Fundamentals of the Human Mosaic – Ch. 1.1

The study of spatial patterns and of differences and similarities from one place to another in environment and culture.

A total way of life held in common by a group of people

The study of spatial variations among cultural groups and the spacial functioning if society.
Homogenization.

All aspects of the natural physical surroundings, such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, and wildlife.

Cultural Region.
Cultural Diffusion.
Cultural Ecology.
Cultural Interaction.
Cultural Landscape.

A geographical unit based on characteristics and functions of culture.

A cultural region inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common.

The area where different regions meet and sometimes overlap.

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 periphery that is tributary and displays fewer of the defining traits.

A culture area that functions as a unit politically, socially, or economically.

A central point in a functional region where functions are coordinated and directed.

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

The spread of elements of culture from the point of origin over an area.

A cultural innovation that is developed in two or more locations by individuals or groups working independently.

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.

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.

A type of expansion diffusion in which innovations spread from one urban center to another, temporarily bypassing other persons or rural areas.
IE. Fashion. Something moves from Important place to important place.

A type of expansion diffusion in which cultural innovations spread by person-to-person contact, moving wavelike through an area and population without regard to social status.

A type of expansion diffusion in which a specific trait fails to spread but the underlying idea or concept is accepted.

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.

The decrease in acceptance of a cultural innovation with increasing time and distance from its origin.

A barrier that completely halts diffusion of innovations and blocks the spread of cultural elements.

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 padding through a permeable barrier.

Microscale diffusion in which acceptance of an innovation is most rapid in small clusters around an initial adopter.

The binding together of all 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.