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From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame
by Mark Shis Monmonier
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Synopses & Reviews Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. Thus, summits such as Squaw Tit—which towered above valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California—found their way into the cartographic annals. Later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, and scatalogically offensive toponyms, town names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national and cultural map forever. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, and respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics and power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past and present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, and serves different political aims. Anchored by a diverse selection of naming controversies—in the United States, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, and Antarctica; on the ocean floor and the surface of the moon; and in other parts of our solar system—From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow richly reveals the map’s role as a mediated portrait of the cultural landscape. And unlike other books that consider place names, this is the first to reflect on both the real cartographic and political imbroglios they engender. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow is Mark Monmonier at his finest: a learned analysis of a timely and controversial subject rendered accessible—and even entertaining—to the general reader. Review: "As the title of this slight but engaging treatise on the politics of place names indicates, a sufficiently detailed gazetteer offers plenty of material to rile up minorities, feminists and persons of refined sensibility. Geographer Monmonier (Spying with Maps) gets a lot of mileage out of typing provocative words into a U.S. Geological Survey database and picking through the resulting ethnic slurs, body parts and scatological imprecations. The Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast states, with their ripe mining-camp history, offer up the most offensive place names, but even staid Newfoundland has a village named Dildo situated next to Spread Eagle Bay. The author delves into the efforts of the Federal Government's Board on Geographic Names to sanitize uncouth toponyms, a task that requires delicate attention to racial and cultural sensitivities, often complicated by cries of political correctness from citizens proud of their off-color local landmarks. He goes on to examine the politics of map names in conflict zones like Cyprus and Israel and ongoing scientific and international squabbles over naming features of Antarctica, the ocean floor and the Moon. Although general readers will find much of the procedural and bureaucratic details of official place-naming arcane, they will enjoy a trove of giggle-inducing lore. Photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review: "Engaging...a trove of giggle-inducing lore."-Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly, Feb 20 2006 ) Review: "An entertaining and enlightening excursion"-Michael Kenney, Boston Globe (Micheal Kenney, Boston Globe, May 30 2006 ) Review: "[An] excellent book. . [Mark Monmonier] is an able populariser of academic geography, and an expert guide to the bureaucratic, legal and political hierarchies that determine how places acquire, change and lose their names."-The Economist (The Economist, Jun 15 2006 ) Review: "Fascinating. . The book will interest anyone who has ever wondered how place names have come to be established by locals, and then come to endure on maps-at least until the advance of political correctness."-Susan Gole, Times Higher Education Supplement (Susan Gole, Times Higher Education Supplement, Jul 14 2006 ) Review: "A funny book...What Monmonier provides is a running commentary on risqu‚ toponyms and the attempts to censor them by disapproving authorities - frequently protested or prevented by locals who'd learnt to love living in, for example, Intercourse, Pennsylvania, or Wee Wee Hill in Indiana."-Phillip Adams, The Australian (Phillip Adams, The Australian, Aug 12 2006 ) Review: "Mark Monmoniers boyishly infectious history of (principally American) toponyms maps out the sexism, racism and imperialism through which we have come to know our landscapes.... Mark Monmoniers book shows that maps are no more neutral than any other record of human construction."-Simon Reid-Henry, Times Literary Supplement (Simon Reid-Henry, Times Literary Supplement, Sep 1 2006 ) Review: "Monmonier carefully simplifies the bureaucratic jargon and processes to craft a study both accessible and entertaining to scholars and the general public alike. His work is a compelling analysis of how cultures claim the spaces they occupy."-Anthony J. Stanonis, Canadian Journal of History (Anthony J. Stanonis, Canadian Journal of History) Review: "Monmoniers [book] will appeal to anyone who wants to know the genesis of place names and how controversial they can be...From Sqauw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow can be revisited and enjoyed for many years, and would there therefore make [an] excellent gift."-Jeff Bursey, Books in Canada (Jeff Bursey, Books in Canada, Mar 1 2007 ) Review: "A useful book that belongs on the shelf of anyone with an interest in cartographic issues. It is also a pleasant Sunday read, so long as you dont read it in church with its prominently-titled dust cover." (Technology and Culture) Review: "Why did India block distribution of an updated version of Microsofts Windows 95? Is it Mount McKinley or Mount Denali, Hawaii or Hawaii? Monmonier (geography, Syracuse Univ.; Spying with Maps) answers these questions and more as he reveals in a nontechnical manner the impact of governmental policy and political correctness upon modern cartography. The reader is introduced to the agencies responsible for proposing and approving name changes and spellings, among them the U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN) and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN). The first four chapters explore recent attempts to find acceptable replacements for place names, primarily in the United States, containing pejorative ethnic or risqu‚ terms (as in the books title). One chapter is devoted to the movement to restore indigenous forms and spellings (as in Mount Denali). The remainder of the book examines international disputes over Kashmir, th(Library Journal, Apr 1 2006 )
About the Author Mark Monmonier is distinguished professor of geography at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the author of, among other titles, Spying with Maps—the winner of the 2002 Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography—and, most recently, Rhumb Lines and Map Wars, both published by the University of Chicago Press. Table of Contents Preface 1. Naming and Mapping 2. The Quest for a National Gazetteer 3. Purging Pejoratives 4. Body Parts and Risqué Toponyms 5. Going Native 6. Your Toponym or Mine? 7. Erasures 8. Inscriptions Epilogue: Naming Rites Notes Bibliography Index Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780226534657
- Subtitle:
- How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame
- Author:
- Monmonier, Mark Shis
- Author:
- Monmonier, Mark S.
- Author:
- Monmonier, Mark
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- Subject:
- English language
- Subject:
- United States - General
- Subject:
- Names, geographical
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences - Geography
- Subject:
- General Travel
- Publication Date:
- April 2006
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 230
- Dimensions:
- 9.16x6.34x.93 in. 1.06 lbs.
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