Review Terms for AP Human Geography

  • Geography……pertains to the evolving character and organization of earth's surface; if the

earth and people’s relationship with it and each other didn’t’ change, we wouldn’t need this class.

  • Thomas Malthus, circa 1800What was his theory? Food increases arithmetically;

population increases exponentially; food will run out

  • World Population DistributionWhere are the concentrations?

The Northern Hemisphere, coastal areas

(larger land masses, better climates)

  • Where is the fastest growth occurring?

Poorer countries, especially in Africa, where there are still agrarian economies, and in

Asia; their cities are growing rapidly.

Remember Chinawith 2/3 of the world’s population already has huge cities and so does

India.

Why is this a problem?

Poverty, lack of infrastructure in the cities to handle growth

  • Crude Birth RateHow are these rates reported? xx births per 1000

Why is China's crude birth lower than ours? Birth control;

one-child policy; there's been a significant decrease in the birth rate the past 25 years.

Crude Death RateHow can the U.S.'s crude death be "high"? We have a

higher percentage of elderly in the population.

What is the “rate of natural increase"?birth rate - death rate /10

  • What is “net migration”?immigration – emigration

A country’s total population change in one year is therefore: b- d+ i – e.

How else is population growth measured? total fertility rate (per woman)

  • Arithmetic Density, Physiological Density, Agricultural Density Definitions
  • Toponyms Place namesExamples: Think of place names that have Saint in

the name. Why would this be?

  • Cultural ecology……This is the study that deals with the relationship between the earth and humans; the outcome of this relationship is the cultural ______landscape______(see book cover!)Another way to say it: Cultural ecology influences the cultural landscape, the landscape built by humans.
  • Types of religious architecture:Which religions in which world region seem to have the most elaborate architecture?
  • ExclaveExamples: Kaliningrad and West __Berlin___.

EnclaveExamples: Vatican City, San Marino, Lesotho

  • Latitude and longitudeThese are angular distances measured either from the Equator or the Greenwich Prime Meridian.; they form the grid system. Former indicates latitude belts and climates; latter creates time zones every 15 degrees.
  • Chain migrationImportance pull factor for migrants.

Brain drainCountries lose educated, talented emigrants (true for many Asian countries)

Internal migrationMigration within a country

  • Map projection and distortionHappens when a round surface is made flat; distortion may be in size or shape of land forms, distance between land forms, or in direction.
  • Be ready to explain the usefulness of both the Mercator and Robinson projections.
  • Map scale Distance on the map represents distance on the ground proportionately.
  • Carrying capacityThe resource base of an area supports a sustainable population.
  • Demographic Transition Model

Time Birth RateDeath RateConditions/outcomes?

Stage 1 10,000 B,C. high high Agricultural Rev./low growth

Stage 2 18th/19th Cen. high low Ind. Rev./high growth

Stage 3 late 19th Cen. decreasing low Better infant mortality rate;

moderate growth;

beginning of Medical Revolution

Stage 4 20th Cen. low low Stabilization; low growth

Other notes: Stage 3 saw large migration to New World because of European

wars, unrest, etc. Stage 4 involves urbanization and even falling birth

rates in some countries.

  • Where are the cultural centers today for Hindus, Jews and Muslims?

IndiaIsrael N. Africa/SW Asia

  • What has been the significance of rivers in world history for early urban development?

City-states began in fertile river valleys in Mesopotamia; in Europe earliest and largest cities began on rivers necessary for transportation.

  • Who were the major colonial powers in Africa?Great Britain and France
  • Definitions:

Folk cultureMore isolatedPopular culture Spread by diffusion

Note: folk cultures may set minority groups apart by choice or nature of isolation.

  • Population distribution in the U.S.Are we more urban or rural?Since when?

We are more urban/metropolitan. More urban since the 1920s; more suburban since the 1950s.

Metropolitan means city + its suburbs.

Why was it not until after World War II that suburbia started mushrooming?

Until then people had to live IN the city; afterwards, there wasbetter transportation: GIs could get GI loans, boomer parents could buy cars, and gov. built freeways.

  • Where is our core area? Industrial: Great lakes to New EnglandPolitical: Boston to Washington. Esp. Washington, D.C. and NYC.
  • Where would you find these products being raised in the U.S.? In the world?
  • Cattle? Cotton? Rice? Tobacco? Sheep?
  • Examples of Transnational Corporations…

These corporations either export U.S. goods and services or import other countries' resources.

In what ways do transnational corporations "look out for themselves"?

  • Where were the early cultural hearths?Places like Mesopotamia, China, India, Mexico
  • In the cultural landscape, how can religion affect food production?

Religions may ban the eating of certain foods (Jews and Muslims don't eat pork; Hindus don't eat beef.)

  • In the cultural landscape, how can the environment affect housing types?

Pioneers had to use the resources at hand (logs, sod); housing designs reflected climate (Ex.: Salt-box roofs in New England; dog-trot house in the rural south).

  • Nation-state definition and examples: An ethnostate. Ex.:Denmark, Israel, Japan. The Palestinians want to be a nation-state.
  • What is a Formal region? It has uniformity and shared characteristics; like citizenship

What is a functional region? It has a node or center. Ex. business territory

What is a vernacular region? It varies according to what the criteria is or who you ask. Ex: The Midwest

  • Clashes between groups: What are the causes?Clashes may come because of religion, language or ethnicity. However, religion, language or ethnicity don't have to cause clashes--multi-ethnic states like the U.S. may prove so.

What does the term "ethnonational" mean and why does this "up the ante"? Clashes as described above are more likely to happen when one ethnic group claims political power over another or when one ethic group has lost political power and is resentful. Ex.: Palestinians; Hutus or Tutsis in Rwanda., Shias vs. Sunnis in Iraq.

  • What are the "parts" of language? That is, family to __branch__, to _group__ to __language to_dialect_.Our family is Indo-European; our branch is Germanic; our group is West Germanic; our language is English. Is your dialect “Texan”? 

Most widely spoken family is Indo-European, but most widely single language is Mandarin Chinese.

  • What can population pyramids show?

High mortality at any given age; war; influx of guest workers; Boomer generation…

  • Guest workers in the U.S., in Europe and elsewhere…where do they come from?

Latin Americans to U.S.N. Africans to France, Italy

Turks to Germany

Other Asians to Middle East

Many, if not most, are men.

  • Push/Pull Factors: Know the Difference
  • Sun Belt vs. Rust Belt: The southern part of the U.S. is drawing population away from the old Northeast.Why is the former gaining population; why is the latter losing population? Climate, cost of living, loss of jobs due to closing factories.What are the political implications?After the census in 2000 and 2010, states in the south did gain and will gain electoral votes, and therefore, more Federal spending.
  • Review the concepts behind time zones.

Every 15 degrees; initiated in 1883-84 for railroads in U.S. and better cable communication in Europe. Ironically China doesn't use International Time Zone system.

  • Relocation diffusionExpansion DiffusionExamples

HierarchicalU.S. laws in Iraq.

Ex. The QuakersContagiousCoca-Cola/McDonalds

StimulusThe Apple Mouse

  • Why is cultural extinction in places like the rainforest a problem?

Mankind may lose knowledge about the ecosystem and medicinal customs.

  • Why does language extinction happen? Usually by acculturation; take-over by a hierarchial group

Genocide and conquest were historical factors that have eliminated many ethnic languages

Hierarchical examples: a language like English becomes the language of doing-business;a language like Swahili becomes dominant in sub-Saharan Africa.(These are called Lingua Franca.)

Today,hundreds oflesser used languages are still in danger of becoming extinct (e.g., languages spoken by isolated populations in the rainforests, on remote islands, dialects spoken only by elderly people in Europe).

  • How do acculturation and assimilation differ? Acculturation is cultural modification; a cultural group adopts the traits of a host or dominant group through borrowing. Assimilation implies that the minority group blends completely into the larger group.
  • What's the difference between a reference map and a thematic map? We use reference maps usually for location purposes for place or region; a thematic map shows certain variables that may be located, compared, analyzed, etc.
  • Centripetal forces: What brings people together into a nationality; examples--language, customs, history, etc.
  • Centrifugal forces: Forces that may lead to devolution (decentralizing) or Balkanization (breaking up) of a state. These may include ethnic differences, uneven development, proruption, allegiance to a substate over the national state (e.g., loyalty to the Confederacy by Southerners)), or even local control when national control is difficult because of distance decay.
  • Distance Decay…is also called "friction of distance": When distance from a node or core region increases, efficiency or control decreases.
  • Review the difference between colonialism and imperialism.

Colonialism involves benign rule by the mother country, but imperialism implies economic and political domination.

  • Are there still forced migrations?Examples:

Yes, Africans because of tribal warfare.Sudan

Yes, because of natural disasters.Cajun Diaspora

  • Be able to explain the Gravity Model
  • Be able to explain Ernst Ravenstein’s law of migration? Friction and Distance?
  • What are examples of the "parts" of world religions?

Branches DenominationsSects

Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox/ProtestantThink Protestant, like “Moonies.”

Baptist, Methodist, etc. Branch

Davidians

Sunni/Shiite in Islam

  • What's the difference between a universalizing religion and an ethnic religion? The former seeks new members; the latter does not and one is usually born into that religion/ethnicity.
  • What is GIS?What is GPS?

Geographic Information SystemGlobal Positioning System

uses layers of computer data uses remote sensors like satellites

  • What is a census tract? What is the connection between census data and politics?
  • How does movement spread culture?
  • Relationship between patterns of human settlements and natural disasters.