THE HUMAN
WORLD
How do the characteristics and distribution of human populations
affect human and physical systems?
CULTURE
▪ Def: a way of life of a group of people
who share similar beliefs, customs,
technology, and material items
▪ Look at language, religion, subgroups
▪ Studying daily life
▪ History, art, and governance
LANGUAGE
▪ One of the strongest unifying forces
for culture
▪ Dialect: local form of a language that
differs from the main language
▪ LANGUAGE FAMILIES: group of related
languages
RELIGION
▪ Can enable a sense of identity
▪ Influences daily life (holidays, morals)
▪ Shapes the arts
▪ Can be a source of conflict in some
places
▪ Major religions:
▪ Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
▪ Smaller groups of society
▪ Develop to help people meet basic
needs
▪ Family is usually the most important
▪ Also includes: ancestry, wealth,
education, ethnicity
▪ ETHNIC GROUP: group of people who
share a common ancestry, language,
religion, customs, or place of origin
GOVERNMENT
▪ Maintains order
▪ Provides protection
▪ Supplies services to the people
▪ Levels of power: national, regional,
local
ECONOMICS
▪ Study of how a culture uses its natural
resources to meet human needs
▪ How people produce, obtain, use, and
sell goods and services
CULTURE REGION
▪ Def: division of the Earth in which
people share a similar way of life
(language, religion, econ systems, and
values)
CULTURE CHANGE
What are 2 ways in which culture changes over time?
CULTURAL DIFFUSION
▪ Def: the spread of cultural traits,
material and non-material, from one
culture to another
▪ Migration and trade
CULTURAL HEARTH
▪ Def: a center where cultures
developed and from which ideas and
traditions spread outward
▪ 5 major ones:
▪ Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, China, and
Mexico
▪ All located near major rivers (river
valley civilizations)
▪ Allowed for more farming; more
farming means more food; more food
allows for pop. growth
CULTURAL CHANGE TODAY
▪ Comm. around world is faster
▪ World gets “smaller”
▪ GLOBALIZATION: the expansion of
economic, political, and cultural
processes to the point that they
become global in scale and impact
▪ Greater CONNECTIVITY: degree of
connection btwn ppl, places, and
things
BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION
▪ Increased STANDARD OF LIVING: level
of wealth, goods, and necessities
available for ppl to live
▪ Larger selection of goods/services
▪ Creativity and innovation
▪ New technology
▪ Cooperation and awareness
▪ Greater access to foreign culture
CHALLENGES TO GLOBALIZATION
▪ OUTSOURCING: setting up businesses
abroad to produce for domestic sale
▪ Increased wealth gap
▪ Loss of culture
▪ PANDEMICS: spread of disease across
a large area
▪ Environmental degradation
POPULATION
GEOGRAPHY
7.3 billion strong…and growing
DEMOGRAPHY
▪ Def: study of populations
▪ Use statistics
▪ BIRTH RATE: # of births per year for
every 1000 ppl
▪ DEATH RATE: # of deaths/yr for every
1000 ppl
▪ NATURAL INCREASE: growth rate of
pop.; difference btwn BR and DR
▪ DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION: model
that uses BRs and DRs to show how
pops. change over time
CHALLENGES TO GROWTH
▪ Rapid pop. growth brings problems
▪ Food, water, housing shortages
▪ Age distribution is uneven
▪ POPULATION PYRAMID: a diagram
showing pop. distribution by age and
gender
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
▪ Def: the variations in pop. that occur
across a country, continent, or the
world
▪ Limited land space (humans occupy
1/3 of available land)
▪ POPULATION DENSITY: avg. # of ppl
living on a sq. mi. or sq. km. of land
▪ Determines how crowded an area is
POLITICAL
GEOGRAPHY
Government
LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
▪ UNITARY SYSTEM: all key powers rest
w/the national/central govt
▪ FEDERAL SYSTEM: power divided
btwn national and state
▪ CONFEDERATION: loose union of
independent territories
TYPES OF GOVTS
▪ AUTOCRACY: one person rules
w/unlimited authority
▪ MONARCHY: hereditary king/queen
has supreme power
▪ OLIGARCHY: a small group holds
power
▪ THEOCRACY: religion has the power
▪ DEMOCRACY: leaders rule with
consent of the people
▪ REPUBLIC: ppl elect representatives
GEOGRAPHY OF GOVT
▪ NATURAL BOUNDARY: physical
geographic features influence political
boundaries
▪ CULTURAL BOUNDARIES:
geographical boundary btwn 2
different cultures
▪ GEOMETRIC BOUNDARIES: boundary
that follows a geometric pattern
ECONOMIC
GEOGRAPHY
Money, money, money!
ECONOMICS
▪ 3 basic economic decisions:
▪ 1) What and how many
goods/services should be produced?
▪ 2) How should they be produced?
▪ 3) Who gets the goods/services?
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
▪ TRADITIONAL ECONOMY: tradition
and custom control all economic
activity; rare
▪ MARKET ECONOMY: based on free
enterprise; businesses are privately
owned and production and prices are
determined by supply and demand
▪ FREE ENTERPRISE: private
individuals/groups have the right to
own property or businesses and make
a profit w/limited govt interference
▪ CAPITALISM: factors of production are
privately owned
SYSTEMS CONT
▪ MIXED ECONOMY: govt supports and
regulates enterprise through
decisions that affect the marketplace
▪ COMMAND ECONOMY: decisions
about production and distribution of
goods/services are made by a central
authority
DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMICS
▪ Resources are not evenly distributed
▪ Creates specialized economic activity
▪ 4 types of econ activity:
▪ 1) Primary: taking resources directly
from the Earth
▪ 2) Secondary: make products from
resources
▪ 3) Tertiary: services to people and
businesses
▪ 4) Quaternary: processing, managing,
and distribution of information
LEVEL OF ECON DEVELOPMENT
▪ MORE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: have
a highly developed econ. and
advanced technological infrastructure
▪ Characteristics:
▪ High literacy rate
▪ Civil liberties and human rights
recognized and protected
▪ Medium to high citizen participation
in govt
LEVELS CONT.
▪ NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES:
has begun transitioning from
primarily agricultural to primarily
industrial and manufacturing activity
▪ Characteristics:
▪ Literacy rate btwn 60-95%
▪ Some political corruption
▪ Increasing life expectancy
▪ Decreasing birth rates
LEVELS CONT.
▪ LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES:
according to UN; country that exhibits
the lowest indicators of
socioeconomic development
▪ Characteristics:
▪ Low literacy rates
▪ Low life expectancy
▪ High birthrates
▪ Politically unstable
WORLD TRADE
▪ Specialized economies requires
countries to trade w/one another
▪ Differences in labor costs and
education affect business
(outsourcing)