Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas [Paperback]

David Turnbull (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226817059 | ISBN-13: 978-0226817057 | Publication Date: March 16, 1994 | Edition: First Edition

"The map is not the territory" is a cartographic truism. It means that unless the map is drawn on a mile-to-mile scale and has the same physical characteristics as the territory itself, it cannot be perfectly accurate. But as David Turnbull demonstrates, the map is a metaphor not only for the territory it represents but for the culture that created it. As such, it takes on the meaning of the territory and its importance in that culture.

In this ingenious book, Turnbull challenges common assumptions about the nature of cartography. In each of ten "exhibits" he addresses a seemingly basic concept--that a map is be factually accurate, for example, or that its symbols refer to concrete elements of the landscape--and then illustrates its complexities with maps from Western, Asian, and native cultures, from prehistoric to modern times, accompanied by quotations and historical background. The "exhibits" show how different cultures express their relation to the land, and how those differences ultimately define not only territory but also domination--religious, ideological, cultural, and political.

An ideal introduction to the concepts of cartography, this book teaches not only how to read maps, but how to read them between the lines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press; First Edition edition (March 16, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226817059
• ISBN-13: 978-0226817057
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars all over the map, December 2, 2001

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simpcity - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas (Paperback)

This book is all over the map, but what exactly does that mean?

Turnbull begins with a quote, "...all theory may be regarded as a kind of map extended over space and time." (Michael Polanyi) How tempting to describe difficult concepts as "like a map." By page two we're dealing with Borges, and a page later Lewis Carroll. Maps are more complex than we ever imagined.

The discussion of Aboriginal-Australian Maps (Exhibit 5) takes us deeper still, as we learn that their dream time and painting contain elements of geographical knowledge which these people equate with magic.

Originally published in 1989, it remains way ahead of its time. Multicultural, lacking any cant, beautifully illustrated, intellectually exciting

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An introduction to the "philosophy of cartography", June 28, 2010

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R. M. Peterson (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas (Paperback)

One of the more intriguing fancies of Jorge Luis Borges had to do with an empire in which "the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that * * * a Map of the Empire * * * was of the same Scale as the Empire and * * * coincided with it point for point." (Borges and Bioy-Casares, "On Exactitude in Science".) Of course the map was so unwieldy that it was utterly impracticable and, in Borges's fable, it was abandoned "to the Rigours of sun and Rain." The tale exemplifies what has become a commonplace of cartography: "The map is not the territory". If it were the territory, per standard thought, it could no longer function as a map.

This short (66 pages), attractive, and rather unconventional book challenges that axiom. It poses questions, philosophical and cognitive, about the nature of maps. To what extent are they strictly pictorial (or "iconic") and what extent symbolic (using conventional signs and symbols)? Recognition of just how extensive and pervasive the conventions of cartography are inclines one to accept the notion that maps are grounded in a shared "form of life" (to borrow a phrase and concept from Ludwig Wittgenstein). The argument of the book is that maps are culturally-dependent artifacts and, somewhat paradoxically then, in a sense they ARE the territory after all.

Thus MAPS ARE TERRITORIES is rather philosophical in nature. The above paragraph is a gross oversimplification of the book, but still the discussion is rather broad-brush. For the philosophically inclined, among the notions raised are the parallels between maps and scientific theories, to what extent can maps and theories be "non-indexical", and spatiality as fundamental to human consciousness and our understanding of experience (spatiality as a Kantian a priori). It is not a particularly easy book to read, but it is not especially difficult either. For most readers, it probably will provoke more questions than answer them.

But there is another aspect to MAPS ARE TERRITORIES: it contains reproductions of approximately fifty maps. Many of these maps are attractive. None of them resembles a typical Rand-McNally atlas page or a standard road map; indeed, many of them are rather alien to 21st-Century Westerners. Among the most alien - as well as most intriguing and aesthetically attractive - are some Aboriginal-Australian bark paintings that, the book argues, also (perhaps even primarily) function as maps.

The prospective audience for MAPS ARE TERRITORIES is rather narrow, but anyone interested in maps and the conventions underlying maps - the "philosophy of cartography", if you will - probably will enjoy the hour or two required to read through it.