ABSTRACT
Like other technological systems, cartography is also strongly and inevitably ideological: it involves not merely the drawing of maps but the making of worlds. 1 Maps are not just colorings in of preset outlines or simple depictions of portions of the physical universe. Maps present entire world views, with all that that phrase implies in terms of philosophical or scientific outlook, theological import, political influence, aesthetic perspective, and artistic choice. The multifarious worlds cartographers draw are far more than merely passive reflectors of particular cultural circumstances or idiosyncratic renderings of some otherwise objective reality; rather, maps are among the most powerful statements of belief in the worlds that they help to create. They are tools, to be sure, but they are inscriptive tools that allow as well as necessitate perspective; they are tools without which we cannot read and without which we cannot see.
