Carla Lois

Do oceano dos clássicos aos mares dos impérios: transformações cartográficas do Atlântico sul

This article explores the various place-names given to the geographic localities in the South Atlantic by European cartographers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Despite of the fact that representation of continental space seem to have been more common in mapmaking at the time than the depiction of oceans and seas, oceanic waters often received particular names - regional seas - depending on the coastline in combination to the classical names. A series of connections can be established between this fact and the process of consolidation of slave trading and competition between empires.

10 x 15. Las tarjetas postales como huellas de las prácticas de los turistas

espanolLas postales han sido objeto de analisis que han puesto el acento en diferentes cuestiones. De manera destacada puede reconocerse una tradicion que ha analizado las imagenes que componen las postales para conocer como se retratan los destinos turisticos. Otros abordajes han complementado estos analisis senalando la condicion de objeto complejo: un objeto que se elige, se adquiere, se escribe, se envia (e incluso se conserva) como parte de la experiencia turistica. Se ha sugerido que la postal presenta una imagen estandarizada (la que se encuentra en el verso) y un espacio para la escritura del turista (en el reverso) marcada por la subjetividad. Este articulo busca cuestionar esa supuesta dicotomia entre imagen estereotipada y anonima versus texto subjetivo y personal a partir de una revision historica de la postal como objeto (sus modos de uso, sus formatos, sus usuarios) y proponer un analisis cualitativo de las postales que entrelace el verso y el reverso como fuente para indagar sobre las practicas turisticas desde el punto de vista desde el propio turista. EnglishPostcards have been object of analyses that have emphasized various issues. Images on postcards have naturally attracted examinations of the ways they portray tourist destinations. Other approaches have complemented these analyses by examining their status as complex objects: a postcard implies not only a representation of a tourist destination, but itself is an object that is selected, acquired, written on, sent (or kept) as part of the tourist experience. Also, some studies assume that postcards are double‑sided objects with a standardized image (on the front) and a blank space for personal writing (on the back). This article aims to question the supposed dichotomy between stereotypical and anonymous image versus personal and subjective text. This is achieved through a historical revision of postcard as object (the way it has been used, its formats, its consumers). The article also suggests a qualitative analysis of postcards that consider postcards’ front and back together to inquire into tourist practices from the tourist’s perspective.

Isla vs. continente: Un ensayo de historia conceptual

Throughout the history of modern geographical thought, some unexpectedly complex and intriguing debates arose surrounding the categories of island and continent. The origins of those arguments go back at least to the Renaissance, and they are still active even today. In this it is suggested that the island-continent relationship has been of four different types in geographical contexts: as part of a taxonomic system for landmasses; as a methodological analogy for considering both fi eldwork and work in the laboratory for geographers; as two geographical elements that balance the whole and compose a harmonic unity; and as signs that imprint a particular character on human groups. This paper also proposes to recognize the resonances of each of those four types in the current modes of analyzing our geographies.

European Perceptions of Terra Australis. Edited by Anne M. Scott, Alfred Hiatt, Claire McIlroy and Christopher Wortham

The study of mythical geographies and poorly known lands seems to cry out for a rigorous revision as part of the renewed interest in theoretical perspectives now dominant in the history of cartography. Scholars who approached these subjects in the past from a positivist perspective were more inclined to explain how exploration and science swept those myths away from maps than how those myths effectively participated in experiencing the world. Originally presented at the symposium entitled ‘Perceptions of Terra Australis’ held at the University of Western Australia in June 2009, the twelve chapters published in this volume analyse different aspects of the European views of a region that in some periodswas purely mythical and is still not well known: the southern land. In the first chapter, ‘Perceptions’, one of the editors, Anne M. Scott, introduces the book: ‘the unique contribution of this volume . . . is to unite two areas that have traditionally remained separate in scholarly discussion: Terra Australis as an intellectual concept, and the early exploration and conceptualisation of Australia’. Although this purpose, which is successfully accomplished, is worthy enough, the book offers much more than that. Not only because the authors demonstrate that Terra Australis has embodied different real and unreal geographical objects (from the Antipodes to Java or Australia), but especially because this set of papers brings to light the versatility and flexibility of the term Terra Australis according to different contexts, interests, needs and expectations. The broadly ranging topics and historical periods covered by these essays are brought together in a coherent discussion of themanyways that ‘perceptions’ participated in imagining, creating and experiencing Terra Australis. The following chapters consider how Terra Australis embodied the functional existence of a utopian land. Alfred Hiatt tells how Terra Australis as the Antipodes helped to describe the whole world including unknown areas (chapter 2); Bill Leadbetter and Christopher Wortham examine the influence of the cardinal direction of the south for ascribing certain attributes to Terra Australis (chapter 3 and 4 respectively). Bill Richardson analyses the historiographical problems that arise in research on Terra Australis, Jave la Grande and Australia (chapter 5). Margaret Sankey connects seventeenthcentury French literature about, and mapping of, Terra Australis with French attempts to find another New World to conquer (chapter 6). Mercedes Maroto Camino studies how ceremonial encounters associated with the exploration and ‘production of the Pacific’ contributed to creating images of peoples and lands (chapter 7). Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby investigate the Baudin expedition (1800–1803) and the politics of nomenclature as practices for ascribing glory or shame by recording and remembering colonialist experiences (chapter 8). Michael McCarthy invites us to contrast discrepancies between the official and unofficial sources relating to William Dampier’s and Louis and Rose de Freycinet’s perceptions of New Holland (chapter 9). Katrina O’Loughlin examines Mary Ann Parker’s account of her trip to New SouthWales in 1795 within a broader horizon of texts and practices concerning the networked geographies of colonialism (chapter 10). Norman Etherington brings attention to expeditions and travel accounts less remembered, such as Augustus Gregory’s expedition to northern Australia in 1855–1856 (chapter 11). Leigh Penman’s essay reveals that the appeal of Terra Australis remained vigorous by analysing retellings about the shipwreck of the Batavia (1629) in recent novels and other commemorations (chapter 12). Far from simplistic binary distinctions between fantasy and reality, speculation and demonstration, or experience and theory, these essays investigate the intellectual processes encompassed in imagining, representing, exploring, mapping and dominating the southern lands as part of other policies, acts and actions—for instance, colonialist interests and scientific enterprises—emphasizing that ‘fictional worlds stand alongside the world of experience’. In particular, the various explorations mentioned in the different chapters expose the multiple ways in which perception (influenced by classical sources about the earth as well as by empirical information about the South Seas, islands and land masses, and political goals) has been intimately involved in material practices and has concrete historical consequences. Beyond the specific contributions of each chapter, this volume achieves the valuable objective of offering a

The 23rd International Conference on the History of Cartography Poster Session

In its twenty-third iteration, the International Conference on the History of Cartography returned to Scandinavia for the first time since Uppsala and Stockholm hosted the meeting in 1991. The venue for the 12 to 17 July 2009 gathering was across the Øresund, at Copenhagen’s Royal Library, whose striking modern wing—dubbed the ‘Black Diamond’ on account of its black granite and glass and its tilting, sharp-edged exterior—provided participants with a home at once sleek and welcoming. During breaks between sessions, historians of cartography sipped drinks and munched their (generally excellent) food while looking towards the suburb of Christianshavn over tranquil canals glistening in the gentle heat of a Danish summer. One floor up from the main lecture theatre and reception area, a travelator led to a fine exhibition entitled, like the conference itself, ‘Maps, Myths and Narratives: Cartography of the Far North’ (Kort, myter og fortællinger: Kortlægningen af det yderste nord). The normal resources of the library also catered for less intellectual pursuits, such as grabbing an espresso at a handy café and catching up with e-mail. The conference could boast a royal patron, in the shape of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, President of the Royal Danish Geographical Society. Its sponsors and supporters included The A. P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, the COWI consulting group, SAS, and Royal Greenland and Greenland Tourism. Travel grants offered by the American Friends of the J. B. Harley Research Fellowships enabled the participation of scholars who would otherwise have found it difficult to attend. As at previous conferences, the Copenhagenmeetingwasmarked by the energy and goodwill of the organizers and the presence of generous, friendly and attentive volunteers. Technical glitches were fixed quickly with a minimum of fuss. Evident throughout was the good-natured hospitality of the members of the Organizing Committee— Henrik Dupont, Christopher Ries, Kristian Nielsen and Jeppe Strandsbjerg. The 213 participants and 23 accompanying persons, from more than 30 nations, appreciated their generosity and the general good nature of the city. The Academic Programme consisted of nineteen paper sessions, as well as a Poster Session arranged for the Tuesday morning of the conference (thereafter the posters could be viewed at leisure). No round tables were scheduled, and no workshops, both features of previous ICHC meetings. As usual, events began with a pre-conference meeting of the International Society of Curators of Early Maps (ISCEM), chaired by Robert Karrow, and on the same day the International Cartographic Association’s History of Cartography Commission, chaired by Elri Liebenberg, met to discuss the last volume (Volume 5) of the Chicago History of Cartography series, on which work is now starting. Those involved in Volumes 4 and 6 met three days later for a progress report. The conference theme of mapping the far north emerged strongly early on and continued right through to the final session. Greenland came in for significant attention, as did the northern parts of the Scandinavian peninsula, northern Russia and Alaska. One of the advantages of a conference without fixed period boundaries is that long histories can emerge: thus it was possible to hear Leonid Chekin speak on the German humanist Conrad Celtis’s early