Cartographic-story-telling, performance of way-finding and (e)motional mapping in the Cariri region, State of Ceará

As a research topic, maps and mappings within a cultural perspective have become increasingly popular over the last two decades. However, studies on the authorship and human agency in mapmaking, and how mapmakers engage with place and space are still awaiting a deeper analysis. From this angle, maps can be understood as processes, as actions in motion and events in constant becoming, rather than as finished products or simple representations. This paper addresses these theoretical reflections through a case study on cartographic narratives, performance of mapping, and navigation. The partial reconstruction of the travel route of the nineteenth-century Brazilian botanist Francisco FreireAlemo through parts of Northeast Brazil is presented to show the (e)motional nature of mapping and its importance not only as a way of understanding landscapes, but also as an act of drawing out the mapmaker's own geographical self.