Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
infl uence as well. In the case of a port city, the hinterland also includes
the inland area whose trade fl ows through that port.
Holocene
The current
interglaciation
period, extending from
10,000 years ago to the present on the geologic time scale.
Homo sapiens
The only living species of the genus
Homo
; modern
humans.
Horizontal integration
Ownership by the same fi rm of a number of
companies that exist at the same point on a
commodity chain
.
Huang He (Yellow) and Wei (Yangtzi) River Valleys
Rivers in
present-day China; it was at the confl uence of the Huang He and Wei
Rivers where chronologically the fourth urban
hearth
was established
around 1500 BCE.
Human-environment
The second theme of geography as defi ned by
the
Geography Educational National Implementation Project
; re-
ciprocal relationship between humans and environment.
Human geography
One of the two major divisions of
geography
; the
spatial analysis of human population, its cultures, activities, and land-
scapes.
Human territoriality
A term associated with the work of Robert Sack
that describes the efforts of human societies to infl uence events and
achieve social goals by exerting, and attempting to enforce, control over
specifi c geographical areas.
Hydrologic cycle
The system of exchange involving water in its vari-
ous forms as it continually circulates among the atmosphere, the oceans,
and above and below the land surface.
Identifying against
Constructing an
identity
by fi rst defi ning the
“other” and then defi ning ourselves as “not the other.”
Identity
Defi ned by geographer Gillian Rose as “how we make sense
of ourselves;” how people see themselves at different scales.
Imam
The political head of the Muslim community or the person who
leads prayer services. In
Shiite
Islam the Imam is immune from sin or
error.
Immigrant
A person migrating into a particular country or area; an
in-migrant.
Immigration
The act of a person migrating into a new country or area.
Immigration laws
Laws and regulations of a state designed specifi -
cally to control immigration into that
state
.
Immigration wave
Phenomenon whereby different patterns of
chain
migration
build upon one another to create a swell in
migration
from
one origin to the same destination.
Independent invention
The term for a trait with many
cultural
hearths
that developed independent of each other.
Indigenous religions
Belief systems and philosophies practiced
and traditionally passed from generation to generation among peoples
within an indigenous tribe or group.
Indus River Valley
Chronologically, the third urban
hearth
, dating
to 2200 BCE.
Industrial Revolution
The term applied to the social and economic
changes in agriculture, commerce and manufacturing that resulted from
technological innovations and specialization in late-eighteenth-century
Europe.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
A fi gure that describes the number of
babies that die within the fi rst year of their lives in a given population.
Infectious diseases
Diseases that are spread by bacteria, viruses, or
parasites. Infectious diseases diffuse directly or indirectly from human
to human.
Informal economy
Economic activity that is neither taxed nor moni-
tored by a government; and is not included in that government's
Gross
National Product (GNP)
; as opposed to a formal economy.
Interfaith boundaries
Boundaries between the world's major faiths.
Interglacials
warm periods during an ice age.
Interglaciation
Sustained warming phase between glaciations during
an ice age.
Intermodal (connections)
Places where two or more modes of trans-
portation meet (including air, road, rail, barge, and ship).
Internal migration
Human movement within a
nation-state
, such
as ongoingly westward and southward movements in the United States.
Internal displaced person
People who have been displaced within
their own countries and do not cross international borders as they fl ee.
International migration
Human movement involving movement
across international boundaries.
Intervening opportunity
The presence of a nearer opportunity that
greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away.
Intrafaith boundaries
Boundaries within a single major faith.
Islam
The youngest of the major world
religions
, Islam is based on
the teachings of Muhammad, born in Mecca in 571 CE. According to
Islamic teaching, Muhammad received the truth directly from Allah in
a series of revelations during which Muhammad spoke the verses of the
Qu'ran (Koran)
, the Islamic holy topic.
Island of development
Place built up by a government or corpora-
tion to attract foreign investment and which has relatively high concen-
trations of paying jobs and infrastructure.
Isogloss
A geographic
boundary
within which a particular linguistic
feature occurs.
Isotherm
Line on a map connecting points of equal temperature values.
Jihad
A doctrine within
Islam
. Commonly translated as “Holy War,”
Jihad represents either a personal or collective struggle on the part of
Muslims to live up to the religious standards set by the
Qu'ran
.
Judaism
Religion with its roots in the teachings of Abraham (from
Ur), who is credited with uniting his people to worship only one god.
According to Jewish teaching, Abraham and God have a covenant in
which the Jews agree to worship only one God, and God agrees to pro-
tect his chosen people, the Jews.
Just-in-time delivery
Method of inventory management made pos-
sible by effi cient transportation and communication systems, whereby
companies keep on hand just what they need for near-term production,
planning that what they need for longer-term production will arrive
when needed.
Kinship links
Types of
push factors
or
pull factors
that infl uence a mi-
grant's decision to go where family or friends have already found success.
Köppen climate classifi cation system
Developed by Wladimir
Köppen, a system for classifying the world's climates on the basis of tem-
perature and precipitation.
Landscape
The overall appearance of an area. Most landscapes are
comprised of a combination of natural and human-induced infl uences.
Language
A set of sounds, combination of sounds, and symbols that
are used for communication.
Language convergence
The collapsing of two
languages
into one
resulting from the consistent
spatial interaction
of peoples with differ-
ent languages; the opposite of
language divergence
.
Language divergence
The opposite of
language convergence
; a
process suggested by German linguist August Schleicher whereby new
languages
are formed when a language breaks into dialects due to a lack
of
spatial interaction
among speakers of the language and continued
isolation eventually causes the division of the language into discrete new
languages.
Language family
Group of
languages
with a shared but fairly distant
origin.