I can't do math so won't argue with you there but can read a map very well. In fact, I collect maps, and find it not just enjoyable but necessary to my sense of well-being to orient myself using them, reading them, poring over them. I collect US Geological Survey maps. What fascinates me the most is the geology of the area, which tends to explain why human development happened where it happened.
For example, by looking at old maps and geological maps one can understand that a road is where it is because it's on a natural ridge. Animals used it for migration, early humans used the same trail, and today, it's a major road.
On the eastern seaboard of the US, for example, Route 1 and later Interstate 95, the major travel route from Maine to Florida, follows from New Jersey to North Carolina a geological line called the Fall Line, where hard Paleozoic metamorphic rocks of the Appalachian Piedmont to the west transition to the softer, gently dipping Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary rocks of the Coastal Plain. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Fredericksburg and Richmond are all situated at the Fall Line.
When driving on Interstate 95, as we cross a bridge over a river that spans the Fall Line, I like to point this out to my children (male) and husband (male) and say, "look at those rocks! look at that waterfall! that's the Fall Line!" Always the bridge crosses at the Fall Line, and one can see the rocks and the waterfall and the clear boundaries between geological zones. The bridge is there because the early settlements were there. The early settlements were there because the Native Americans who lived above the Fall Line were from completely different tribes, not related genealogically, who had different ecological niches (above the Fall Line, hunters of mammals, below the Fall Line, fishers). The early European settlers traded between the two ethnological groups. It explains so much about early American history, but they don't seem to be interested at all.
I am interested in history, and find it very instructive to visit historical sites with maps, which clarifies what happened and why. Geology and geography explain so much.
I orient myself in place and they do not. I imagine that being able to orient oneself in place is essential for being a good gatherer. But they are very good at math. |
