Glossary - Human Geography: People, Place and Culture - page 499

Blockbusting Rapid change in the racial composition of residential
blocks in American cities that occurs when real estate agents and others
stir up fears of neighborhood decline after encouraging people of color
to move to previously white neighborhoods. In the resulting outmigra-
tion, real estate agents profi t through the turnover of properties.
Boundary Vertical plane between states that cuts through the rocks
below, and the airspace above the surface.
Break-of-bulk point A location along a transport route where goods
must be transferred from one carrier to another. In a port, the cargoes
of oceangoing ships are unloaded and put on trains, trucks, or perhaps
smaller riverboats for inland distribution.
Buddhism Religion founded in the sixth century BCE and charac-
terized by the belief that enlightenment would come through knowl-
edge, especially self-knowledge; elimination of greed, craving, and
desire; complete honesty; and never hurting another person or animal.
Buddhism splintered from Hinduism as a reaction to the strict social
hierarchy maintained by Hinduism.
Cadastral map A large-scale map, usually created at the scale of 1:2500,
depicting the value, extent, and ownership of land for purposes of taxation.
Capitalism Economic model wherein people, corporations, and
states produce goods and exchange them on the world market, with the
goal of achieving profi t.
Cartography The art and science of making maps, including data
compilation, layout, and design. Also concerned with the interpretation
of mapped patterns.
Caste system The strict social segregation of people—specifi cally in
India's Hindu society—on the basis of ancestry and occupation.
Census A periodic and offi cial count of a country's population.
Central Business District (CBD) The downtown heart of a central
city , the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business
and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings.
Central city The urban area that is not suburban; generally, the older
or original city that is surrounded by newer suburbs .
Central place Any point or place in the urban hierarchy, such as a
town or city, having a certain economic reach or hinterland.
Central Place Theory Theory proposed by Walter Christaller that
explains how and where central places in the urban hierarchy should
be functionally and spatially distributed with respect to one another.
Centrality The strength of an urban center in its capacity to attract
producers and consumers to its facilities; a city's “reach” into the sur-
rounding region.
Centrifugal Forces that tend to divide a country—such as internal re-
ligious, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological differences.
Centripetal Forces that tend to unify a country—such as widespread
commitment to a national culture, shared ideological objectives, and a
common faith.
Chain migration Pattern of migration that develops when migrants
move along and through kinship links (i.e. one migrant settles in a place
and then writes, calls, or communicates through others to describe this
place to family and friends who in turn then migrate there).
Child mortality rate A fi gure that describes the number of chil-
dren that die between the fi rst and fi fth years of their lives in a given
population.
Chlorofl uorocarbons (CFCs) Synthetic organic compounds fi rst
created in the 1950s and used primarily as refrigerants and as propel-
lants. The role of CFCs in the destruction of the ozone layer led to the
signing of an international agreement (the Montreal Protocol ).
Christianity Religion based on the teachings of Jesus. According to
Christian teaching, Jesus is the son of God, placed on Earth to teach
people how to live according to God's plan.

Chronic (or degenerative) diseases Generally long-lasting affl ic-
tions now more common because of higher life expectancies.
City Conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to
serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.
Climatic regions Areas of the world with similar climatic characteristics.
Colonialism Rule by an autonomous power over a subordinate and
alien people and place. Although often established and maintained
through political structures, colonialism also creates unequal cultural
and economic relations. Because of the magnitude and impact of the
European colonial project of the last few centuries, the term is generally
understood to refer to that particular colonial endeavor.
Colonization Physical process whereby the colonizer takes over an-
other place, putting its own government in charge and either moving
its own people into the place or bringing in indentured outsiders to gain
control of the people and the land.
Commercial agriculture Term used to describe large-scale farming
and ranching operations that employ vast land bases, large mechanized
equipment, factory-type labor forces, and the latest technology.
Commercialization The transformation of an area of a city into an
area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity.
Commodifi cation The process through which something is given
monetary value. Commodifi cation occurs when a good or idea that pre-
viously was not regarded as an object to be bought and sold is turned into
something that has a particular price and that can be traded in a market
economy.
Commodity chain Series of links connecting the many places of pro-
duction and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then ex-
changed on the world market.
Complementarity A condition that exists when two regions, through
an exchange of raw materials and/or fi nished products, can specifi cally
satisfy each other's demands.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) network between agri-
cultural producers and consumers whereby consumers pledge support
to a farming operation in order to receive a share of the output from the
farming operation.
Concentric zone model A structural model of the American central
city that suggests the existence of fi ve concentric land-use rings arranged
around a common center.
Confucianism A philosophy of ethics, education, and public service
based on the writings of Confucius and traditionally thought of as one of
the core elements of Chinese culture.
Connectivity The degree of direct linkage between one particular lo-
cation and other locations in a transport network.
Conquest theory One major theory of how Proto-Indo-European
diffused into Europe which holds that the early speakers of Proto-Indo-
European spread westward on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabit-
ants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European
tongues.
Contagious diffusion The distance-controlled spreading of an idea,
innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact
from person to person—analogous to the communication of a conta-
gious illness.
Context The geographical situation in which something occurs; the
combination of what is happening at a variety of scales concurrently.
Core Processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher
salaries, and more technology; generate more wealth than periphery
processes in the world-economy.
Core area In geography, a term with several connotations. Core refers
to the center, heart, or focus. The core area of a nation-state is consti-
tuted by the national heartland—the largest population cluster, the most