Over the past few weeks, Kango headquarters has been bustling with productivity and anticipation as we eagerly prepare our site for company launch. These are exciting times! As a result of all the aforementioned excitement, my blogging efforts have taken a brief hiatus. Fortunately, it’s not for a shortage of ideas to explore (there are plenty of those floating around), but a lack of time and fully fledged blog focus.

Anyways…I’m back at it and ready to dive into an area of recent enthusiasm – alternative maps (see tourism and ‘made in china’).

Maps organize information. They pinpoint locations relative to one another. James Turner has created the very ambitious and ultra detailed Map of Humanity, where he takes on the task of organizing morals, emotions, and culturally significant figures and events.


click for larger view

In the words of the creator, “It is an attempt to map the last six thousand years of human history and thought upon a theoretical geography to discover a sense of what kind of civilization humanity has attained.”

My thoughts…

- Geographic maps are by definition objective. This map, on the other hand, is subjective and based upon Turner’s religious, political, and moral beliefs. An atheist would disagree with Faith being a sub-region of Wisdom. A British historian would have trouble with the location of Elizabeth I– who had recurring military failures against England’s three primary foreign adversaries of the time- France, Ireland, and Spain– near the sub-region Order.

- To the southwest is “Hedonism”, home to regions like Gluttony, Treason, Delusion, Nightmare and Lies; I suppose Lay, Skilling, and Fastow held Enron corporate retreats here.

- I’m not at all sure why Mexico City and the Forbidden City reside in Fool’s Paradise along with the likes of Babel and Chernobyl; or how Seattle and Philadelphia landed in the region of Wisdom…

- I’d love to go hiking in the Shakespearian Mountains, sail in the Gulf of Maitreya Buddha, or get lost in the Sea of Knowledge.

- Are property taxes higher in Dreams or in Delusion?

 

 

This ambitious feat combines human emotion, real and fictional figures and events, and cartography, all joined together with great detail. While my personal views don’t mirror Turner’s, I applaud him for his creativity, myriad of historical references, and fine map making skills. I need to get one of these and chart out a future trip!

Relating to the Map of Humanity…..Where would you like to grow up? Experience your twenties? Retire?

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