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September 21, 2006 Get details:
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| The most expressive
variables associated to symbols are colour and size. More
authoritative than others, colour (or hue) serves as a powerful
system of differentiation, burdened with cultural meaning,
overwhelmed by its associations and its history. Yet colour is a
code that is constantly subject to change (Ferrier, 2002).
Nonetheless, when it comes to mapping Earth features there are
some silent conventions which have become common practice: water
bodies are shown as blue and vegetation as green; more is darker
and less is lighter. Other hues are associated with traditional
meanings depending on the cultural traits of the participating
communities: death is associated to white in India, to black
among westerners and violet amid Mangians in the Philippines.
“What these various figurative uses of colour have in common is
the way that they present colour as linked with perception, and
as perception that is not neutral or objective, but value added
that is, overlaid with cultural value (Ferrier 2002).
In mapmaking, the association of a specific
hue to a symbol is therefore far from being a neutral act. The
same applies to points, lines, areas and volumes, the remaining
sets of symbols. When used to depict real world features their
choice and their variation correspond to selected
interpretations of reality made by those who compose the map. |
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Hue |
Feature |
Hue |
Feature |
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Forest (1) |
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Orchard |
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Forest (2) |
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Vegetable Garden |
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Forest (3) |
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Paddy field |
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Forest (4) |
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Sugarcane |
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Forest (5) |
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Residential area |
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Grassland |
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Resettlement area |
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Shifting Cultivation |
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Mangroves |
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Lake, sea and river |
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