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The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography Paperback – August 11, 1997

by Martin W. Lewis (Author), Kären Wigen (Author)

4.5 27 ratings

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In this thoughtful and engaging critique, geographer Martin W. Lewis and historian Kären Wigen reexamine the basic geographical divisions we take for granted, and challenge the unconscious spatial frameworks that govern the way we perceive the world. Arguing that notions of East vs. West, First World vs. Third World, and even the sevenfold continental system are simplistic and misconceived, the authors trace the history of such misconceptions. Their up-to-the-minute study reflects both on the global scale and its relation to the specific continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa―actually part of one contiguous landmass.

The Myth of Continents sheds new light on how our metageographical assumptions grew out of cultural concepts: how the first continental divisions developed from classical times; how the Urals became the division between the so-called continents of Europe and Asia; how countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan recently shifted macroregions in the general consciousness.

This extremely readable and thought-provoking analysis also explores the ways that new economic regions, the end of the cold war, and the proliferation of communication technologies change our understanding of the world. It stimulates thinking about the role of large-scale spatial constructs as driving forces behind particular worldviews and encourages everyone to take a more thoughtful, geographically informed approach to the task of describing and interpreting the human diversity of the planet.

Print length

383 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of California Press
Publication date

August 11, 1997
Dimensions

6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0520207432
ISBN-13

978-0520207431
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you consider geography an objective science, think again. According to Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, even the concept of continents is open to interpretation. Why, for example, do Europeans consider their little peninsula a whole continent while the vast territories of India and China are mere subcontinents? Contrast this worldview with that of the Indian mapmakers who depicted South Asia as the world's largest land mass and Europe as marginalized "hat-wearing islands." During the Cold War, the world was even further divided, this time into first, second, and third worlds. But how you classify the various regions of the world, Lewis and Wigen posit in The Myth of Continents, depends very much on where you happen to be standing at the time.

Having bravely exposed the ethnocentrism at the heart of geography, Lewis and Wigen then offer up their own division of the globe based on "world regions" rather than continents. Under such a scheme, Europe would become Western Eurasia, while the Western Hemisphere would become North America, Ibero-America, and African-America (divisions based on linguistic, cultural, and/or racial criteria). Whether or not you agree with the authors' division of the world, The Myth of Continents is a lively and thought-provoking exploration of a subject many of us take for granted. After reading this book, you'll never look at a map of the world in quite the same way.

Review

"The very fact that their work stimulates such questions is a tribute to the authors. In The Myth of Continents, Lewis and Wigen have written an entertaining and informative account of the way our maps show us the world that we want to see." ― New York Times

"A solid and useful contribution." ― Journal of World History

From the Inside Flap

"Despite the recent surge of interest in geographical concepts and ideas, most social, cultural, and political studies are riddled with unexamined spatial assumptions. The Myth of Continents initiates a much-needed consideration of this state of affairs. Through a wide-ranging analysis of such metageographical constructs as East, West, Europe, and Asia, Lewis and Wigen provide provocative insights into the nature and significance of the ways we usually divide up the world. Moreover, they do so in an engaging and highly readable style. Readers of The Myth of Continents will never again see the world regions in quite the same way."--Alexander B. Murphy, author of The Regional Dynamics of Language Differentiation in Belgium

"An exciting, thoughtful, engaging, innovative book that demonstrates the need to reexamine commonly held assumptions about the world's division into continents, East/West, First/Second/Third World, etc. Readers will be drawn to its 'big-think' quality of shattering commonly held assumptions and to its up-to-the-minute contemporary feel."--Benjamin Orlove, coeditor of State, Capital, and Rural Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Economy in Mexico and the Andes

"An important and long overdue housecleaning of old geographical concepts, based upon an impressively wide reading of regional literatures."--Edmund Burke III, editor of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

From the Back Cover

"Despite the recent surge of interest in geographical concepts and ideas, most social, cultural, and political studies are riddled with unexamined spatial assumptions. The Myth of Continents initiates a much-needed consideration of this state of affairs. Through a wide-ranging analysis of such metageographical constructs as East, West, Europe, and Asia, Lewis and Wigen provide provocative insights into the nature and significance of the ways we usually divide up the world. Moreover, they do so in an engaging and highly readable style. Readers of The Myth of Continents will never again see the world regions in quite the same way."―Alexander B. Murphy, author of The Regional Dynamics of Language Differentiation in Belgium

"An exciting, thoughtful, engaging, innovative book that demonstrates the need to reexamine commonly held assumptions about the world's division into continents, East/West, First/Second/Third World, etc. Readers will be drawn to its 'big-think' quality of shattering commonly held assumptions and to its up-to-the-minute contemporary feel."―Benjamin Orlove, coeditor of State, Capital, and Rural Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Economy in Mexico and the Andes

"An important and long overdue housecleaning of old geographical concepts, based upon an impressively wide reading of regional literatures."―Edmund Burke III, editor of Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East

About the Author

Martin W. Lewis is Associate Research Professor of Geography, Duke University, and author of Wagering the Land: Ritual, Capital, and Environmental Degradation in the Cordillera of Northern Luzon, 1900-1986 (California, 1992) and Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism (1994). Kären E. Wigen is Associate Professor of History, Duke University, and author of The Making of a Japanese Periphery, 1750-1920 (California, 1995).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (August 11, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520207432
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520207431
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,174 in Geography (Books)
- #1,750 in Ecology (Books)
- #26,533 in World History (Books)

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Martin W. Lewis

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Martin W. Lewis is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at Stanford University, where he teaches global historical and regional geography, contemporary geopolitics, and the history of Southeast Asia. He received a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1979, and a PhD in geography from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987. His recent research focuses on the history of geographical ideas, especially those pertaining to the division of the world. His avocations include travel, gardening, and fiction writing. He lives near Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Karen Wigen (professor of Japanese history at Stanford University), his son, Evan Lewis, and his daughter, Eleanor Lewis. For more information, see: http://www.stanford.edu/~mwlewis/

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"East is East and West is West...

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2002

...and never the twain shall meet." Kipling was wrong about that. This fascinating book shows how culture and world-view influenced not just Kipling and others of the past, but continues to do so with us today. Our maps, both mental and otherwise, are largely shaped by our own realities. Indeed the authors argue we are all unwitting believers in THE MYTH OF CONTINENTS. The metageography that this book critiques is defined as "the set of spatial structures through which people order their knowledge of the world." Such structures are arbitrary, but it's not just continents. It extends to world regions, culture areas, zones, and even civilizations. Also any depiction in atlases, on globes, in texts, and on political maps. It's all extremely subjective.
One of the strengths of this book is how it shows these artificial views emerging, changing, and adjusting to the dynamism and power of cultures. The concept of the continent of Europe is directly connected to the power of that region. Why else, the authors ask, should India be a sub-continent and China only a part of Asia? "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country."
The book traces the origins of the continental system from Herodotus through Ptolemy, the Romans, Medieval Europe to the Age of Discovery and beyond. The whole idea of what defined a continent (large landmass seperated by water) was always very fungible. The authors say that as late as 1599 "any reasonable large body of land or even island group might be deemed a continent". They give the example of a geographer referring to the West Indies as a "large and fruitful continent". The West Indies themselves are a perfect example of perception dictating form. We know that the "Indies" part came about because Columbus thought he had arrived in the East. The metageographies of West and East then are concepts that, like continents, are open to criticism. So too are the New and Old worlds, the First and Third Worlds (was there ever a Second World?) The same vagueness surrounds the North and the South, the Occident and Orient, Far East, Middle East, South Asia and the Pacific Rim.
In offering their own system for organizing human space the authors replace continents with "world regions". Arnold Toynbee and more recently Samuel Huntinton's system of using civilizations as the organizing principle gets a nod from the authors. In the classification they use, Europe is now "Western Eurasia", "African-America" includes not just the West Indies but the entire Caribbean and North-Eastern Brazil. North America remains and Ibero-America emerges.
Obviously geographers will thoroughly enjoy this book but it has a much broader appeal. Wherever we are in the world we use some of the terms above to describe our place. If nothing else this book will make us all a little more aware of how we define ourselves and others.

15 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

better than Edward Said or Samuel Huntington

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2000

I'm surprised to be the first to review this book. It was recommended to me a couple of years ago by a professor and I've only now gotten around to reading it: it's definitely one of the best books I've read recently.
As the title suggests, the book explores the myth of continents. The authors show the origin of the idea of the continent in ancient Greece and show its continued use throughout the centuries even as the addition of the Americas and Australia to the world map caused more and more incongruities with the original Greek and medieval world system.
The authors also look at the concepts of 'East' and 'West' and the similarly overused (but underdefined) 'Orient' and 'Occident', arguing against Edward Said for the continuation of a world divided into geographical regions, albeit ones that does not draw upon geographical determinism or cartographic ethnocentrism. Unlike Samuel Huntington they stress their world regions (i.e. African-America and Central Asia) as not always coherent territories with distinct borders. Agreeing with Herodotus and Toynbee about the need to examine the continental system, they thoroughly discuss the philosophical and political views of continents in recent centuries, looking at Rousseau, Herder, Hegel, Montesquieu, H.G. Wells, J. Burckhardt, Wallerstein and others.
This book is so good at deconstructing the built-up assumptions of the aforementioned terms that I hesistate to list any faults, although I should at least mention that I would have liked a few more maps and a separate section on how and why the authors chose each world region and its borders (i.e. why not a separate region for Madagascar).
In any case, this is a convincing and powerful book.

35 people found this helpful

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Edward K. Lankford

our notions of geography are rooted in our culture

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

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"The sevenfold continental system of American elementary school geography did not emerge in final form until the middle decades of the present century."

About 12 yrs ago, as I was driving for AAA Airport Express, I got to know a UGA geography professor and I asked her what was the one book about geography that one should absolutely read. She responded: The Myth of Continents. I bought the book soon after; alas, it has remained on my bookshelf (incl. 3.5 yrs in storage) unread...until now.

Admittedly, I read parts and skimmed parts, but this book is very informative. The basic premise challenges what is obviously strange about the "seven" continents: the separation of Europe from Asia is grossly arbitrary, and is rooted more in socio-cultural bias than it is geographical or, even, geological. The authors also challenge other problematic notions as East vs. West, Orient vs. Occident, North vs. South. At the same time, however, it pushes back against postmodernist attempts to do away with definitions entirely, asserting that there must be some kind of basis in fact to talk about human geography. The authors do a good job of showing how our notions of geography are rooted in our culture; and they show that other cultures have often done the same thing. I especially appreciated the authors' foray into the development of world history as a historical discipline in itself and the effort to move away from a Eurocentric approach to world history.

This is certainly an important book that challenges many assumptions, and also critiques anti-West reactions (such as Afrocentric geography) as employing the same mistakes as Eurocentrists have made. My own critique of their work would be that, while some terminology (such "Western" or "New World") is problematic, such shorthand is useful in everyday conversation. The sun doesn't truly "rise" after all, but we're still able to use such language while holding reality in the mind. But the authors themselves note that they often have to use continental language even as they are challenging it. At the end of the book, the authors posit 14 regions they say would make a better basis for talking more coherently about human geography without classifying one being "higher" or "better" then another. Here are some other quotes from the book below:

"What ultimately damns the continental system, however, is not its vagueness or its tendency to mislead us into making faulty associations among human cultural groupings. Most insidious in the long run is the way in which this metageographical framework perpetuates a covert form of environmental determinism…the belief that social and cultural differences between human groups can ultimately be traced to differences in their physical environments."

"The formula 'modernization = westernization' assumes a priority of origin over process, of geography over history."

5 people found this helpful

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