Cartographic naming or omitting names legitimizes colonial claims to inhabited land

Evidence

Maps not only enlarge some places over others; they name or don’t name places according to the perceived permanence of their settlement by human beings, as I illustrated in relation to the metamorphing of Palestine into Israel. The designated emptiness of places on the map otherwise known to be inhabited by natives thought simply to be passing through in their seasonal or whimsical migrations, these vast swathes of space are designated empty Lockean lands awaiting European enclosure and labored industriousness. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1405

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the Palestine/Israel mapping discussion he references, and connects to Lockean labor theory of property invoked elsewhere in colonial studies. — connects to: Colonial management required objectifying territories through maps and data-gathering surveys. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 311; Euphemistic labeling historically legitimized dispossession of native peoples. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 287; Colonial maps erased native settlement to designate empty Lockean land — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1405 (+5 more)
• ADDENDUM: Ties into ‘Grafting & Growth’ only loosely as territorial claiming, but more strongly resonates with how colonial expansion rationalizes empty-land seizure.