Visualizing Afghanistan: Cartography and the Imperial Imaginary, from the Anglo-Afghan Wars to the present

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dc.contributor.advisorPeric, Sabrina
dc.contributor.advisorDawson, Peter C.
dc.contributor.authorBoak, Emily Ellis
dc.contributor.committeememberBlue, Gwendolyn
dc.contributor.committeememberYessenova, Saulesh
dc.date2020-11
dc.date.accessioned2020-05-19T16:17:26Z
dc.date.available2020-05-19T16:17:26Z
dc.date.issued2020-05-14
dc.description.abstractAfghanistan is currently one of the most imaged places in the world. Satellites, drones, and laser scanners ceaselessly upload data to an ever-expanding mosaic of images and maps in the cloud, on university servers, and in government offices. Knowledge of Afghanistan – whether for scientific or military purposes – is increasingly founded upon an ever-growing archive of foreign image images rather than grounded experience. Countless scientific projects today situate their investigations of Afghanistan in remote-sensed data. Outside of the most recent war and occupation however, Afghanistan has long been a place that foreign eyes attempted to capture and visualize from a distance. In this thesis, I argue that the reading of contemporary satellite imagery is dependent on the larger historical archive of maps of Afghanistan. To understand the implications, I turn to close analysis of the production, circulation, and consumption of maps and images to illustrate the types of understandings, meanings and imaginings of Afghanistan that endure and are transmitted across time through contemporary visualization practices. I do so through archival research at the British Library’s India Office Records and Map Collections, which I bring in conversation with materials from the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989), and the ongoing U.S. led War in Afghanistan (2001-present). I argue that while presenting objective and scientific images, historical maps contain and transmit interpretations about Afghanistan, chronicling the character of territories and peoples. Further, maps played an active role in the re-imaging of Afghanistan, as they worked as a tool of governance, reshaping places and the way they were perceived on the ground all while projecting foreign systems of understanding the world which relied upon order, rationality, and measurability. As foreign powers mobilized science and technology to map Afghanistan, they made it possible to imagine Afghanistan as a unitary entity. Understanding the roots of contemporary visual practices in Afghanistan underscores the power behind the reuse and recirculation of images today, and demonstrates the power that foreign militaries have exerted through successive choices in visualizing Afghanistan over the past two centuries.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBoak, E. E. (2020). Visualizing Afghanistan: Cartography and the Imperial Imaginary, from the Anglo-Afghan Wars to the present (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37856
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/112079
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectAfghanistanen_US
dc.subjectSatellitesen_US
dc.subjectremote sensingen_US
dc.subjectarchivesen_US
dc.subjectcolonialismen_US
dc.subjectimperialismen_US
dc.subjectvisualizationen_US
dc.subjectAnglo-Afghan Warsen_US
dc.subjectWar in Afghanistanen_US
dc.subjectSoviet-Afghan Waren_US
dc.subjectSoviet Unionen_US
dc.subjectUnited Statesen_US
dc.subjectBritish Empireen_US
dc.subject.classificationAnthropologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationArchaeologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationGeographyen_US
dc.subject.classificationHistoryen_US
dc.subject.classificationHistory--Middle Easternen_US
dc.subject.classificationHistory--Militaryen_US
dc.subject.classificationHistory--Russian and Sovieten_US
dc.subject.classificationHistory--United Statesen_US
dc.subject.classificationHistory of Scienceen_US
dc.titleVisualizing Afghanistan: Cartography and the Imperial Imaginary, from the Anglo-Afghan Wars to the presenten_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineAnthropologyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (MA)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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