GEOG 120 Midterm

ethnic religions

focus on one ethnic group and generally have not spread into other cultures

indentured labor

foreign workers contracted to labor on Caribbean agricultural estates for a set period of time, often several years. Usually the contract stipulated paying off the travel debt incurred by the laborers.

geography

foundation discipline, inspired and informed by the long-standing human curiosity about our surroundings and how we are connected to the world

climographs

graphic representations of monthly average temperatures and precipitation

internally displaced person

groups and individuals who flee an area due to conflict or famine but still remain in their country of origin. These populations often live in refugee-like conditions but are difficult to assist because they technically do not qualify as refugees.

demographic transition model

how the fertility rates compare to the mortality rates over the course of a country developing

global warming

increased emmissions of greenhouse gases will increase warming, increases the likelihood of severe and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems

Isolated Proximity

isolation sustains the Caribbean's cultural diversity, but limits economic opportunity. Proximity to north America ensures transnational connection and economic dependence.

cultural nationalism

nation is defined by a shared culture and a common language, rather than on the concepts of ancestry.

pastoralist

nomadic and sedentary peoples who rely on livestock (especially cattle, camels, sheep, and goats) for sustenance and livelihood

rain shadow

rainfall lessens as downslope winds warm, thus increasing an air mass's ability to retain moisture and deprive nearby lowlands of precipitation

orographic effect

rugged topography can "wring" moisture out of clouds when moist air masses cool as they are forced up and over mountain ranges

Maroon

runaways slaves who established communities rich in African traditions throughout the Caribbean and Brazil

insolation

short-wave solar energy, passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by earth's land and water surfaces

minifundia

small subsistence farms

continentiality

a climate condition in which it takes less energy to heat a location while water bodies do not influence temperature much or at all. The father away you are from an ocean the greater seasonal temperature swing.

water stress

a condition where water availability is less than water demand, either currently or projected for the future. increasing in sub-saharan africa, southwest asia, and western north america

plantation america

a cultural region that extends from midway up the coast of Brazil, through the Guianas and the Caribbean, and into the southeastern United States. In this coastal zone, European owned plantations, worked by African laborers, produced agricultural products for export.

Free trade zone

a duty free and tax exempt industrial park created to attract foreign corporations and create industrial jobs

Great Escarpment

a landform that rims southern Africa from Angola to South Africa. It forms where the narrow coastal plains meet the elevated plateaus in an abrupt break in elevation.

larifundia

a large estate or landholding in Latin America, typically worked by slaves

mestizo

a man of mixed race, especially one having spanish and indigenous descent

altitudinal zonation

temperature declines approximately 3-5F for every 1000 ft in higher elevation. changes in vegetation would also occur.

dependency theory

a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones. essentially the rich countries stay rich by exploiting the poor countries for their resources and money

refugee

a person who flees his or her country because of well-founded fear of persecution based on race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, or political affiliation.

physiological density

a population statistic that relates the number of people in a country to the amount of arable land.

economic convergence

a process in which economies of different countries become more similar to each other. tend to reach a similar level of development and wealth.

Monroe Doctine

a proclamation issued by U.S. President in 1823 that the United States would not tolerate European military action in the Western Hemisphere. Focused on the Caribbean as a strategic area, the doctrine was repeatedly invoked to justify U.S. political and military intervention in the region

Maghreb

a region in northwestern Africa that includes portions of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia

Arab League

a regional political and economic organization focused on Arab unity and development.

CARICOM

a regional trade organization established in 1972 that includes former English colonies in the Carribbean Basin as its members

Arab Spring

a series of public protests, strikes, and rebellions in the Arab countries in early 2011, often facilitated by social media, that called for fundamental government and economic reforms

kleptocracy

a state where corruption is so institutionalized that politicians and bureaucrats siphon off a huge percentage of a country's wealth.

ISIS/ISIL

a violent sunni extremist organization that has seen its territorial influence in Iraq and Syria reduced as it attempts to create a new religious state (a caliphate) in the region. also active elsewhere in North Africa and across South and Southwest Asia

anthropogenic

aka human-generated GHGs, which then trap increasing amounts of Earth's long-wave reradiation and thus warm the atmosphere and change our planet's climates

swidden

also called slash-and-burn agriculture or shifting cultivation, a form of cultivation in which forested or brushy plots are cleared of vegetation, burned, and then planted to crops, only to be abandoned a few years later as soil fertility declines.

Fertile crescent

an ecologically diverse zone of lands in southwest asia that extends from Lebanon eastward to Iraq and that i soften associated with early forms of agricultural domestication

OPEC

an international organization of 12 oil-pro-ducing nations that attempts to influence global prices and supplies of oil. Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela are members.

hajj

an islamic religious pilgrimage to Makkah. One of the five essential pillars of the Muslim creed to be undertaken once in life, if an individual is physically and financially able to do it.

bioregion

areas defined by natural characteristics such as similar plant and animal life

syncretic religious

blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions

carbon inequity

carbon emissions increase natural disasters, however those impacted by the natural disasters account for very little of the carbon emissions

Caribbean diaspora

consists of a large number of persons of Caribbean descent living, outside of their countries of nationality.

structural adjustment program

controversial yet widely implemented programs used to reduce government spending, encourage the private sector, and refinance foreign debt. Typically, these International Monetary fund and world bank policies trigger drastic cutbacks in government-supported services and food subsidies which disproportionately affect the poor

areal diffferentiation

distribution of phenomena both human and physical (lush humid areas very close to arid dry climates)

cultural imperialism

dominance of one culture over another, historically, often occurred as a result of colonization

Lesser Antilles

the arc of small caribbean islands from St. Maaren to Trinidad

creolization

the blending of African, European, and some Amerindian cultural elements into the unique sociocultural systems found in the Caribbean

urban primacy

the concentration of a population in only 1 or 2 large cities

grassification

the conversion of tropical forest into pasture

levant

the eastern Mediterranean region

african diaspora

the forced removal of Africans from their native areas

greater antilles

the four large Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.

capital leakage

the huge gap between gross income and the total tourist dollars that remain in the carribean

hydropolitics

the interplay of water resource issues and politics

plate techtonics

the lithosphere consists of large plates that move very slowly across its surface. The driving force behind the plates is a heat exchange deep within earth

rimland

the mainland coastal zone of the Caribbean, beginning with Belize and extending along the coast of Central America to northern South America.

maquiladora

the mexican assembly plants that line the border with the United States, are characteristics of manufacturing systems in an increasingly globalized economy.

remittance

the money or goods that migrants send back to families and friends in origin countries

medina

the original urban core of traditional Islamic city

apartheid

the policy of racial segregation that directed the separate residential and work spaces for white, blacks, coloureds, and Indians in South Africa for nearly 50 years. It was abolished when the African National Congress came to power in 1994.

dollarization

the process of aligning a country's currency with the US dollar.

Enviornmental Lapse Rate (ELR)

the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally temperature in Earth's atmosphere, falls with altitude

Adiabatic Lapse Rate (ALR)

the rate at which atmospheric temperature decreases with increasing altitude in conditions of thermal equilibrium.

time-space compression

the set of processes that cause the relative distances between places (measured in terms of travel time or cost) to contract, effectively making such places grow "closer"

neocolonialism

the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.

greenhouse effect

trapped warmth from the sun, process of atmospheric hearting.

altiplano

treeless high plain of Peru and Bolivia

neotropics

tropical ecosystems of the western hemisphere

fossil water

water supplies that were stored underground during wetter climatic periods

Millennium Development Goals

Eight international development goals that all members of the United Nations have agreed to achieve by 2015. Africa failed to reach these goals

desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Berlin Conference

1884 conference that divided Africa into European colonial territories. The boundaries created in Berlin satisfied European ambition but ignored indigenous cultural affiliations. Many of Africa's civil conflicts can be traced to ill conceived territorial divisions crafted in 1884

lingua franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

universalizing religions

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location or culture

nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

Human Development Index (HDI)

Indicator of level of development for each country, constructed by United Nations, combining income, literacy, education, and life expectancy

cultural syncretism

When an aspect of two or more distinct cultures blend together to create a new custom, idea, practice, or philosophy.