to prohibit certain groups of people from buying property. [Chapter 11]
return migration A type of ethnic diffusion that involves the voluntary movement of a group of migrants back to its ancestral or native country or homeland. [Chapter 5]
rimland The maritime fringe of a country or continent; in particular, the western, southern, and eastern edges of the Eurasian continent. [Chapter 6]
sacred space An area recognized by one or more religious groups as worthy of devotion, loyalty, esteem, or fear to the extent that it is sought out, avoided, inaccessible to the nonbeliever, and/or removed from economic use. [Chapter 7]
satellite state A small, weak country dominated by one powerful neighbor to the extent that some or much of its independence is lost. [Chapter 6]
secondary industry An industry engaged in processing raw materials into finished products; manufacturing. [Chapter 9]
sector model An economic model, developed by Homer Hoyt, that depicts a city as a series of sectors or wedges shaped like the slices of a pie. [Chapter 11]
secular Characterized by little or no religious belief or practice. [Chapter 7]
sedentary cultivation Farming in fixed and permanent fields. [Chapter 8]
services The range of economic activities that provide services to people and industry. [Chapter 9]
settlement form The spatial arrangement of buildings, roads, towns, and other features that people construct while inhabiting an area. [Chapter 1]
sex ratio The numerical ratio of males to females in a population. [Chapter 3]
shantytown A deprived area on the outskirts of a town consisting of a large number of crude dwellings. [Chapter 3]
sharia A legal framework, derived from the religious interpretation of Islamic texts, that governs almost all aspects of public life, and some aspects of private life, for Muslims living under this system of jurisprudence. [Chapter 7]
site The local setting of a city. [Chapter 10]
situation The regional setting of a city. [Chapter 10]
slang Words and phrases that are not part of a standard, recognized vocabulary for a given language but that are nonetheless used and understood by some of its speakers. [Chapter 4]
social culture region An area in a city where many of the residents share social traits such as income, education, age, and family structure. [Chapter 11]
social stratification The existence of distinct socioeconomic classes. [Chapter 10]
sovereignty The right of individual states to control political and economic affairs within their territorial boundaries without external interference. [Chapter 6]
space A term used to connote the objective, quantitative, theoretical, model-based, economics-oriented type of geography that seeks to understand spatial systems and networks through application of the principles of social science. [Chapter 1]
special economic zone (SEZ) See export processing zone (EPZ).
squatter settlement An illegal housing settlement, usually made up of temporary shelters, that surrounds a large city and may eventually become a permanent part of the city. [Chapter 10]
state An independent political unit with a centralized authority that makes claims to sole jurisdiction over a bounded territory, within which a central authority controls and enforces a single system of political and legal institutions; often used synonymously with “country.” [Chapter 6]
stimulus diffusion A type of expansion diffusion in which a specific trait fails to spread but the underlying idea or concept is accepted. [Chapter 1]
subculture A group of people with norms, values, and material practices that differentiate them from the dominant culture to which they belong. [Chapter 2]
subsistence agriculture Farming to supply the minimum food and materials necessary to survive. [Chapter 8]
suitcase farm In U.S. commercial grain agriculture, a farm on which no one lives; planting and harvesting is done by hired migratory crews. [Chapter 8]
supranationalism Occurs when states willingly relinquish some degree of sovereignty in order to gain the benefits of belonging to a larger political-economic entity. [Chapter 6]
survey pattern A pattern of original land survey in an area. [Chapter 8]
sustainability The survival of a land-use system for centuries or millennia without destruction of the environmental base. [Chapters 8, 9, pp. 232, 266]
swidden cultivation A type of agriculture characterized by land rotation in which temporary clearings are used for several years and then abandoned to be replaced by new clearings; also known as slash-and-burn agriculture. [Chapter 8]
symbolic landscape A landscape that expresses the values, beliefs, and meanings of a particular culture. [Chapter 1]
syncretic religion A religion or strand within a religion that combines elements of two or more belief systems. [Chapter 7]
technopole A center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based industry. [Chapter 9]
teleology The belief that Earth was created especially for human beings, who are separate from and superior to the natural world. [Chapter 7]
territoriality A learned cultural response, rooted in European history, that produced the external bounding and internal territorial organization characteristic of modern states. [Chapter 6]
threshold In central-place theory, the size of the population required to make provision of goods and services economically feasible. [Chapter 10]
time-distance decay The decrease in acceptance of a cultural innovation with increasing time and distance from its origin. [Chapter 1]
toponym A place name, usually consisting of two parts, the generic and the specific. [Chapter 4]
topophilia Love of place; used to describe people who exhibit a strong sense of place. [Chapter 1]
total fertility rate (TFR) The number of children the average woman will bear during her reproductive lifetime (15–44 years old). A TFR of less than 2.1, if maintained, will cause a natural decline of population. [Chapter 3]
trade-route site A place for a city at a significant point on a transportation route. [Chapter 10]
transnational corporation A company that has international production, marketing, and management facilities. [Chapter 9]
transnationalism A phenomenon in which immigrants maintain social and/or economic ties to their place of origin. Often, these relationships include visits “home” and the circular exchange of money and goods. [Chapter 1]
transportation/communication services The range of economic activities that provide transport, communication, and utilities to businesses. [Chapter 9]
uneven development The tendency for industry to develop in a core-periphery pattern, enriching the industrialized countries of the core and impoverishing the less-industrialized periphery. This term is also used to describe urban patterns in which suburban areas are enriched while the inner city is impoverished. [Chapters 1, 11, pp. 15, 307]
unitary state An independent state that concentrates power in the central government and grants little authority to the provinces. [Chapter 6]
universalizing religion Also called proselytic religion, a universalizing religion expands through active conversion of new members and aims to encompass all of humankind. [Chapter 7]
urban agriculture The raising of food, including fruit, vegetables, meat, and milk, inside cities, especially common in developing countries. [Chapter 8]
urban footprint The total impact of urban areas on the natural environment. [Chapter 10]
urban hearth area A region in which the world’s first cities evolved. [Chapter 10]
urban morphology The form and structure of cities, including street patterns, building sizes and shapes, architecture, and density. [Chapter 11]
urbanized population The proportion of a country’s population living in cities. [Chapter 10]
vernacular culture region A cultural region perceived to exist by its inhabitants; based in the collective spatial perception of the population at large; bearing a generally accepted name or nickname, such as Dixie. [Chapters 1, 2, pp. 8, 37]
voluntary migrant A person leaving his or her place of residence in order to improve his or her quality of life, often for the purpose of employment. [Chapter 3]
zero population growth A condition of population stability; zero population growth is achieved when an average of only 2.1 children per couple survive to adulthood, so that eventually the number of deaths equals the number of births. [Chapter 3]