The Land of Palms and Bananas
September 16, 2009
Anyone browsing through 19th and early 20th century world geographies has probably come upon some terms and map labels that give one pause. This vegetation map from a 1916 edition of Elements of Physical Geography is a case in point, where the world is divided into several “zones” from polar to tropical, the latter of which is also labeled as the zone of “Palms and Bananas.” While at first blush it might appear to be a ridiculously simplistic and even Eurocentric label, it in fact reflects progress in the rapidly developing field of vegetation classification during this period, using isotherms to create vegetation zones, and was a completely valid label in 1916.
Today, vastly improved knowledge of our environment enables vegetation maps to be far more sophisticated, but knowing how earlier generations saw the world goes a long way towards understanding why people did what they did, and is far more productive than judging past generations on modern precepts.
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