Abstract

MUNOZ ARBELAEZ, Santiago. 'By Metes and Bounds': Cartography and the Production of Colonial Space in the Province of Santa Marta (Eighteenth Century). hist.crit. [online]. 2007, n.34, pp.208-231. ISSN 0121-1617.

This article analyzes three maps included in a lawsuit between two people who solicited a land grant (merced) in the Province of Santa Marta at the end of the eighteenth century. The land grants were part of a series of measures that sought to reorder the territory recently expropriated from the Chimila Indians in order to reinforce colonial control over it. The manner in which the maps produced geometric space, defined by private property, was by the system of metes and bounds. But despite this shared order, differences between the maps reveal how people used them to suit to their legal interests. Based on the enigmatic figure of the 'forest', the article explores the limits of colonial cartography. While 'metes and bounds' signified territorial order, the 'forest' implied disorder.

Keywords : Cartography; production of space; land grants (mercedes); spatial representation; hacienda; forest; Province of Santa Marta; Eighteenth Century.

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