Cartography

There are many portrayals of geographic relationships that do not qualify as maps as previously defined. Throughout human history, people have been illustrating geographic relationships between various elements of the physical and cultural environment. These geographic illustrations and representations are often beautiful, and can illustrate the world view of the culture that produced them. Some are extremely accurate in their representation of geographic relationships. Most geographic illustrations, however, are not considered true maps by modern cartographers because they do not use a scale based on distance. The development of the tools and techniques for accurately measuring distance requires a particular technical and scientific world view not shared by all cultures.

Many geographic illustrations or representations do not have a scale. Those that do, usually have a scale based on traveling times. Traveling times for the same distance can vary depending on the nature of the terrain, weather conditions, or other variables. For example, a 4-mi (6.4-km) journey across rugged mountains in a snow storm and a 12-mi (19.3-km) journey across a relatively smooth plain on a pleasant spring day may both take eight hours. A geographic illustration using a time-based scale would show two equal intervals; a distance-based scale would show the 12-mi (19.3-km) journey as three times longer than the rugged 4-mi (6.4-km) trek. Clearly, for a nomadic or migratory society, a geographic representation with a scale based on traveling times would be extremely useful, whereas one with a scale based on a distance would be of little or no use.