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Territorialisation and de-territorialisation of the borderlands communities in the multicultural environment: Morlachia and Little Wallachia
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The area of research refers to the Croatian - Bosnian and Herzegovinian borderlands, the contact area of three different imperial traditions in the Early Modern period; Ottoman, Habsburg and Venetian. That was the meeting place of East and West, Christianity and Islam and maritime and continental traditions. Frequent border changes were followed by migrations and introduction of new (other) social and cultural communities. The Borderland represents an area of multiple contacts and a multicultural environment. Historical maps reveal the process of territorialisation and de-territorialisation of the Borderland communities, as well as the process of construction and deconstruction of spatial (regional) concepts. Spatial concepts of Morlachia and Little Wallachia, constructed under the distinct social-political conditions of the threefold border, were dissolved by the change in these conditions.
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... Since political insecurity does not suit a sedentary lifestyle, the farming population largely leaves, moving to safer areas. The borderlands, thus, became a primary destination of mobile semi-nomadic pastoral communities from the Dinaric mountain area (Fuerst-Bjeliš 2014b). 5 Those new social and cultural communities are generally called Vlachs, Wallachians or, as Fortis (1774) a socio-economic category of the population from the Dinaric hinterland (Rogić 1976), defined by their distinct lifestyle that included semi-nomadic mobile herding and transhumance, often combined with military service, that distinguished them from the rest of the population of the both sides of the borderlands. ...
... On Bonifačić's map 9 particularly, the typography points to the equal regional rank as the regions of Licha and Corbavia that are the key regional concepts of the Croatian territory up to the present time. On Coronelli and Nolin's map 10 (1690) La Morlaquie is also listed in the cartouche, within the title of the map, at the same hierarchical level along with major political concepts/lands of Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary and Croatia (Fuerst-Bjeliš 2014b). Also, if looking into one of the best sources of knowledge of the Enlightenment Age, in Diderot and D'Alembert's encyclopaedia (1782), La Morlaquie was given the same significance as other political concepts/lands i.e. ...
Borderlands, commonly understood as areas of divide, contact and/or conflict
and coexistence of diversities, are above all places of their own, places of distinct
borderlands (and regional) identities. By their nature, borderlands are the areas
at the end or edge of some territory, or at its physical periphery and distant
from the main developmental axes. In this regard, borderlands may experience
many of the marginalization issues. They may represent geometrically as well
as socially marginal places and peoples.
The Early Modern Croatian borderlands were for centuries an area of constant
warfare and insecurity which made it, apart from being the periphery, a
marginal area burdened with lots of disadvantages. Most of the autochthonous,
agricultural and sedentary population fled to more secure areas, while the
depopulated (and largely devastated) borderlands became the destination of
other cultural, mostly semi-nomad pastoral communities, named as Vlachs or
Morlachs. The research was based on a qualitative approach and discourse
analysis of the narrative and cartographic sources of the time. Analysis revealed
that these communities were, due to their distinctive cultural and religious
differences perceived as Others as well as marginal. They were people outside
every official system and structure, and according to negative connotations
of their characterisations – at the margins of societies. The analysis of the
historical maps revealed that in the course of their centuries long presence and
territorialisation in the borderlands, the perception of their otherness has been
built into the spatial concepts of border regions.
The discussion addresses theoretical approaches to studying the history of Slovenian collective identity by critically assessing the “strictly modernist approach”, which a priori denies any connection between premodern ethnic communities and modern nations. Although opposing an arbitrary rejection of objective criteria for identifying ethnic affiliation, the article embraces the constructivist challenge of modernism and studies premodern self-determination with 1) the ethnonym ‘Slovenian’, 2) the Slovenian ethnic community, and 3) the Slovenian ethnic territory. The examples of self-identification discussed demonstrate that, apart from other collective identities, the inhabitants of Slovenian territory also felt an affiliation with the Slovenian ethnic community, which is thus rooted in the Middle Ages rather than the period of Protestantism or even nationalism.
In the process of developing into a modern nation, the Slovenes were confronted with a problem that indeed plagued many European peoples: a dual designation for a single people and its language: the ethnonyms Slovenci and Kranjci (‘Slovenes’ and ‘Carniolans’) and the linguonyms slovenski and kranjski (‘Slovene’ and ‘Carniolan’). There are several indications that, as early as the sixteenth century, the term ‘Carniolan’ served not only as the designation for the inhabitants of Carniola but also an ethnonym. During the Protestant period, it already spread beyond the Carniolan provincial borders and came on a par with the ethnonym ‘Slovene’. The Slovenes in Carniola (thenceforth only) self-identified with the designation ‘Carniolans’, whereas outside its borders, they variably, from one province to another, identified themselves either as Slovenes or Carniolans, sometimes alternating between the two designations. Later on, the linguonym ‘Carniolan’ also established itself to replace the linguonym ‘Slovene’. The question whether the nominal Carniolization during the ethnogenesis of the Slovenes had a disintegrating effect, may be answered both affirmatively and negatively.
The South African Government made great strides in delivering a record number of subsidized houses to the millions of previously disadvantaged people of South Africa. However, this great effort does not appeal to the principles that policies have set out in terms of equality. Along with the delivery of this high number of state funded housing, many of these home dwellers feel as though they have been marginalized and forced out of the areas of various opportunities, to peripheral spaces of marginality. Many researchers believe that the current South African low-cost housing patterns delivery pattern resembles that of Apartheid segregationist planning, which exacerbated the social inequalities in the country. The issue of social development needs to be placed back on the housing agenda, making the sense of place as important a requirement as that of civil infrastructure. It is, after all, a statutory requirement of the latest Housing Act of South Africa.
Our world has become increasingly complex, and ordinary citizens who are not specialists in economy and politics risk to lose the overview over the daily events that influence or even determine their lives. One reason is the increasing velocity of life, which entails massive stress for everybody, another the domination of polarized thinking ‘economics vs. people’. The neoliberal philosophy pretends that the free market can regulate all problems; the State (political system) is considered superfluous. Recent trends show that the political system indeed seems to be powerless or even an accomplice of the economic system, and that this situation leaves the civil society almost helpless. In particular, nature is marginalized and not considered at all, although it provides the basis for all economic activity. However, the so-called ordinary people are not simple victims. They are citizens with political possibilities, which they can exercise in democratic systems, and they are customers who hold considerable economic power, if they manage to free themselves from external pressures on their basic needs. They need not act alone but can organize themselves in self-help groups and cooperate with NGOs, which can also be partners to international organizations. However, a radical change in thinking is imperative, which would see an independent political system as the pivot in a circle of environment, people and economy.
The Early Modern Croatian borderlands area reflects many social and cultural divides, shared spaces and intersecting identities. It represents an area of multiple contacts of three different imperial traditions in the Early Modern period; Ottoman, Habs-burg and Venetian. That was a meeting place of East and West, Christianity and Islam and maritime and continental traditions. Frequent border changes throughout several centuries were followed by migrations and introduction of new (other) social and cultural communities, building and rebuilding the landscapes of multiple identities. Research into past spatial perceptions and images from historical maps is of particular interest in contact and shared spaces, where diverse cultures, religious systems and complex ethnic structures meet. Investigating regional identities in the contact spaces of the borderlands was based primarily on deconstructing maps of the time; tracing a map rhetoric and its symbolic meaning. The westernmost border of the Ottoman Empire with the Habsburg Monarchy was primarily a border between Islam and Christianity. That fact notwithstanding, the Orthodox Christians were also perceived as Others among the dominant population of Roman Catholic affiliation in (Habsburgian) Croatia. The borderlands were more likely a shared space and not so much a divide of different intersecting cultural (religious) identities, that were appreciated and recognized. Landscapes of diverse identities were analyzed and discussed through a number of historical regional examples i.e. Morlacca, Minor Wallachia and Turkish Croatia. //
Zusammenfassung Identitätslandschaften in gemeinsamen Räumen von Grenzgebieten Das frühneuzeitliche kroatische Grenzgebiet weist zahlreiche soziale und kulturelle Trennlinien, gemeinsam genutzte Räume und sich überschneidende Identitäten auf. Es ist ein Gebiet viel-fältiger Kontakte dreier verschiedener imperialer Traditionen der frühen Neuzeit: des Osmanischen Reichs, der Habsburger Monarchie und Venedigs. Es war ein Treffpunkt von Ost und West, Christentum und Islam und maritimen und kontinen-talen Traditionen. Häufige Grenzverschiebungen waren über mehrere Jahrhunderte hinweg begleitet von Migration und der Einführung neuer (anderer) sozialer und kultureller Gemein-schaften sowie der Entstehung und Veränderung von Land-schaften vielfältiger Identitäten. Die Erforschung von früheren Raumwahrnehmungen und von Bildern historischer Karten ist von besonderem Interesse in angrenzenden und gemeinsamen Gebieten, in denen verschiedene Kulturen, religiöse Systeme und komplexe ethnische Strukturen aufeinandertreffen. Die Erforschung regionaler Identitäten in den Kontakträumen von Grenzgebieten wurde vor allem auf der Dekonstruktion zeit-genössischer Landkarten sowie der Analyse der Aussagen von Landkarten und ihrer symbolischen Bedeutung aufgebaut. Die westlichste Grenze zwischen dem Osmanischen Reich und der Habsburger Monarchie war vor allem eine Grenze zwischen Islam und Christentum. Gleichwohl wurden die orthodoxen Christen ebenfalls als Andere innerhalb der dominanten rö-misch-katholischen (Habs burg ischen) Bevölkerung in Kroa-tien betrachtet. Die Grenzgebiete waren wahrscheinlich eher ein gemeinsam genutzter Raum als eine Trennlinie zwischen verschiedenen einander überlagernden kulturellen (religiösen) Identitäten, die geschätzt und anerkannt wurden. Landschaf-ten unterschiedlicher Identitäten wurden anhand einer Reihe historischer Beispiele analysiert und diskutiert, z.B. Morlacca, Walachia Minor und Türkisch-Kroatien.
Geografska imena na karti, kao dio njezina sadrzaja, jednako su toliko vezana uz nevidljivi društveni svijet i ideologiju, kao i uz pojave koje se mogu vidjeti i mjeriti u prostoru. Karte shvaćene na taj način su slike, nositelji značenja, poruka i percepcija svijeta, kako pojedinoga kartografa, tako i općih društvenih i kulturnih vrijednosti. Na temelju analize geografskih imena na kartama ranoga novoga vijeka, moguće je pratiti kako su specifične društvene okolnosti izravno utjecale na percepciju i oblikovanje pojedinih regionalnih identiteta. Njihovi tvorbeni elementi bremeniti su različitim značenjima odgovarajućima trenutku vremena te različitim odnosima između pojedinih slika prostora: razlikovanje socijalnih grupacija, vjeroispovijesti, te razumijevanje nestalnosti granica s jedne strane i kontinuiteta teritorijalnosti s druge strane. Analiza se temelji na kartografskom fondu zbirki Hrvatskoga državnog arhiva, Nacionalne i sveučilišne knjižnice, Hrvatskoga povijesnog muzeja te brojnih objavljenih faksimila.
After the peace treaties of Srijemski Karlovci (1699) and Požarevac (1718) Venice extended and consolidated its possessions in Dalmatian interior the most in the history. That was the occasion of new policy of land repartition that was regulated by new agrarian laws and followed by cadastral surveys. Apart from jurisdiction change, after its establishment the border has not undergone any significant changes until today. Consequently, the interior Dalmatian territory consolidated in the 18th century as the Venetian New Acquisition, presents the base for distinctive development of cultural landscape. The topic of the research is to point to the main spatial as well as demographic implications of the new border establishment in Dalmatia.
Recent researches since the end of the 20th century tend to subvert the traditional, positivist model in analyzing the maps, replacing it with one that is grounded in iconological and semiotic theory of the nature of maps. Maps could be understood as a social construction of the world expressed through a medium of cartography, or as a socially constructed image of reality. Researching past images through maps is of particular interest in multicultural spaces, where a variety of different cultures, religious systems, complex ethnic structures and imperial systems meet each other. Borderlands are typical spaces where a multiplicity of such contacts reflect and produce a multiplicity of perceptions and images. Early Modern period in Croatian history is burdened with frequent changes of borders between three imperial systems with different religious systems and cultural traditions that have intertwined on the Croatian territory, and consequently reflect different attitudes toward borderlands. Through a number of examples of the Croatian borderlands, the main aim is to reveal the symbolic layer of the map that leads us into the process of imaging the past, i.e. opening the abundance of different perceptions in the multicultural realities of the Croatian borderlands.
Two developments in cartography mark an epistemic break with the assumption that maps are unproblematic communication devices. These are 1) investigations of maps as practices of power-knowledge; and 2) 'geographic visualization' (GVis) which uses the map's power to explore, analyze and visualize spatial datasets to understand patterns better. These developments are key components of a 'maps as social constructions' approach, emphasizing the genealogy of power in mapping practices, and enabling multiple, contingent and exploratory perspectives of data. Furthermore, this approach is an opportunity for cartography to renew its relationship with a critical human geography.
Editors' overviewScientific integrityJudgmentSimplification and amplificationQuantitative information on mapsResults of generalisation of quantitative dataAmplification of quantitative dataSynthetic information and generalisationHarmony and tasteProgressiveness and conservatismMap users are humanReferencesFurther readingSee also
In the cities in which we live, all of us see hundreds of publicity images every day of our lives.... In no other form of society has there been such a concentration of images, such a density of visual messages (Berger, 1972: 129).
My first image of the Canadian West was from a picture on a calendar in our farmhouse in southern Ontario. The image was of a field of golden wheat blowing in the wind under a sunny and azure sky (Francis, 1989: xv).
A strong corporate image influences the predisposition to buy a company's products, speak favourably of it, believe its statements, apply for a job with it, and the like (Worcester, 1986: 604).
The spectacle is capital to such a degree of accumulation that it becomes an image (Debord, 1977: thesis 34).
With the emergence of a truly spectacular body of experiments, imagery is one of the hottest topics in cognitive science (Block, 1981: 1).
The paper draws on ideas in postmodern thinking to redefine the nature of maps as representations of power. The traditional rules of cartography – long rooted in a scientific epistemology of the map as an objective form of knowledge – will first be reviewed as an object of deconstruction. Second, a deconstructionist argument will explore the textuality of maps, including their metaphorical and rhetorical nature. Third, the paper will examine the dimensions both of external power and of the omnipresence of internal power in the cartographic representation of place.