Pattison's Four Traditions (1964)
W.D. Pattison -earth-science: physical geography (not one of the Five Themes)-locational: spatial tradition (location)-man-land: human/environmental interaction-area-studies: regional geography
Five Themes of Geography (1986)
GENIP -location: position; situation of people and things -human/environmental interaction: reciprocal relationship b/w humans & env. -region: area on Earth's surface marked by a degree of homogeneity (uniformity) of some phenomenon -place: uniqueness of a location (or similarity of two or more locales); phenomena within an area -movement: mobility of people, goods and ideas; phenomena between areas
Anthropogenic
caused or produced by humans
Absolute location
Position on Earth's surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs parallel to the equator)
Relative location
Position on Earth's surface relative to other features
Absolute distance
Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.
Relative distance
Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places
Site
The physical character of place; what is found at the location and why it is significant
Situation
The location of a place relative to other places.
Formal Region
(uniform, homogeneous) or homogenous region is an area within which everyone shares in common one or mare distinctive characteristics. The shared feature could be a cultural value such as a common language, or an environmental climate.
Functional Region
nodal) Area organized around a node or focal point. The characteristic chosen to define a functional region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward. This region is tied to the central point by transportation or communication systems or by economic or functional associations.
Perceptual Region
(vernacular) is a place that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity. Such regions emerge from peoples informal sense of place rather than from scientific models developed through geographic thought. (Often identified using a mental map- which is an internal representation of a portion of Earths surface). Many "belts" fit this description ... cotton belt (what used to be dominated by agriculture, and is often referred to as the New South), Bible belt, sun belt, rust belt, ..
Environmental perception
a person's idea or image of a place; may often be inaccurate
Cultural trait
a single element of normal practice in a culture
Culture complex
a combination of related cultural traits
Culture hearth
The region from which innovative ideas originate. This relates to the important concept of the spreading of ideas from one area to another (diffusion). Must be viewed in the context of time
Ancient culture hearth
Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Chang & Yellow River Valley (China), Nile River Valley and Delta, Meso-America (origin of farming developed during the First Agricultural Revolution beginning around 12,000 years ago).
Modern culture hearth
Europe, North America, Japan (origin and focus of the Industrial Revolution beginning in the early 1800s after the onset of the Second Agricultural Revolution)
Cultural landscape
Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group. This is the essence of how humans interact with nature.
Sequent occupance
The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape. This is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings
Cultural diffusion
The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time
Relocation diffusion
The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another. Ex: spread of AIDS from New York, California, & Florida.
Migrant diffusion
spread of an idea through people, in which the phenomena weakens or dies out at its previous source ... moves like a "Slinky
Expansion diffusion
The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process
Hierarchical diffusion
The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places
Contagious diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population
Stimulus diffusion
the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse
Acculturation
Process of adopting only certain customs that will be to their advantage
Transculturation
A near equal exchange of culture traits or customs
Assimilation
Process of less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant culture
Environmental determinism
A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study o f how the physical environment caused human activities
Possibilism
The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment
Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of the multiple interactions of human-environmental relationships
Holocene epoch
current interglaciation period (sustained warming phase between glaciations during an ice age), extending from around 12,000 years ago to the present
First Agricultural Revolution
beginning around 12,000 years ago; achieved plant domestication (human influence on genetic modification of a plant) and animal domestication (genetic modification of an animal to make it more amenable to human control and use); began permanent settlements along fertile river valleys which moved humans from egalitarian societies (equal) to more stratified societies (unequal).
Geographic Information Systems
collection of computer hardware and software permitting spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, used, and displayed.
Global Positioning System
satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places
Remote sensing
method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area or object of study
Qualitative data
described in terms of its quality
Quantitative data
recisely describes data using numbers and measures
Map projections
any 3-dimensional object (Earth) will project some distortion onto any 2-dimensional object (map)
Azimuthal Map
directions from a central point are preserved; usually these projections also have radial symmetry
Mercator Map
straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles, used for marine navigation
Peters Map
equal-area cylindrical, areas of equal size on the globe are also equally sized on the map
Robinson Map
distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to balance the errors of projection properties
Fuller Map
using the surface of a polyhedron, it is unfolded to a net in many different ways and flattened to form a two-dimensional map which retains most of the globe's relative proportional integrity
dot map
one dot represents a certain number of phenomena
thematic map
made to reflect a particular theme about a geographic area
choropleth map
thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed
reference map
generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features
proportional symbol
type of thematic map in which the areas of symbols are varied in proportion to the value of an attribute (e.g., city population)
preference map
map demonstrating progressively more desirable options
cartogram
map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area
parallel
line of latitude
meridian
line of longitude
TODALSIG
(Title, Orientation, Date, Author, Legend, Scale, Index, Grid) acronym for assessing the validity and reliability of any map
Scale
representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization; represented as a fraction (large scale = large detail, small area; small scale = small detain, large area)