Historical Maps Preserve Prejudice

May 3rd, 2009

A controversial historical map of Japan was posted to Google Earth from David Rumsey’s collection. The maps created in the feudal era showed where the lower class caste called burakumin lived. The caste lived in isolation and were relegated to jobs that dealt with death — butchers, undertakers, leather goods makers. Although the caste system was eliminated long ago, there is ongoing discrimination against this caste, and the maps opened up old wounds.

The tags that identified the historical enclaves of the burakumin have been cleaned from the maps in order to allay concerns and to try and mitigate the controversy.

“We tend to think of maps as factual, like a satellite picture, but maps are never neutral, they always have a certain point of view,” Rumsey said.

Read an in-depth story about this in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Read more related Spatial Sustain posts:

2 Responses to “Historical Maps Preserve Prejudice”

Stephen Lead Says:
May 4th, 2009 at 12:00 am

The Sydney Morning Herald said:

“Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan’s sprawling metropolises.

But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan’s elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

An employee at a large, well-known Japanese company, who works in personnel and has direct knowledge of its hiring practices, said the company actively screens out burakumin job seekers.”

It seems a bit strange to target Google for publishing old maps, when it’s the irrational prejudice which is the problem…….

Terry Says:
May 5th, 2009 at 4:53 am

I remember once seeing an old National Geographic map that divided up the US by race. It was not very flattering to the American mindset. It was, however, quite accurate. We often lose sight of the fact that the accuracy of a map is often in regard to what it tells us about the social and cultural conditions of the map maker.