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possibilism
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geographic viewpoint-a response to determinism-that holds that human decision making, not the environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development. Nonetheless, possibilists view the environment as providing a set of broad restraints that limits the possibilities of human choice.
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cultural hearth
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heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture.
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cultural ecology
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the multiple interactions and relationships between a cultural and the natural environment.
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contagious diffusion
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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 contagious disease.
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spatial interaction
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see complementarity and intervening opportunity.
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Spatial Distribution
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Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.Location! Location! Location! American settled from east, west, middle
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pattern
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the design of a spatial distribution (e.g. scattered or concentrated).
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location
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the first theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; the geographical situation of people and things.
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movement
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the fifth theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet.
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spatial
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pertaining to space on the Earth's surface, sometimes used as a synonym of geographic.
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region
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the third theme of geography as defined by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project; an area on the Earth's surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogeneity of some phenomenon.
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landscape
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the overall appearance of an area. Most landscapes are comprised of a combinations of natural and human-induced influences.
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connectivity
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the degree of direct linkage between one particular location and other locations in a transport network.
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fieldwork
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the study of geographic phenomena by visiting places and observing how people interact with and thereby change those places.
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Five Themes
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Developed by the Geography Educational National Implementation Project (GENIP), the five themes of geography are location, human-environment, region, place, and movement.
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reference maps
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maps that show the absolute location of places and geographic features defined by a frame of reference, typically latitude and longitude.
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cultural diffusion
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the expansion and adoption of a cultural element, from its place of origin to a wider area.
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cultural landscape
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the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape. The layers of buildings, forms, and artifacts sequentially imprinted on the landscape by the activities of various human occupants.
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pandemic
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an outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide. See also endemic.
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geocaching
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a hunt for a cache, the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates which are placed on the Internet by other geocachers.
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Epidemic
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A disease that is particular to a locality or region.Can lead to pandemic: black plague
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functional region
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a region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it.
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human geography
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one of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of human population, its cultures, activities, and landscapes.
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accessibility
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the degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations. Accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured.
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physical geography
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one of the two major divisions of systematic geography; the spatial analysis of the structure, processes, and location of the Earth's natural phenomena such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and topography.
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absolute location
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the position or place of a certain item on the surface of the Earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude, 0° to 90° north or south of the equator, and longitude, 0° to 180° east or west of the Prime Meridian passing through Greenwich, England (a suburb of London).
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cultural complex
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a related set of cultural traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils.
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formal region
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a type of region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region or homogeneous region.
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