PNC / ECAI Joint Meetings
October 19 - 22, 2004
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Schedule | PNC Site

Electronic Atlas Projects
October 21, 1400 - 1600
Room 2
Chair: Ian Gregory, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth ian.gregory@port.ac.uk

“Basic figures on the web: Atlas of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara”
Edith Jiménez Huerta*, Heriberto Cruz Solís, Jesús Rábago Anaya and Maria de la Luz Ayala,
Universidad de Guadalajara
ejimenez@cucea.udg.mx


For the last four years a team of researchers at the University of Guadalajara have produced basic figures on the growth of the metropolitan area during the last thirty years and background information on changes of land use and type of ownership for almost a century. We have constructed a page for the World Wide Web to present and disseminate this information.

The work presented here shows some of the basic figures produced: in the form of socio-economic statistics, as cartography and in tables and graphs on the agrarian history of what is now urban land. These figures will help to give a general view of the contents of the study, and anyone wanting to know more about the research project can get in touch with us. Under socio-economic figures, we give information on rural and urban population changes in the state, municipalities and the metropolitan area from 1960 to 2000. In the same category we give figures for speakers of an indigenous language, on migration, income, housing tenure, on the numbers of people per household, and the materials and services used. Under cartography, we include basic information on both the formal and informal development of land from 1970 to 2000, the period of fastest urban growth of the city. The figures show the area developed and the number of developers, by decade and six year governmental periods. Finally, under agrarian history we present background information for the land that has been transformed from rural to urban use in the last thirty years as well as information on the rural land surrounding the city. This section shows changes of land ownership during the last century, from private tenure of rural land to collective tenure after the revolution, and now back into private hands again but this time as urban land.
 
“Political Centers and Cultural Regions in Early Mediaeval North India”
Alexander A. Stolyarov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
astol@orc.ru


Two lists of Indian inscriptions are under research now. Both of them were published in the first four decades of the last century. The first of them was published by F. Kielhorn in 1899 – 1906, while the second was published by D.R. Bhandarkar in 1928 – 1936. (Kielhorn F. A List of Inscriptions of Northern India from about A.D. 400 // Epigraphia Indica. – Calcutta, 1899. – Vol. 5. – App. – P. 1-121; 1906. – Vol. 8. – App. 1: Suppl. to the List of Inscriptions of Northern India. – P. 1-19; Bhandarkar D.R. A List of Inscriptions of Northern India written in Brahmi and its Derivative Scripts from about A.C. 200 // Epigraphia Indica. – Calcutta, 1928. – Vol. 19. – App. – P. 1-42; 1930. – Vol. 20. – App. – P. 43-266; 1932. – Vol. 21. – App. – P. 265-296; Index to App. – P. 297-310; 1934. – Vol. 22. – App. (Index to App.). – P. 311-62; 1936. – Vol. 23. – App. – P. 363-406.) After that no attempt to publish the full list of pre-Moslem North Indian inscriptions was made neither in India or abroad.

These lists were the ground for compiling the database (DB) of early mediaeval North Indian copper plates (CP) inscriptions of land grants (or grants). This DB allows to study on documents grounds the regional dynamics of chronological distribution of large epigraphic set. For example a tendency of spreading the CP grants from the Western regions of India in early times to the Center, East, and North East close to the end of early mediaeval period was revealed.

In whole this work is the beginning the large scale work of compiling the full list of North Indian early mediaeval land grants.
 
 
“Language Mapping: Lan-Yu (Taiwan) and the Batanes of the Philippines”
David Blundell 卜道, National Chengchi University
dsb@nccu.edu.tw
Michael Buckland 巴克蘭, University of California, Berkeley
buckland@sims.berkeley.edu


This presentation tracks the language and culture atlas Lan-yu and the Batanes as a mapping process currently underway with the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) supported by the University of California, Berkeley, and Academia Sinica. The research is interdisciplinary representing anthropology, information science, ethnomusicology, and filmmaking. This project extends to a comparative study of the diaspora of people and their utilization of isles in the Batanes Archipelago.

The aim of the research in progress is to collect oral tradition and linguistic data utilizing geographic information system (GIS) technology to identify the relationship of a temporal-spatial heritage of the Yami language based in Lan-yu (Taiwan) and the Batanes of the Philippines. From the anthropological perspective the area is treated as a cultural circle with ethnography and archaeology records dating back over a century. Presently this information is being registered through the ECAI clearinghouse for the utilization of libraries, museums, textbooks, and analysis for further interpretation.

Features to the research include:

  1. Review of the academic documentation and literature on the Batanic languages;
  2. Mapping, utilizing a global positioning system (GPS) the current distribution of the languages and dialects;
  3. Collecting a population census of Batanic speakers;
  4. Interviewing local residents as to their outlook on the state of their specific
    language and language education;
  5. A survey of the archives, museums, and other cultural aspects related to the Batanic speakers;
  6. Film making documentation of ocean-going boat construction and launching; and
  7. Audio-visual recording of songs and legends.

Conclusion

This project is a model for future language and culture mapping as it combines the generation of a digital version of an older printed language map with the collection of data on contemporary languages areas, and then the use of dynamic temporal-spatial map display techniques capable of showing visually changes of island traits across time.