Sunday, December 16, 2018

Geopolitics and Maps


Alexander Dugin wrote that geopolitics has a special place among modern sciences. Geopolitical concepts became major elements of modern politics long ago. They are built on general principles that make it easy to analyze the situation of each particular country and region. Geopolitics in its current form is undoubtedly a secular science. But perhaps, among all modern sciences, it maintains the greatest connection with tradition and traditional science. Modern geopolitics is the product of freedom from religious control in the traditional science of sacred geography. It is often classified as "pseudo-science." Because its secularization is not as perfect and irreversible, as in the case of chemistry or physics, the connection with sacred geography is still quite visible: geopolitics is in an intermediate place between the traditional science of sacred geography and modern geography .

Modern geographers are aware that religion can be a starting point for building an ethnic and national identity, and religious ideology and practice have a great influence on location. Religious belief may influence how the entire public space is used. Geographers find that many modern religious spaces deviate from the traditional official spaces of places of worship. One of the new areas of research on the connection between geography and religion examines the rise of religious fundamentalism. Immigration processes have also created landscape changes, as there are many immigrant communities defined by religion. Studies in this field analyze the changes in the fundamentalist population in the Western world and its impact on the design of space. Public places not defined by religion in the recent past, including the city, the neighborhood, the street, the schools, and many domestic spaces, and at the same time wide areasin the media and the economy, have become everyday compounds that combine religious practice in an informal manner.

Maps are a powerful means of transmitting messages using cultural symbols. Many ancient maps represented a visual essence of knowledge combined with the worldview of their creators. Although modern scientific mapping uses sophisticated measurement methods, it is still subject to the imperative of aesthetic design. Accurate maps also represent an interpretive and tendentious point of view.

The anthropomorphic [anthropogenic, humanized] maps offer a reflection of the personal and collective identity of the human body. These maps were created in a protracted procreation process. The landscape is not exactly the character of man. A complex transformation process is required to make geography a human portrait. But this is possible because there is constant dialogue between man and landscape, as a process of refined dynamic and image in action.

Early anthropogenic maps are the star maps identified with the entire universe, and the world maps of early Christianity. Some of them gradually developed into anthropogenic maps of countries and continents. Atlases of these maps have been very successful. Political cartoons are sometimes portrayed as humanized maps.



.The Western Wall in Jerusalem is the holiest place for Jews
.On the upper left is Omar Mosque  and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher




.The Kaaba structure in Mecca
.Muslims around the world turn to it during their prayers






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