Applying ethnocartographic methods in the context of Czech ethnology (Aplikování etnokartografické metody v kontextu české etnologie)

Abstract

Ethnocartography is an umbrella term for a number of methods applied in ethnology for the spatial representation of a selected folk culture phenomenon. Historically, the application of ethnocartographic methods can be divided into three stages: pre-ethnocartography (1700s to early 1800s), early ethnocartography (early 1800s to 1930s) and scientific cartography. One of the fundamental issues in ethnocartography shared across all these periods is the nature of the data historical data which are overwhelmingly unbalanced in favor of some phenomena to the point of ignoring others, as well as the intrinsic inseparability of data on folk culture from their geographical, historical, chronological and socio-economic context. While this continues to be a major challenge, we believe these limitations can be overcome using the latest in digital technology, especially the geographic information systems (GIS), and this papers discusses the application of such technologies in the context of Czech ethnology.

Keywords

• Czech lands
• ethnocartography
• national ethnographic atlas
• methodology
• GIS