5 ms·
Interesting post with eye opening stats (even after reading many posts like this I'm still amazed at how big Brazil is!) Another interesting effect maps have o
by Jun8 3y ago
Interesting post with eye opening stats (even after reading many posts like this I'm still amazed at how big Brazil is!)
Another interesting effect maps have on worldview that was not mentioned is the placement of North at the top (https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/7960/why-is-the-north-considered-as-up-and-south-as-down https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/7960/why-is...). The fact that in the South of Egypt was referred to as "Upper Egypt" has confused me to no end, since "clearly" it's the bottom part (roughly corresponding to middle part of the current country). This is an interesting example where an important geological feature trumps the maps.
See these interesting answers to get more information about the terms Upper/Lower Egypt: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/47165/did-egyptian-civilization-start-from-north-to-south-or-vice-versa https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/47165/did-egypti...
- idlewords 3y agoThere's a similar phenomenon of terminology creep with language terms like 'High German' and 'Low German'. This nomenclature has been adopted into fantasy literature to suggest a more noble vs. fallen version of some ancient dialect, but all it meant originally is that 'high' speakers were upstream (and therefore uphill) from the 'low' speakers.
- Exoristos 3y agoGreat example. And the Alemannisch dialect is "hoch hoch Deutsch," or extra-high German, being from way up in the German-speaking Swiss Alps.
- YurgenJurgensen 3y agoThis is one of those 'common misconceptions' where I hear about its refutation more often than I encounter people who believe the supposed misconception. Much like anything talking about map projections, in fact.
- idlewords 3y agoYou may need to read more crappy fantasy books. To cite a completely representative example, consider 'High Valyrian' from Game of Thrones https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/High_Valyrian https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/High_Valyrian, a liturgical language that of course is contrasted with Low (or Bastard) Valyrian, a degenerate family of dialects.
- YurgenJurgensen 3y agoI don’t doubt they exist, but the only two examples I ever hear are the GoT one you mentioned and High/Low Gothic in WH40k. But I see that factoid about High/Low German repeated multiple times a year. It was a common entry on ‘fantasy cliche’ lists even in the dial-up era of the Internet.
- philshem 3y agoI received a gift from a friend in Uruguay that is from the clockmaker Girosur. The clock runs backwards, rhetorically asking “why is North up?” https://girosur.com/como-funcionan/ https://girosur.com/como-funcionan/
- fsckboy 3y agoone look at that clock and I'm rhetorically convinced, it does no good to reverse things, let's rotate that clockwise and keep north up!
- dredmorbius 3y ago"Clockwise" is the angular direction that the shadow of a northern-hemisphere sundial appears to move.
- SamBam 3y agoRight, that's one of the points that clock is making.
- kzrdude 3y agoUpper/lower is not weird, if you're used to a country with deep vallies (upper part of valley, lower part of valley, follows the river naming exactly, of course).
- Someone 3y ago> This is an interesting example where an important geological feature trumps the maps. I’m not convinced. Historically, Arabic and Egyptian maps had south on the top (https://muslimheritage.com/maps/ https://muslimheritage.com/maps/)
- jeromegv 3y agoThere was Upper Canada vs Lower Canada. On a map, they were inverted, but it was in reference to the St-Lawrence river and water from the Great Lake. You would first arrive in Lower Canada (from Europe) and keep navigating to reach Upper Canada.
- dredmorbius 3y agoEuropean / Levant maps through the mediaeval period frequently placed east at the top of the map. This is where the sun rose, and "to orient" is "to determine where East lies", and was (for Europeans) the direction toward Jerusalem. I suspect that north-as-top orientations were strongly influenced by the invention / importation of the magnetic compass. <https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58426/why-north-always-maps https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58426/why-north-always-m...>
- divbzero 3y agoI always thought Upper/Lower Egypt referred to regions that were upstream/downstream relative to the Nile.
- bentley 3y agoBrings to mind one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/08/07 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/08/07