Following up on an earlier posting (The World According to Americans), here is an upside-down map of the World using the Hobo-Dyer projection. Evidently, it is favored by the Australians, according to a correspondent from South Africa--a country equally as elevated in the upside-down World.Since I find myself unexpectedly blogging about cartography, a neighbor of mine in Door County, WI has a unusual story: he served as a cartographer both in the British army during World War II and the US Army during the Korean War (my guess is that he was rudely surprised coming to the US after WWII and being drafted again, although he did have quite valuable skills).
As an Australian, I can assure you that this is most definitely NOT the map we 'favor', and in fact, I - and the vast majority of my fellow Aussies - have never seen this upside down version before!! How ridiculous! Do you also think we ride to school on kangaroos and wrestle crocs in our lunch break ??! Ha! I think you'll find the Australian geographic education is far superior to that taught in US Schools.
ReplyDeleteRuth: I apologize for this poorly written but wildly popular (my all-time most popular post) post. I didn't make the point strongly enough (if at all) that the conventional Eurocentric World map is arbitrary (centering on Greenwich is arbitrary since you can rotate the globe without changing anything about the map and the North-South orientation is arbitrary from the perspective of outer-space because space has no preference for any particular direction). The current map was a product of the hegemonic world powers searching for new continents, new treasure and new cultures to exploit. The early European maps were in fact oriented toward the East until the North Star and the compass were used for navigation. The people that publish the upside-down maps hope it will create tolerance and interest in the parts of the world system deemphasize by conventional maps. Follow some of the links in the original post and you'll get more information.
ReplyDeleteWell its obvious the Nile river cannot flow against gravity, so I would say.. this map is correct.
ReplyDeleteStill, one of my most popular, poorly written and hard to understand posts! HA!
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