Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State, by Nick Cullather

Teaching the Article
Exercise 2: Maps

Worksheet:

Description:

As exercise 1 suggests, modernization is a language of power, but it is a visual language. The elevated, inventorying, timeless perspective of maps replicates the viewpoint of the state. Rather than looking at maps as a form of evidence, as students are used to doing, this exercise asks a different set of questions: What do maps reveal or conceal; how do they organize information and impose standardization over diversity? Plans for development operate from a similar schematic perspective. By studying maps students can interrogate this modern way of seeing the world and by extension other representations of knowledge and claims to expertise.

A. Put mapping in perspective

Begin by discussing the authority maps have. For what purposes are maps most useful? Why are they preferable to a written description or oral directions? How do maps convey the feeling of precision? Encourage students to think about how maps gain authority by homogenizing society and landscape, eliminating some kinds of information and highlighting others. Why might this be called a "modern" perspective? How might people at other times have mapped the world differently?

Example:
On a map of Afghanistan (Online Exercise 2A, Topographical Map of Afghanistan), standardized dots represent cities, but do we imagine the cities themselves as standardized? Do we expect the experience of urban life to be the same in Herat and Kandahar? In what other ways does the map render idiosyncratic features in standardized form? Imagine how a different kind of map might indicate whether a city is powerful or holy, ancient or beautiful.

B. Draw comparisons

Point to the relationship (or the absence of one) between features on one map and those on another, e.g., between housing types and insurgent groups, and ethnicities. Which features correspond with national boundaries? What might a similar compilation of maps reveal about the United States?

Example:
Two maps show the striking lack of a correspondence between how people move (Online Exercise 2B, Pastoral Migration Systems Map) and the positioning of roads (Online Exercise 2B, Road Systems of Afghanistan Map). Ask questions that lead students to think about how the first map depicts the Hindu Kush as a destination for migrants, whereas the second map indicates the paths outsiders take—the Hindu Kush as an obstacle. Whom are the roads for? Why are the routes traveled by so many people not identified as "roads" on the map? What do the different symbols (arrows, lines) suggest about different kinds of movement?

How important is ethnicity? Nation builders past and present have assumed that Afghans are best organized along ethnic lines. Look in the maps for correspondences between ethnicity (Online Exercise 2B, Ethnolinguistic Groups Map) and other aspects of life and politics, such as architecture (Online Exercise 2B, Middle East, Traditional Rural House Types Map), insurgent activity (Online Exercise 2B, Afghanistan: Major Insurgent Groups), or land use (Online Exercise 2B, Economic Activity and Land Use Map).

C. Point out missing information

Note that maps customarily omit information such as what is on the other side of boundaries, subtle gradations between zones, and any reference to time. What does this reveal about the cartographic perspective? Does fixing the landscape in a moment present a clearer picture or a false one? How does the map idealize the landscape?

Example:
Stable, clear lines of differentiation are helpful to state planners, even when they are false or misleading. Insurgent groups (Online Exercise 2C, Afghanistan: Major Insurgent Groups), for instance, probably didn’t confine their insurgency within the sharp boundaries on the Central Intelligence Agency map. Ethnic groups (Online Exercise 2C, Ethnolinguistic Groups Map) would probably mix more freely than the map indicates. Ask students why, despite this built-in deception, such maps are useful to the CIA or the United Nations. Draw parallels to the schematic view of Afghanistan’s land and people held by the dam builders (see the "A tva for the Hindu Kush " section in the article). What sorts of information did they omit from their mental maps?

Maps Used in this Exercise:

Afghanistan: Major Insurgent Groups Map:
"Afghanistan: Major Insurgent Groups." United States. Central Intelligence Agency. From Indiana University Geography and Map Library. 1985.

Middle East, Traditional Rural House Types Map:
"Vorderer Orient, Traditionelle ländliche Hausformen, Beispiele" (Middle East, traditional rural house types, examples), TAVO A IX 3. Reprinted from Sonderforschungsbereich 19 "Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients" der Universität Tübingen, ed., Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (Wiesbaden, 1991). (Produced with permission) © Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden. From Indiana University Geography and Map Library.

Pastoral Migration Systems Map:
"Wanderweidewirtschaft, Beispiele" (Pastoral migration systems, examples), TAVO A X 12. Reprinted from Sonderforschungsbereich 19 "Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients" der Universität Tübingen, ed., Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (Wiesbaden, 1989). Courtesy (Produced with permission) © Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden. From Indiana University Geography and Map Library.

Road System of Afghanistan Map:
U.S. Operations Mission to Afghanistan, "Road System of Afghanistan," in Afghanistan Builds on an Ancient Civilization, by U.S. Operations Mission to Afghanistan, n.p. (Kabul, 1960.)

Topographical, Ethnolinguistic Groups, and Economic Activity and Land Use Maps:
"Afghanistan." United States. Central Intelligence Agency. From Indiana University Geography and Map Library. 1982.