Study questions for the second midterm:

• In addition to these questions, study the vocabulary definitions and main points listed at the end of each chapter.

Chapter 4 & pp.299-315

• Using specific examples, discuss how disease led to the depopulation of Spain's new colonies in the New World.
• Briefly describe the ways in which the exchange of plants and animals between the Old World and the New World was beneficial.
• How does the image of Earth as a living organism and nurturing mother affect the way people treat her?
• How did the Western image and treatment of the earth change during the industrial revolution? Compare traditional and industrial agriculture and their treatment of earth.
• Why do miners in Bolivia propitiate the "Tio" before entering the mine to go to work?
• What is the greenhouse effect? What are greenhouse gasses, and how do they act as the planet's atmospheric insulator? How are humans increasing the amount of these gases in the atmosphere?
• What is global climate change, what human processes are contributing to it, and what are its potential implications?

Chapter 5

• Define culture, and then explain how it relates to every aspect of life.
• Why is it so difficult to map a culture accurately?
• What is the difference between cultural ecology and political ecology?
• Compare and contrast the cultural characteristics you would find in cities, suburbs, and rural areas.

Chapter 6

• What can cause distortions in an individual's cognitive images or reality?
• Why did Columbus believe that he had sailed to Asia? What effect did this strong belief, and Columbus' culture, have on early European maps of the Americas?
• Why are the three images of Los Angeles (p.220) so different?
• Modern technological innovations can often be quite disruptive. Explain why.
• What is the difference between modernity and postmodernity as they relate to development?

Chapter 7 & review pp.63-69

• What are the main differences between mercantile colonialism, industrial colonialism, and neocolonialism?
• Why was Africa's political independence from colonialism not accompanied by technological and economic independence?
• What are the first, second, and third worlds and when were they invented?
• In the current international division of labor, developing countries have work forces engaged for the most part in which sector of the economy? What about 'post-industrial' countries like the US?
• What are the assumptions behind Rostow's theory of development as stages of growth? Compare with the assumptions behind dependency theory.
• What are GNP/GDP and what do they show about a country's development? What do they NOT show?
• Give examples of other statistical indicators used to measure development.