Ap Human Geography Vocabulary Chapter 4-5

Front 1

Acculturation

Back 1

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another

Front 2

Animism

Back 2

Most prevalent in Africa and the Americas, doctrine in which the world is seen as being infused with spiritual and even supernatural powers

Front 3

Artifact

Back 3

Any item that represents a material aspect of culture

Front 4

Buddhism

Back 4

System of belief that seeks to explain ultimate realities for all people--such as the nature of suffering and the path toward self-realization

Front 5

Caste System

Back 5

System in India that gives every Indian a particular place in the social hierarchy from birth. Individuals may improve the position they inherit in the caste system in their next life through their actions, or karma. After many lives of good karma, they may be relieved from cycle of life and win their place in heaven

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Christianity

Back 6

The world's most widespread religion. Christianity is a monotheistic, universal religion that uses missionaries to expand its members worldwide. The three major categories of Christianity are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox

Front 7

Creole

Back 7

A pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it becomes the primary language of the people who speak it

Front 8

Cultural Complex

Back 8

The group of traits that define a particular culture

Front 9

Cultural Extinction

Back 9

Obliteration of an entire culture by war, disease, acculturation, or a combination of the three

Front 10

Cultural geography

Back 10

The subfield of human geography that looks at how cultures vary over space

Front 11

Cultural Hearth

Back 11

Locations on earth's surface where specific cultures first arose

Front 12

Cultural Imperialism

Back 12

The dominance of one culture over another

Front 13

Cultural Trait

Back 13

The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and aspects of popular culture

Front 14

Culture

Back 14

A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including learned features such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government

Front 15

Custom

Back 15

Practices followed by the people of a particular cultural group

Front 16

Denomination

Back 16

A particular religious group, usually associated with differing Protestant belief systems

Front 17

Dialect

Back 17

Geographically distinct versions of a single language that vary somewhat from the parent form

Front 18

Diaspora

Back 18

People who come from a common ethnic background but who live in different regions outside of the home of their ethnicity

Front 19

Ecumene

Back 19

The proportion of the earth inhabited by humans

Front 20

Environmental Determinism

Back 20

A doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions

Front 21

Esperanto

Back 21

A constructed international auxiliary language incorporating aspects of numerous linguistic traditions to create a universal means of communication

Front 22

Ethnic Cleansing

Back 22

The systematic attempt to remove all people of a particular ethnicity from a country or region either by forced migration or genocide

Front 23

Ethnic Religion

Back 23

Religion that is identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group and that does not seek new converts

Front 24

Ethnic Neighborhood

Back 24

An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background

Front 25

Ethnicity

Back 25

Refers to a group of people who share a common identity

Front 26

Evangelical Religions

Back 26

Religion in which an effort is made to spread a particular belief system

Front 27

Folk Culture

Back 27

Refers to a constellation of cultural practices that form the sights, smells, sounds, and rituals of everyday existence in the traditional societies in which they developed

Front 28

Fundamentalism

Back 28

The strict adherence to a particular doctrine

Front 29

Genocide

Back 29

A premeditated effort to kill everyone from a particular ethnic group

Front 30

Ghetto

Back 30

A segregated ethnic area within a city

Front 31

Global Religion

Back 31

Religion in which members are numerous and widespread and their doctrines might appeal to different people from any region of the globe

Front 32

Hinduism

Back 32

A cohesive and unique society, most prevalent in India, that integrates spiritual beliefs with daily practices and official institutions such as the caste system

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Indo-European

Back 33

Language family including the Germanic and Romance languages that is spoken by about 50% of the world's people

Front 34

Islam

Back 34

A monotheistic religion based on the belief that there is one God, Allah, and that Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Islam is based in the ancient city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad

Front 35

Isoglosses

Back 35

Geographical boundary lines where different linguistic features meet

Front 36

Judaism

Back 36

The first major monotheistic religion. It is based on a sense of ethnic identity, and its adherents tend to form tight-knit communities wherever they live

Front 37

Language Extinction

Back 37

This occurs when a language is no longer in use by any living people. Thousands of languages have become extinct over the eons since language first developed, but the process of language extinction has accelerated greatly during the past 300 years

Front 38

Language Family

Back 38

A collection of many languages, all of which came from the same original tongue long ago, that have since evolved different characteristics

Front 39

Language Group

Back 39

A set of languages with a relatively recent common origin and many similar characteristics

Front 40

Lingua Franca

Back 40

An extremely simple language that combines aspects of two or more other, more-complex languages usually used for quick and efficient communication

Front 41

Literacy

Back 41

The ability to read and write

Front 42

Local Religion

Back 42

Religions that are spiritually bound to particular regions

Front 43

Minority

Back 43

A racial or ethnic group smaller than and differing from the majority race or ethnicity in a particular area or region

Front 44

Missionary

Back 44

A person of a particular faith that travels in order to recruit new members into the faith represented

Front 45

Monotheism

Back 45

The worship of only one god

Front 46

Multicultural

Back 46

Having to do with many cultures

Front 47

Official Language

Back 47

Language in which all government business occurs in a country

Front 48

Pidgin

Back 48

Language that may develop when two groups of people with different languages meet. The pidgin has some characteristics of each language

Front 49

Pilgrimage

Back 49

A journey to a place of religious importance

Front 50

Polyglot

Back 50

A multilingual state

Front 51

Polytheism

Back 51

The worship of more than one god

Front 52

Popular Culture

Back 52

Dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change; having a money-based economy, division of labor into professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties; and producing and consuming machine-made goods

Front 53

Race

Back 53

A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics

Front 54

Romance Language

Back 54

Any of the languages derived from Latin including Italian, Spanish, French, and Romanian

Front 55

Shaman

Back 55

The single person who takes on the roles of priest, counselor, and physician and acts as a conduit to the supernatural world in a shamanist culture

Front 56

Sino

Back 56

TibetanLanguage area that spreads through most of the Southeast Asia and China and is comprised of Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean

Front 57

Syncretic

Back 57

Traditions that borrow from both the past and present

Front 58

Toponym

Back 58

Place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams

Front 59

Tradition

Back 59

A cohesive collection of customs within a cultural group

Front 60

Transculturation

Back 60

The expansion of cultural traits through diffusion, adoption, and other related processes

Front 61

Universalizing Religion

Back 61

Religion that seeks to unite people from all over the globe