Sunday, December 19, 2021

Old map of America is crazy (video)


(Neatline Antique Maps, May 24, 2021) Let's have a look at Sebastian Munster’s 16th century map of the New World. (Sorry for the low volume. Using headphones and CC help). What did the Old World think the world was like? We can learn a lot through cartography, the study of maps.

Bias in our beloved Eurocentric maps?

How they had these ideas about the future USA seems odd since they were always reckoning and recording and actually visiting some of these places. Of course, all maps today are wrong, but no one seems to complain. We should have the means and technology to create a perfectly scaled map, but no one does it for public consumption.

It would reveal too much. Relative size of land masses, for example, are still politically influenced. Google Earth? A complete joke if objectivity is one's aim. Someday people will figure it out, but as for now we're being kept in the dark, and no one's complaining very loudly.

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