Cartographic Rumors, Brazilian Nationalism, and the Mapping of the Amazon Valley

Abstract

In 1988, J.B. Harley’s inspiring paper on silences, secrecy, and hidden agendas in early modern cartography stimulated a debate on power-knowledge relations in the history of cartography. Harley addressed maps as political discourses through which geographic details had been added or left out. Issues such as censorship, intentionality, and strategic interests underlined Harley’s argument that maps were “socially constructed perspectives on the world.” Despite the recent epistemological debates on authorship, access, and agency in the mapmaking process, the debate is mainly focused on printed maps and does not take into consideration the impact of the increasing number of historical maps that are accessible in the form of digital copies on the internet.

In this context, this paper aims to present the case study of a spurious nineteenth-century map of the Amazon valley that started to circulate in the internet about a decade ago and triggered nationalistic feelings and geopolitical arguments in Brazil. As an inversion of silences and secrecy, the purpose of the map was to exhibit and propagate rather than to hide or leave out information, whereas the anonymous mapmaker sought to link the map hoax to real historical facts and writings such as William Lewis Herndon’s exploration of the Amazon (1851–1852) and Matthew Fontaine Maury’s reflections on the Atlantic slopes of South America (1853). This example of a cartographic urban legend helps raise questions about the use and abuse of digital historical maps and their impacts in society in the past and the present.