Glossary - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 495

Occident The West.
Offshoring The substitution of less costly foreign labor for
domestic labor.
Oracle bones bones, especially scapulae, which are heated
and their cracks interpreted by ancient Chinese rulers and
sages. Also inscribed with questions and interpretations.
Orang Asli Means “original man.” Earliest of the current in-
habitants of the Malay Peninsula.
Orient The East.
Orographic precipitation Precipitation brought about by the
presence of a topographic barrier that forces a moisture-
carrying air mass to rise, cool, and condense.
Oustees Uprooted persons who flee from war and violence,
oppression, disasters, economic stagnation, and human-
induced environmental displacement. About half of all ous-
tees are landless or sharecroppers.
Out of Africa Theory that postulates that humankind origi-
nated in Africa.
Overseas Chinese Chinese—both individuals and corporations—
living outside of mainland China.
Pacific Rim An economic concept referring to all countries
situated around the Pacific Ocean. These countries' primary
trading partners are each other.
Pancasila The five principles adopted by Sukarno in 1945 as
the basis for Indonesian ideology and development.
Pan-gu In Chinese mythology , a primeval being whose body
parts transmuted into various parts of the cosmos.
Pat Clay desert in the Sind province of Pakistan.
Pathet Lao Communist guerrilla fighters in Laos.
Patriarchy T Type of society in which family unit structure fo-
cuses on males who exert authority over the rest of the family
members.
Pax Mongolica A period of peace and prosperity when China
was ruled by the Mongols from 1280 to 1300.
People' s communes A collection of cooperatives housing
thousands of people organized under China' s Great Leap For-
ward of 1958.
Per Capita Income (PCI) Statistic that divides a country' s
gross national or domestic product among all of that country' s
population.
Percentage urbanized

upper layer of the Earth' s mantle. Movement along the plates'
fracture zones cause seismic activity .
Playas Salt-encrusted dry lakes found in Baluchistan, Pakistan.
Plural society A society in which two or more culture groups
live adjacent to each other in the same country without mixing.
Political ecologist One who investigates the inner workings
of the “development” process. [As in Chapter 5]
Pol Pot Leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975
to 1978. Responsible for the death of millions.
Polytheistic Having many gods.
Popular culture Usually refers to American popular culture
that is diffusing via transnationals and media into all corners
of the world. The popular cultures of Japan and South Korea
are also diffusing elsewhere, especially in Asia.
Population composition

The age and sex structure of a par-

ticular population.
Population migration The internal or international move-
ment of people from one place to another on a temporary or
permanent basis.
Population pyramids Pyramidal graphs showing the percent-
age of a country' s males and females in various age cohorts.
Post-development theory Holds that pigeonholing countries
into Western-contrived categories is pejorative and associated
with old colonialist paternalism and racism.
Power relationships The fact that men and women are ac-
corded unequal roles in virtually every society .
Primate city A nation' s largest city , within the context of
urban primacy .
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) A measure of income based
on gross domestic product that accounts for price differentials
among countries and translates local currencies into interna-
tional dollars.
Purdah The Muslim custom of secluding women from unre-
lated men.
Quality of life The state of human well-being.
Quoc Ngu Means “national language.” T Transliteration of
Vietnamese spoken language into the Roman alphabet.
Rabi In South Asia, crops (such as wheat) sown at the end of
the wet monsoon. Rabi crops are harvested in spring.
Rainshadow The protected, leeward side of a topographic
barrier which is the dry side in the process of orographic pre-
cipitation.
Raj A word meaning “the rule.” The Raj refers to the period of
British rule in India.
Ramadan

The percentage of a country' s popula-

tion living in cities.
Peripheral regions Poor regions that are remote from the
center of economic and other activity in core regions.
Phrapbuum Thai word meaning “lord of the place.” It refers
to the spirit shrine exhibited in houses, office buildings, and
other private and commercial establishments in Thailand.
Pinyin A simplified character and transliteration system for
the Chinese language. Pinyin closely approximates the sound
of the word in the Mandarin dialect of Chinese.
Plantation Large, commercial, agricultural enterprise that
typically focuses on one crop such as tea or palm oil.
Plate tectonics A theory that postulates that rigid plates in
the upper portion of the lithosphere float on the more plastic

A month of daytime fasting; one of the Five Pillars

of Islam.
Reformasi A period of economic reform and liberalization in
Indonesia following the end of General Suharto' s rule in 1998.
Regional state A natural economic zone shaped by the global
economy in which it participates. Guangdong Province in
China is an example.
Regionalism Focusing on the local rather than the global.
Region-based urbanization

The continual growth of cities

over large areas.