How Maps Work

This paper proposes a new definition of the map. It is argued that a map is a weapon in the fight for social dominion, one disguised as a representation of the world, but which in reality links territory with what comes with it (with voting rights or military service obligations, with rates of rainfall or types of vegetation). The map achieves this linkage by fusing onto a common plane (that of the map) multicoded images of the very world the map itself will bring into being.