Mapping an alternative World
The words we put on our maps have a big impact on the ways we understand the world. If we change the language, we change how we imagine the world to be.
Who decides what to call a place?
None of the points below should be taken too seriously. The purpose of the exercise is to show how words (language) affects our imaginations of places. You might be able to apply your own critical thinking skills to invent some new place names.
- The Far East: New Zealand and much of Australia is further east than many places that most people would consider to be 'out in the Far East'. Why do we generally not imagine Australians as being Oriental?
- Pacific West Coast: makes you think of California, so they call it Asia-Pacific to stop your brain hurting. Ask someone if Japan is located on the western or eastern Pacific and see what happens ...
- The Middle West: makes about as much sense as "The Middle East". The Caribbean is in the western hemisphere and is located in the middle of the two Americas. Should we refer to this area of the world as being part of the Occident? Occident suggests west in much the same way as Orient means east.
- South West Asia: if it's okay to say southeast Asia then why do people refrain from referring to southwest Asia? Asia has four corners, but some only know of the one. The Middle East - it's in the middle of what and east of where? Forget the Eurovision Song Contest, Israel is in southwest Asia, not Europe.
- Anglo America: a parody of Latin America. Quechua, Guarani, English, French and Dutch are all spoken in "Latin America". Indeed, there are several languages in South America that are not especially Latin in origin. Likewise, Anglo America is a label that is unlikely to be popular with French or Hispanic North Americans.
- North America: Greenland is a part of the North American plate, yet rarely gets recognised as such. The World's biggest island is American, not Australian. Some people imagine Greenland to be European. Ask people to name the countries of North America and see what happens. Where do you imagine Mexico to be?
- American Far West: if you look at a map showing geological plate boundaries, you can see that much of Siberia is on the American plate. In the unlikely event of sea levels dropping, The Bering Strait would disappear and so change our perception of the Asian-American boundary. Armed with this information, could we imagine Siberia as being North American? Could Hawaii be imagined to be in the Far East?
- Sub-Amazonian America: the lands south of the Amazon rainforest. Just as valid as Sub-Saharan Africa - the lands south of a big biome. With the decline of the rainforest, you're stuck with imaginations of Latin America.
- European Subcontinent: when it comes to subcontinents, India seems to have a monopoly. How many other subcontinents are used in common parlance? Europe is just a small chunk of land stuck onto Asia - get over it!
- Africa: refreshingly easy to locate. Often imagined to be a country.
- Mediterranean Africa: many call it The Maghreb. When western people think of the lands of the Mediterranean, some only seem to think of Europe and forget that this sea has a south coast. Don't mention that Asia has a Mediterranean coastline.
- South East Asian Archipelago: a group of islands off the coast of southeast Asia. It is tempting to include Australia as part of this Asian chain - especially when they claim that it is an island. If Australia is an island, where's the mainland?
- Isle of Antarctica: the world's biggest island? Those who think of Australia as an island seem to forget that Antarctica is a bit bigger than Australia (lots bigger, actually) and is also surrounded by plenty of water.
- Afro-Eurasia: the world's biggest island? An awful lot of land surrounded by water. You can argue about the Suez Canal making a difference.
The Geographical Imagination
Many geographers have written about places as being imagined. This refers to the idea that we use whatever information we have about a place to imagine what that place is really like. Imagination is an important way of knowing (WOK) about places.
Two authors have helped create the concept of the "Geographical Imagination".
Edward Said in his book Orientalism (1978, 1995), argues that western perceptions about the Orient are imagined. Said was concerned about Western imaginations of an exotic, colonial-style Orient where the peoples of Islam are imagined to be uncivilised.
Benedict Anderson also wrote about the role of imagination in his book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983). Since it is impossible to know everybody in a country, Anderson argues that we imagine how people live in our own and other countries. For example, the media that we consume will provide us with the evidence we need to construct our imagination of places.
This means that how we imagine a place to be will be influenced by the nature of the Geography we study.
Two authors have helped create the concept of the "Geographical Imagination".
Edward Said in his book Orientalism (1978, 1995), argues that western perceptions about the Orient are imagined. Said was concerned about Western imaginations of an exotic, colonial-style Orient where the peoples of Islam are imagined to be uncivilised.
Benedict Anderson also wrote about the role of imagination in his book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983). Since it is impossible to know everybody in a country, Anderson argues that we imagine how people live in our own and other countries. For example, the media that we consume will provide us with the evidence we need to construct our imagination of places.
This means that how we imagine a place to be will be influenced by the nature of the Geography we study.
