Although we think of maps as depicting geographical areas, they can also be used to represent other areas, such as the heavens or parts of the human body. We therefore say that explorers map the earth, astronomers map the heavens, and geneticists map chromosomes. For our purposes in Cartographic Connections, we consider a map any representation of a geographic area that is, a part or all of the earth s surface. That surface usually contains many things that the map maker wants us to see in one image, for example, roads, cities, and lakes. Maps above all help us to graphically display spatial relationships.
Maps can depict many types of phenomena in the encounter between people and place.
They may reveal natural encounters as people represent the physical environment, cultural encounters as they show where two or more groups of people interact, political encounters as two or more nations come in contact, and technological encounters as a result of humankind s ingenuity in developing transportation systems, agricultural areas, and mining locations. Maps are most often drawn or printed on paper, but they may also be produced on any surface. They may be drawn in the sand or on leather hides. In some parts of the world, people make maps out of anything handy, for example, sticks or other objects. As long as they show a place, and can help people understand the relationship between spatial phenomena, they are really maps.