"... In that empire, the art of cartography reached such perfection that the map of one
province alone covered up the whole of a city, and the map of the empire, the whole of a province. In time, those unconscionable maps did not satisfy, and the colleges of
cartographers set up a map of the empire which had the size of the empire itself and
coincided with it point by point. Less addicted to the study of cartography, succeeding
generations understood that this widespread map was useless and not without impiety they abandoned it to the inclemency of the sun and of the winters. In the deserts of the westsome mangled ruins of the map lasted on, inhabited by animals and beggars; in the whole country there are no other relics of the disciplines of geography."
Suarez Miranda, Viajes de varones prudentes, Book IV, Chapter XLV, Urida, 1658.
I like the way in which Borges describes why by using maps or models (i.e. game theory, Hamiltonians, propensity scores or any other approximation that allow for having an understanding of the non-understandable) we can get a sense of the world. Another approach can be to look within. Perhaps, the answers already exists in our own unique, limitless and indestructible mind.
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I learned about anthropomorphic maps from the linguist Dan Moonhawk Alford (deceased) and the anthropologist Stan Knowlton. They described the maps of Napi, the creator of the Blackfoot Indians (aka The Old Man) and his wife (The Old Woman) in Alberta, Canada.
I "found" similar maps of a male body (Hermes ?) in the Middle East and a female body (Aphrodite) in north Africa.
Anthropomorphic Maps
Anthropomorphic maps were generated by configuring the body of a god or goddess over the area to be mapped. The name of each part of that body became the name of the area under that part. This produced a scale 1:1 map-without-paper on which each place name automatically indicated its approximate location and direction with respect to every other place on the same map whose name was produced in this way.
You are cordially invited to join the BPMaps discussion group on this topic, a very quiet list that averages about 2 messages per month. The URL is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/
The Challenge: To produce computer software that will find additional body-part maps elsewhere in the world. Available inputs:
(1) geographic databases with ancient place names (e.g., the Perseus project).
(2) body-part names on Swadesh lists. Unfortunately, the navel is not included.
Attributes of Anthropomorphic Maps
(1) The navel is the center of the body, the center of the map, and usually the center of the map's language community.
(2) Place names (toponyms) may be reversed, metathesized, misspelled or euphemized for various reasons:
(a) The same part in the same language exists on another map of a different body. Cranium > Mo[n]rocco because Ukraine existed? Aphrodite is looking backwards over her right shoulder. She is bent at her waist (Misr/Mitzraim = MoSNaiM).
(b) The left (sinister) part is altered in names for left-right pairs (arms, legs, eyes, ears). DoFeN = side reversed to Nafud in north Arabia. SHvK = thigh with a T-sound for the letter shin = TvK reversed to Kuwait. BeReKH = knee metathesized to Bahrain.
(c) Names that represent taboo body parts or funcitons are reversed or euphemized:
Semitic PoS (female pudenda) reverses to yam SooF = sea of reeds (Red Sea).
Mare Rubrum (Latin for Red See) was her menstruation
CaNa3an (3 = aiyin with a G-sound as in 3aZa = Gaza) is a reversal of Greek gyneco-.
Sinai = "snatch" is spelled SiNi in Hebrew. The aleph=CHS is intentionally missing.
ZaYiN = weapon (a euphemism for his male member) is in Sinai as the desert of Zin.
(3) Names may be loan-translated due to conquest or language-change.
(a) Roxolania (Semitic Ro[chs]SH = head) => Rus *( Ro@SH) => Ukraine (Greek kranion)
* Caused by a change in the sound of the aleph from CHS to a glottal stop.
(b) Libya (Semitic LeB = heart) => Cyrenaica (Latin cor = heart, compare coronary) => Libya
(4) Rivers and bodies of water may be named after bodily excretions:
(a) Milk River in Alberta.
(b) Red Sea (Latin Mare Rubrum) is Aphrodite's menstruation.
(c) Gulf of Aqaba (Semitic QaVaH = digestion/defecation)
(5) Internal body parts may represent subdivisions of external parts.
(a) Arabic Misr / Hebrew Mitzraim (< TSaR = narrow) = waist (Hebrew MoSNaim). Egypt (< Greek hepato- = liver). Goshen (with a T-sound shin < Semitic QiTN = bean) = bean-shaped kidney. Goshen exported Arabic QuTN = cotton => Latin Gossypium (English gossamer = cotton-like)
(b) Atlas mountains < atlas = first cervical vertebra that supports the cranium.
(6) Islands near a body's hands may be named for weapons.
(a) Trinacria = trident (< Gk tri = three + Semitic NaKaR = to pierce) => Sicily (< VL *sicila < Latin secula = sickle to harvest wheat; compare Semitic SaKiN = knife). The trident was in Neptune/Poseidon's right hand (Italy, like Anatolia < N'TiLas yad = arm being washed by the seas).
(b) Greece = reversal of Semitic S'RoG = (weighted) net, held in his left hand.
(c) Crete = reversal of targe = small shield (compare English target) also in his left hand.
Aphrodite as an Anthropomorphic Map
The goddess we call Aphrodite
Is not just an old Grecian deity.
The Phoenicians did make
Her a map. It's not fake.
Her body is cartograffiti.
The Punic war destroyed her face,
The Romans left nary a trace.
But her hair is still there,
In Sahara, that's where.
And her chin's a Tunisian place.
Mt. Atlas is her first verTebra.
Her backbone is now Gulf of Sidra.
Her heart is in Libya,
Her left leg, Somalia.
Her breast is in Chad wearing no bra.
The Greeks called her liver Egypt, an'
Her kidney was Biblical Goshen.
She's bent at her waist,
Now Misr-ably placed.
The Red Sea was her menstruation.
As a kid I did think the Red Sea
Was an English map typo: lost E,
From Reed Sea in Hebrew.
But that could not be true,
Mare Rubrum 'twas Latin, B.C.
Aphrodite with Hermes did sin,
We know this is true 'cause within
Her "snatch" we call Sinai
His "zaiyin" does still lie.
It's known as the desert of Zin.
Best regards,
Israel "izzy" Cohen
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/
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