AP Human Geography

Chapter 1 Study Guide (Part 1)

Introduction to Human Geography
1. Give examples of the work that each of the following types of
geographers do:

Music geographers

Sports geographers

Medical geographers

2. Name 3 new technologies that are helping geographers acquire more

data about Earth and its systems:

3. Define geography.

4. What are the two main branches of geography?

5. Discuss the difference between the focus of each branch.

6. Though the branches of geography may differ in focus, what is the

unifying goal they both share?

7. How is Human Geography both an art and a science (in your own
words)?

8. Analyze and explain what is meant by nature-culture dualism.

9. How did 18th century European scholars use this concept to rank
societies?

10.

Contrast cultural ecology with nature-culture dualism?

11.
How does environmental determinism define the relationship
between humans and the natural environment?

12.

In what society does this concept seem to have originated?

13.
Give an example of how they believed the natural environment
controlled human development.

14.
In your own words, describe the 3 main criticisms of
environmental determinism:

15.
Political ecology, an offshoot of cultural ecology, studies
how ____________________________ forces and
____________________________ for ________________________ influence
human behavior, especially decisions and attitudes involving the
environment.

16.
According to political ecologist Paul Robbins, what type of factors
might influence an American homeowners decision to apply pesticides
or other chemicals to their lawn? (List a couple at least)

17.

What basic idea does actor-network theory challenge?

18.

Define agency.

19.
In what way does possibilism differ from environmental
determinism?

20.
Do possiblists reject the entire notion of the natural
environment influencing human culture? Explain.

21.
What did geographer Carl Sauer emphasize instead of
environmental determinism?

22.
Sauer referred to the human transformation of the natural
landscape as _________________________ ___________________________.

23.

Explain social construction.

24.
In what way did the shared perception of what nature was or
should have been change between the 18th and 19th centuries?

25.

Identify the 2 possible definitions of culture:


26.
What did geographer Carl Sauer believe was the driving force
behind human alterations of the natural landscape?

27.
To a human geographer, the __________________________
expressions of culture provide clues to peoples ____________________,
__________________________, and more broadly, their
____________________________.
28.

Define regional analysis.

29.
What is the primary difference between a formal region and a
functional region?

30.
Why would it be extremely difficult to firmly delineate the
boundaries of a perceptual region on a map?