ABSTRACT
Ethnographic mapping, traditionally, has included a wide variety of activities, ranging from small-scale 'sketch-maps', to large-scale, multi-community visualizations of significant features of the physical and social environments, often representing the 'territory' of the study population. In ethnographic mapping, the construction of the geographical information is carried out by the field researchers, sometimes with the help of hired cartographers and, in most cases, an effort is made to present locations and distances with at least some geographic accuracy. Quite frequently, the term ethnographic mapping is used to include studies in which a great deal of cultural, economic, and social information is collected and described in connection with the spatial mapping operations. Place-name mapping, particularly in indigenous tribal/ethnic areas, is the domain of geographers, linguists, anthropologists, and some folklore specialists. These different types of researchers have somewhat different data-gathering approaches. Full-scale place-name research, like the participatory mapping described in the preceding section, requires extensive participation by local indigenous experts.
