Map of the world by race, religion, government and civilization (1821) | Hacker News Reader

Map of the world by race, religion, government and civilization (1821)

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Very interesting how Russia is represented. There seem to be more hot spots of "enlightenment" than anywhere else, with the rest of the country "barbarous." Anyone know what that means?

I'm not familiar with the history of Russia on the 1800s, but at least from other examples of the barbarious label on the map (mostly from Mexico/America and Africa), I get the sense that barbarous means small semi-independent populations, either aware of the western world and reclusive on purpose (like Mexico) or just minding their own business and not integrated on the western world (like Africa, and maybe Central Russia). But I really don't understand why eastern Russia got mostly barbarous aside from the main cities. Maybe some historical prejudice against Cossacks and Turkic people?

In any case, we can definitely say that the map is skewed towards the cultural understanding at the time, mostly Euro-centric

I'm not confused about why he thought western Russia was "barbarous." I'm confused why there are more spots of "enlightenment" there than any other country despite being mostly "barbarous."

You find "enlightenment" in urban centers like Odessa, St Petersburg, Moscow and Kiew. The spot furthest east could be Kazan. And in the very East of Poland there's Warsaw. The rest of the vast country is rural and Orthodox. The Baltic is enlightened, but as soon as you get to Vilna and Minsk it gets suspicious.

> In any case, we can definitely say that the map is skewed towards the cultural understanding at the time, mostly Euro-centric

Amusingly, this line commits the same "sin" of Euro-centrism. There was (nor is) no "the" cultural understanding - only "a" cultural understanding. This map, produced by a European culture, is naturally Euro-centric, just as Polynesian maps reflect Polynesian culture and views.

I thought it was clear that I meant "the cultural understanding" of the map author, not the world

pretty hard to map some city of 30,000 with intellectuals, burned to the ground by 80,000 nomadic military from far away. repeat over centuries

What is the symbol used to mark ‘Pagan’? A box, sarcophagus, or altar maybe?

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