Cultural Diffusion
The movement of culture traits from one place to another.
Hierarchical Diffusion
A pattern whereby things move from one place to other
places that have some similarities or are otherwise going to be more receptive, such as from a large city to smaller
cities or from a boss to a subordinate.
Contagious Diffusion
The transmission of a phenomenon through close contact with nearby places, such as with many diseases.
Stimulus Diffusion
occurs when the innovative idea diffuses from its hearth
outward, but the original idea is changed by the new
adopters
Relocation Diffusion
The diffusion of a particular phenomenon over a far distance as a result of migration.
Cultural Landscape
The cultural impacts on an area, including buildings, agricultural patterns, roads, signs, and nearly everything else that humans have created.
Cultural Hearths
An area from which important culture traits, including
ideas, technology, and social structures, originated.
Ethnic Religions
Religions associated with particular ethnic groups.
Language Group
Collection of languages that share a more recent past with similar vocabularies and some overlap.
Language Family
A collection of languages that have a common ancestor and is subdivided into smaller branches of related languages.
Pidgin Language
An extremely simplified, limited non-native language used by two people that speak two different languages.
Lingua Franca
A language used in cross-cultural communication or trade.
Lingua Franca of the world - English
Distance Decay
The idea that, all else being equal, as the distance between two places increases, the volume of interaction between these places decreases.
Toponym
a place name
Nation State
A state that contains a single nation that is not disputed by anyone inside or outside.
Nation
A group of people who feel that they belong together as a polity for a number of reasons.
State
A country; the most important spatial scale unit in political geography.
Nation without a state
A nation that has no state to call its own. (Stateless Nation)
Ethnocentrism
An attitude of ethnic or cultural superiority.
Superimposed Boundaries
Border that is drawn over existing and accepted borders by an outside force.
Subsequent Boundaries
Boundaries created after recognized settlement. They are
meant to separate existing cultural groups and may signify
an attempt to align the boundaries that exist between
nations.
Antecedent Boundaries
A boundary created before an area is known or populated,
often drawn with no recognition of the populations living
there.
Geometric Boundaries
Lines drawn on a map without much interest in whatever
natural or cultural features are present.
Natural Boundaries
Natural features that divide one country from another.
