ABSTRACT
Although maps offer themselves as primarily mimetic, functional tools, the inevitable selectivity of what they record and their normal reference to that most vital of individual and national empowerments, land, make them a crucial and fascinating element in the project of Empire. The process of colonial inscription begins even before the arrival of the explorers who prepare maps of the country for subsequent settlement. For their practices, their ways of seeing-and hence selecting-detail to be recorded, are predefined not just by the centuries-old traditions of European map-making but also by the ideology of the expansionist colonialism which they serve.
