Glossary of Relevant Terms
Artifact
A man-made object of a culture such as a tool, an article of clothing or a prepared food.
Barter
The trade of goods and services for other goods and services without the use of money.
Consumption
The purchase and/or use of goods and services.
Cost
An alternative given up as a result of a decision.
Country
A unit of political space; the entire land area of a nation or state.
Cultural perspective
The complex set of meanings, attitudes, values and ideas belonging to a cultural group.
Cultural practice
A pattern of behavior accepted by society.
Culture
Learned behavior of a group of people, which includes their belief systems and languages, their social relationships, their institutions and organizations, and their material goods such as food, clothing, buildings, tools and machines.
Deforestation
The destruction and removal of a forest and its undergrowth by natural or human forces.
Demand
The quantities of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to buy at various prices during a given time period.
Diffusion
The spread of people, ideas, technology and products among places.
Discrimination
Unfair treatment of a person or group based on a variety of prejudices.
Economic Growth
An increase in an economy's ability to produce goods and services over time.
Entrepreneurship
The organization of productive resources by a person willing to take risks to start.
Flow Resource
A resource that is neither renewable nor nonrenewable, but must be used when or where it occurs (e.g., running water, wind, sunlight).
Globalization
The act, process or policy of making something worldwide in scope or application.
Goods
Objects that are capable of satisfying people’s wants.
Human Characteristic/Feature
An aspect of a place or a quality of the Earth’s surface constructed by people including cities, parks, buildings and roads.
Institutionalized racism
The use of institutional policies, practices and/or procedures to withhold rights, privileges and opportunities from the race that is believed to be inferior.
Market
The interaction of buyers and sellers exchanging goods or services.
Multiple-tier Timeline
A timeline that utilizes two or more rows of events, with each row representing a different subject or perspective occurring during the period under study (e.g., a timeline of the 19th century with separate rows for political, social, military and technological developments).
Nation
A group of people bound together by a strong sense of shared values and cultural characteristics, including language, religion and common history.
Natural resources
A productive resource supplied by nature (e.g., ores, trees, arable land).
Nonrenewable Resources
A finite natural resource that cannot be replaced once it is used (e.g., petroleum, minerals).
Perspective
A specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events.
Physical Characteristic/Feature
A natural aspect or quality of the Earth’s surface that includes land formations and vegetation zones.
Place
A location having distinctive characteristics which give it meaning and character and distinguish it from other locations.
Primary source
An account of an event by someone who was present at the event.
Producer
A person who makes goods and services.
Product
Something produced by human or mechanical effort or by a natural process.
Production
The act of combining natural resources, human resources, capital goods and entrepreneurship to make goods and services.
Productive Resources
The resources used to make goods and services (i.e., natural resources, human resources, capital goods).
Pull Factor
A social, political, economic or environmental attraction of a new area that drew people away from their previous location.
Push Factor
A social, political, economic, or environmental force that drove people from their previous location to search for a new one.
Region
An area with one or more common characteristics or features, which give it a measure of homogeneity and make it different from surrounding areas.
Reliability
The degree to which something is trustworthy or is suitable to be depended upon.
Renewable resources
A natural resource that can be regenerated if used carefully (e.g., fish, timber).
Secondary Source
An account of an event by someone who was not present at the event.
Standard of Living
A person's or group's level of material well-being, as measured by education, housing, health care and nutrition.
Territory
An area of land; the land and waters under the jurisdiction of a state, nation or sovereign.
Thematic Map
A portrayal on a flat surface of geographic topic (e.g., migration routes, resource locations, population densities).
Trade-off
The sacrifice of one option for another when a decision is made.