Home » Jordan’s Fundamentals of the Human Mosaic – Ch. 1a

Jordan’s Fundamentals of the Human Mosaic – Ch. 1a

Geography
The study of spatial patterns and of differences and similarities from one place to another in environment and culture.
Greek: Geography = To describe the Earth
Culture
A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including such feature ans 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.
Way of life: Food, Religion, Knowledge/Education, Clothing, Language.
Culture changes, is learned, is material/noun (house/language)
Cultural Geography
The study of spatial variations among cultural groups and the spacial functioning if society.
Homogenization.
Physical Environment
All aspects of the natural physical surroundings, such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, and wildlife.
Geographical Concepts/Themes
Cultural Region.
Cultural Diffusion.
Cultural Ecology.
Cultural Interaction. (Integration)
Cultural Landscape.
Cultural Region
A geographical unit based on characteristics and functions of culture.
Formal Cultural Region
A cultural region inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common.
Border Zone
The area where different regions meet and sometimes overlap.
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 periphery that is tributary and displays fewer of the defining traits.
Functional Cultural Region
A culture area that functions as a unit politically, socially, or economically.
Node
A central point in a functional region where functions are coordinated and directed.
Vernacular Cultural 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).
Cultural Diffusion
The spread of elements of culture from the point of origin over an area.
Independent Invention
A cultural innovation that is developed in two or more locations by individuals or groups working independently.
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.
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.
Hierarchical Diffusion
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.
Contagious Diffusion
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.
Stimulus Diffusion
A type of expansion diffusion in which a specific trait fails to spread but the underlying idea or concept is accepted.
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.
Time-Distance Decay
The decrease in acceptance of a cultural innovation with increasing time and distance from its origin.
Absorbing Barrier
A barrier that completely halts diffusion of innovations and blocks the spread of cultural elements.
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 padding through a permeable barrier.
Neighborhood Effect
Microscale diffusion in which acceptance of an innovation is most rapid in small clusters around an initial adopter.
Migration
The large-scale movement of people between different regions of the world.
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.
Globalization
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.
Uneven Development
The tendency for industry to develop in a core-periphery pattern, enriching the industrailized countries of the core and impoverishing the less-industrialized periphery. The term is also used to describe urban patterns in which the inner city is impoverished.
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