'This volume ventures into terrain where even the most sophisticated maps fail to lead—through the mapmaker’s bias. Denis Wood shows how maps are not impartial reference objects, but rather instruments of communication, persuasion, and power. Like paintings, they press a point of view. By connecting us to a reality that could not exist in their absence—a world of property lines and voting rights, taxation districts and enterprise zones—maps embody and project the interests of their creators. Sampling the scope of maps available today, illustrations Peter Gould’s AIDS map, Tom Van Sant’s map of the earth, U.S. Geological Survey maps, and a child’s drawing of the world.’ (back cover)

Access level

Onsite

author
Location code
REF.WOD
Language

English

Keyword
Publication/Creation date

1992

No of pages

248

ISBN / ISSN

9780898624939

No of copies

1

Content type

monograph

Chapter headings

Introduction

Maps Work by Serving Interests

A Reality Beyond Our Reach

Maps Make the Past and Future Present

Maps Link the Territory with What Comes with It

Maps Enable Our Living

One Map Use - Many Ways of Living

Maps Construct - Not Reproduce - the World

Every Map Has an Author, a Subject, a Theme

Suspended Between Faith and Doubt

Maps Are Embedded in a History They Help Construct

Growth, Development, History

Maps Themselves Don't Grow (or Develop)

But Mapping and Mapmaking Do

To Live Map-Immersed in the World

Some Societies Are Bigger Than Others

Some Societies Are More Developed

Our Histories - Entwined - Are Different

Every Map Shoes This...But Not That

The Dividing Up of the Reality

The Code Between the Object and its Image

The Mathematical Transformation of the Object

'Night and Day, You Are the One'

'Blue Skies, Shining on Me'

'All Summer Long'

What Is the Map for?

The Interest the Map Serves is Masked

The Naturalization of the Cultural

The Culturalization of the Natural

The Wanaque Topographic Quadrangle

...Shows Only Selected Features

The Wanaque Quadrangle Only Shows 'Permanent' Features

The Wanaque Quadrangle Only Shows Cheap Features

Cheap Maps Are Silent

Legible Features on the Wanaque Quadrangle

What Are We Looking for in New Jersey?

We're Looking for Iron

Suddenly the Map Looks Different

The Interest Is Embodied in the Map in Signs and Myths

Legends

Myths

Codes

Ten Cartographic Codes

Instrasignification

Ironic Codes

Linguistic Codes

Tectonic Codes

Temporal Codes

Presentational Codes

Sign Functions

Elemental Signs

Sign Systems

Synthesis

Presentation

Each Sign Has a History

A Brief History of the Hillsign

Hillsigning Among Contemporary Americans

The Sequence in Which Kids Acquire Hillsigns Parallels That in Which They Were Acquired in Our History of Mapmaking

The Mastery of Hillsigning in Contemporary Kids

The Hillsigning of the Contemporary Child in Context

The Development of Hillsigns

Hillsigns of the Future

The Interest the Map Serves Can Be Yours

Anybody Can Make a Map

Maps Are Moments in the Process of Decision-Making

Maps Are Heavy Responsibilities

Maps Empower...By Working

The Power of Maps
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The Power of Maps