Mapping the Contours of Race: Griffith Taylor's Zones and Strata Theory

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which cartography served as a tool to reinforce racial divisions in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century race science. Racial and anthropometric mapping was an endeavour in which both European and new world anthropologists and geographers were involved. The focus here is on the work of Thomas Griffith Taylor -regarded as one of the founders of modern geography in Australia -who deployed a number of cartographic techniques to reinforce his racial theorisations. This article explores Taylor's 'zones and strata' portrayal of racial evolution, and other geologicalstyle maps of racial difference. These representations are investigated from two standpoints. Firstly, Taylor's theories are situated within the wider context of the Victorian tradition of classifying race, a tradition where physical race type was often correlated with moral and intellectual traits, and which was supported by the acceptance of environmental determinism within geographical circles. Secondly, his maps are considered from the perspective that, as J.B. Harley has argued, maps are social texts that contain power and, as such, can be deconstructed. Taylor's cartographic representations resulted from the manipulation of the internal elements of the map text, such as shading and projection, and were supported by the widely held belief that human racial groups could be delineated through physical anthropometry.

Historical geography I

“…These maps present in ‘accessible form genetic sagas that are akin to creation myths' (p. 205) and are inextricably tied to racial politics. Livingstone’s paper may be fruitfully read alongside three other recent articles, especially Winlow’s (2009) account of how cartography supported Griffith Taylor’s racialized ‘zones and strata’ theory that correlated racial types with moral and intellectual traits. Analysis of the idea of race in British encyclopedias and histories in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Stock, 2011), as well as a study on Darwin’s 1871 The Descent of Man and its support for the abolition of slavery (Moore, 2010), also echo the main points of Livingstone’s study.…”

An example of the analysis of climate change in agriculture using Griffiths-Taylor diagrams

“…Grafični prikazi podnebnih razmer, podnebni diagrami, ki prikazujejo povezanost temperaturnih in padavinskih (vlažnostnih) razmer, imajo zato velik pomen pri prikazu podnebnih značilnosti z biološkega stališča, saj prikazujejo podnebni ritem in ne le skupne vrednosti meteoroloških spremenljivk (Rivas-Martinez in sod., 2011). Primer takega grafičnega prikaza je Griffith-Taylorjev podnebni diagram (Christie, 1993;O'Brien, 2015;Winlow, 2009). Taylorjeva uporaba izolinij (temperature, padavin/vlažnosti) je bila razširjena v prikazih povezave med podnebjem in razširjenostjo rastlinskih vrst, izdelani so bili podnebni diagrami, ki prikazujejo kritične vrednosti padavin in temperature za rast nekaterih pomembnih kmetijskih rastlin (za pšenico, riž, kavo in čaj) (Taylor Griffith, 2021).…”

Historicising culture: Father Ernst Worms and the German anthropological traditions

“…For example, in response to a study by Daniel Sutherland Davidson arguing that the fire saw had been imported 'from the direction of Timor' (Davidson 1947), Worms published an alternative explanation in the same year in which Griffith Taylor also reaffirmed a much older pygmoid migration from New Guinea or the Philippines (Winlow 2009). Worms agreed that the fire drill was the older technology, not subject to any restrictions, and that the fire saw was a more recent introduction and was used only by elder males.…”