Vocabulary List for AP Human Geography Created by M. Sharma (Retired Teacher)
NOTE for STUDENTS: Keep this list with you at all times in this class. You may work
on this cooperatively. We will be dealing with these as we go thru the course.
Explain terms. . Use examples whenever possible. EX’s help you remember!!
THESE CAN’T BE FOUND IN A SINGLE TEXTBOOK. Some will be on my
geography reference shelf. However: MANY are included in my PPT Notes!
Unit I. Geography: Nature & Perspectives— Basic Vocab. & Concepts Mainly Ch 1
Note: The following concepts transcend all units in AP Human Geography; they are
central to all geographic thinking and analysis and could even be considered central to
any definition of geography.
Basic Concepts
Changing attributes of place
st nd
(built landscape, sequent occupancy -- 1 , 2 , etc)
Cultural attributes (cultural landscape): Uniform? Distinctive/Diverse?
Density: Arithmetic
Physiological
Agricultural
Diffusion:
Hearth
Relocation Diffusion
Expansion Diffusion
Hierarchical
Contagious
Stimulus
Direction (absolute [use some # system]; relative [use related to some other place] )
Distribution: Dispersion/concentration/patterns:
dispersed/scattered
concentrated/clustered/agglomerated
Distance:
Absolute Relative
Environmental determinism vs. Possibilism
Life course
Location (absolute, relative, site, situation, place name)
Pattern (linear, centralized, random)
Physical attributes (natural landscape)
Region (formal/uniform, functional/nodal, perceptual/vernacular)
Scale (implied degree of generalization)
Size
Spatial (of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface)
Spatial interaction:
Accessibility
Connectivity Now known more often as globalization
Network
distance decay
friction of distance
time-space compression
----------------------------------------------------1
Geographic Tools
Distortion
Geographic Information System (GIS)
*remote sensing
*satellite imagery
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Grids:
 North & South Poles
 Latitude
 Parallels
 Equator
 Longitude
 Meridian
 prime meridian
 international date line
Maps: the tool most uniquely ID’ed w/ geography;
the ability to use and interpret maps is an essential geographic skill
Map scale (distance on a map relative to distance on Earth)
Map types:
 Thematic
 Statistical
 Cartogram
 Dot
 Choropleth
 Isoline
 Mental map
Model (a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal relationships):
--Know major geographers’ models geographers use to explain patterns, make
informed decisions, & predict future behaviors.
Demographic Transition
Epidemiological Transition
Von Thünen
Terms below in later chapters:
Weber
Stages of Urban Growth [Rostow]
Concentric Circle [Burgess]
Sector [Hoyt], Multiple Nuclei
Central Place [Christaller]
Projection
Remote sensing
Time zones
2
Unit II. Population — Basic Vocab. & Concepts Ch. 2 (Population/Demography) + Ch. 3 (Migration)
Population/Demography: Ch 2
Age distribution
Carrying capacity
Cohort
Demographic equation
Demographic momentum
Demographic regions
Demographic Transition model
Dependency ratio
Diffusion of fertility control
Disease diffusion
Doubling time
Ecumene
Epidemiological Transition model
Gendered space
Infant mortality rate
J-curve
Maladaptation
Malthus, Thomas
Malthusians:
Mortality
Natality
Neo-Malthusian
Overpopulation
Population densities
Population distributions
Population explosion
Population projection
Population pyramid
Rate of natural increase
S-curve
Sex ratio
Standard of living
Sustainability
Underpopulation
Zero population growth
Migration (Ch 3)
*international migration and refugees
*socioeconomic consequences of migration
Chain migration
Cyclic movement
Distance decay
Forced
Gravity model
Internal migration
3
Intervening opportunity
Migration patterns
• Intercontinental
• Interregional
• Rural urban
Migratory movement
Periodic movement
Personal space
Place utility
Push-pull factors
Refugee
Space-time prism
Step migration
Transhumance
Transmigration
Voluntary
Unit III. Cultural Patterns & Processes, Part 1—Basic Vocab. & Concepts (Ch.’s 4 + 5 + de Blij book)
Concepts of Culture (Mainly in de Blij book & Human Mosaic
Acculturation
Assimilation
Cultural adaptation
Cultural core/periphery pattern
Cultural ecology
Cultural identity
Cultural landscape
Cultural realm
Culture
Culture region
• Formal—core, periphery
• Functional—node
• Vernacular (perceptual)—regional self-awareness
Diffusion types
• Expansion—hierarchical, contagious, stimulus
• Relocation
Innovation adoption
Maladaptive diffusion
Sequent occupance (aka occupancy)
Folk and Popular Culture Ch 4:
Adaptive strategies
Anglo-American landscape characteristics
Architectural form
Built environment
Folk culture vs. Popular culture
Folk food; Folk housing; Folk songs ;
Folklore Traditional architecture
Material culture vs. Nonmaterial culture
Survey systems
4
Language Ch. 5
Creole
Dialect
Indo-European languages
Isogloss
Language
Language family Language group
Lingua franca
Linguistic diversity
Monolingual/multilingual
Official language
Pidgin
Spanglish Franglish
Toponymy
Trade language
Language subfamily (aka lang. branch)
Unit III. Cultural Patterns & Processes, Part 2—Basic Vocab. & Concepts (Ch’s 6 & 7)
----------------------------------------------------------Religion Ch. 6
Animism
Buddhism
Cargo cult pilgrimage
Christianity
Confucianism
Ethnic religion
Exclave/enclave
Fundamentalism
Geomancy (feng shui)
Hadj
Hinduism
Interfaith boundaries
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Landscapes of the dead
Monotheism/polytheism
Mormonism
Muslim pilgrimage
Muslim population
Proselytic religion
Reincarnation
Religion (groups, places)
Religious architectural styles
Religious conflict
Religious culture hearth
Religious toponym
Sacred space
Secularism
Shamanism
Sharia law
5
Shintoism
Sikhism
Sunni/Shia
Taoism
Theocracy
Universalizing
Zoroastrianism
-----------------------------Ethnicity Ch 7
Acculturation
Adaptive strategy
Assimilation
Barrio
Chain migration
Cultural adaptation
Cultural shatterbelt
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic conflict
Ethnic enclave
Ethnic group
Ethnic homeland
Ethnic landscape
Ethnic neighborhood
Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Ghetto
Plural society
Race
Segregation
Social distance
Terrorism
--------------------------------Gender (actually in Ch.’s 2, 7, 8 & 9)
Dowry death
Enfranchisement
Gender
Gender gap
Infanticide
Longevity gap
Maternal mortality rate
Women in development
Unit IV. Political Organization of Space—Basic Vocab. & Concepts Ch’s 8 + 9 + de Blij/Human Mosaic
Annexation
Antarctica
Apartheid
Balkanization
Border landscape
6
Boundary, disputes (definitional,
locational, operational,
allocational)
Boundary, origin (antecedent, subsequent, superimposed, relic)
Boundary, process (definition, delimitation, demarcation)
Boundary, type (natural/physical, ethnographic/cultural, geometric)
Buffer state
Capital
Centrifugal
Centripetal
City-state
Colonialism
Confederation
Conference of Berlin (1884)
Core/periphery
Decolonization
Devolution
Domino theory
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)
Electoral regions
Enclave/exclave
Ethnic conflict
European Union
Federal
Forward capital
Frontier
Geopolitics
Gerrymander
Global commons
Heartland/rimland
Immigrant states
International organization
Iron Curtain
Irredentism
Israel/Palestine
Landlocked
Law of the Sea
Lebanon
Mackinder, Halford J.
Manifest destiny
Median-line principle
Microstate
Ministate
NAFTA
Nation
National iconography
Nation-state
Nunavut
Raison d’être
Reapportionment
7
Regionalism
Religious conflict
Reunification
Satellite state
Self-determination
Shatterbelt
Sovereignty
State
Stateless ethnic groups
Stateless nation
Suffrage
Supranationalism
Territorial disputes
Territorial morphology (compact, fragmented, elongated, prorupt, perforated)
Territoriality
Terrorism
Theocracy
Treaty ports
UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
Unitary
USSR collapse
Women’s enfranchisement
-------------------------------------Unit V. Agricultural & Rural Land Use—Basic Vocab. & Concepts Ch. 10 + Ch 9
Adaptive strategies
Agrarian
Agribusiness
Agricultural industrialization
Agricultural landscape
Agricultural location model
Agriculture & Agricultural origins
Animal domestication
Aquaculture
Biorevolution
Biotechnology
Collective farm
Commercial agriculture (intensive, extensive)
Core/periphery
Crop rotation
Cultivation regions
Dairying
Debt-for-nature swap
Diffusion
Double cropping
Economic activity:
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Quaternary
Quinary
8
Environmental modification:
Pesticides
Soil erosion
Desertification
Genetically modified plants and animals
Organic farming and local food production
Natural resources and environmental concerns
Irigation
Conservation
Sustainable development
Extensive subsistence agriculture:
Shifting cultivation [slash-and- burn, milpa, swidden]
Nomadic herding/pastoralism
Extractive industry
Farm crisis
Farming
Feedlot
First agricultural revolution
Fishing
Food chain
Forestry
Globalized agriculture
Green revolution
Growing season
Hunting and gathering
Intensive subsistence agriculture
Intertillage
Livestock ranching
Market gardening
Mediterranean agriculture
Mineral fuels
Mining
Planned economy
Plant domestication
Plantation agriculture
Renewable/nonrenewable
Rural settlement (dispersed, nucleated, building material, village form)
Sauer, Carl O.
Second agricultural revolution
Specialization
Staple grains
Suitcase farm
Survey patterns (long lots, metes & bounds, township-and-range)
Sustainable yield
Third agricultural revolution (mechanization, chemical farming, food manufacturing)
“Tragedy of the commons”
Transhumance
Truck farm
Von Thünen, Johann Heinrich
9
Unit VI. Industrialization & Development--Basic Vocab. & Concepts Ch’s 11 + 9
Agricultural labor force
Calorie consumption
Core-periphery model
Cultural convergence
Dependency theory
Development
Energy consumption
Foreign direct investment
Gender
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Human Captial
Human Development Index
Levels of development
& Gross national product (GNP)
Millennium Development Goals
Measures of development
Neocolonialism
Physical Quality of Life Index
Purchasing power parity
Rostow, W. W.
“Stages of Growth” model
Technology gap
Technology transfer
Third World
World Systems Theory
Industrialization Ch 11
Acid rain
Agglomeration
Agglomeration economies
Air pollution
Aluminum industry (factors of
production, location)
Assembly line production/Fordism
Bid rent theory
Break-of-bulk point
Canadian industrial heartland
Carrier efficiency
Commodity Chains
Comparative advantage
Cumulative causation
Deglomeration
Deindustrialization
Economic sectors
Economies of scale
Ecotourism
Energy resources
Entrepôt
Export processing zone
Fixed costs
10
Footloose industry
Four Tigers
Greenhouse effect
Growth poles
Heartland/rimland (Ch 8)
Human capital
Industrial location theory
Industrial regions (place, fuel source, characteristics):
Industrial Revolution
Industry (receding vs. growing)
Infrastructure
International division of labor
Labor-intensive
Least-cost location
Major manufacturing regions
Manufacturing exports
Manufacturing/warehouse location
(things to consider: industrial parks, agglomeration, shared services,
zoning, transportation, taxes, environmental considerations)
Maquiladora
Market orientation
Multiplier effect
NAFTA
Outsourcing
Ozone depletion
Plant location (supplies,
“just in time” delivery)
Postindustrial
Refrigeration
Resource crisis
Resource orientation
Special economic zones (China)
Specialized economic zones
Substitution principle
Threshold/range
Time-space compression
Topocide
Trade (complementarity)
Transnational corporation
Ubiquitous
Variable costs
Weber, Alfred
Weight-gaining
Weight-losing
World cities
-----------------------------------------Unit VII. Cities & Urban Land Use— Basic Vocab & Concepts Ch’s 12 + 13
*rank-size rule
*central place theory
11
*gravity model
*New Urbanism
*actions that reduce energy use and protect the environment
*concentric zone model
*sector model
*multiple-nuclei model
housing
Agglomeration
Barriadas
Bid-rent theory
Blockbusting
CBD (central business district)
Census tract
Centrality
Centralization
Christaller, Walter: Central-place theory
City
Cityscapes
Colonial city
Commercialization
Commuter zone
Concentric zone model
Counterurbanization
Decentralization
Deindustrialization
Early cities
Economic base (basic/nonbasic)
Edge city
Emerging cities
Employment structure
Entrepôt
Ethnic neighborhood
Female-headed household
Festival landscape
Gateway city
Gender
Gentrification
Ghetto
Globalization
Great cities
High-tech corridors
Hinterland
Hydraulic civilization
Indigenous city
In-filling
Informal sector
Infrastructure
Inner city
Invasion and succession
Lateral commuting
12
Medieval cities
Megacities
Megalopolis/conurbation
Metropolitan area
Multiple nuclei model
Multiplier effect
Neighborhood
Office park
Peak land value intersection
Planned communities
Postindustrial city
Postmodern urban landscape
Primate city
Racial steering
Rank-size rule
Redlining
Restrictive covenants
Sector model
Segregation
Settlement form:
nucleated
dispersed
elongated
Shopping mall
Site/situation
Slums ( & various terms: favelas, barrios, etc.)
Social structure
Specialization
Squatter settlement
Street pattern (grid, dendritic; access, control)
Suburb
Suburbanization
Symbolic landscape
Tenement
Threshold/range
Town
Underclass
Underemployment
Urban growth rate
Urban function
Urban hearth area
Urban heat island
Urban hierarchy
Urban hydrology & Urban morphology
Urbanization
Urbanized population
World city
Zone in transition
Zoning
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SUMMARY of REVISIONS for APHG 2010-2011
What's been added?
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remote sensing
satellite imagery
human capital
life course
international migration and refugees
socioeconomic consequences of migration
assimilation
globalization
NAFTA
terrorism
irrigation
conservation
genetically modified plants and animals
organic farming and local food production
natural resources and environmental
concerns
sustainable development
women in development
Millennium Development Goals
commodity chains
rank-size rule
central place theory
gravity model
New Urbanism
actions that reduce energy use and protect
the environment
concentric zone model
sector model
multiple-nuclei model
housing
What's been removed?
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14
short term and local movements
activity space
impact of folk and popular culture on the
environment
the environment in relation to social customs and
cultural landscape
Third Agricultural Revolution
future food supplies
pollution, health, and quality of life
industrialization, environmental change, and
sustainability
historical patterns of urbanization