The map now precedes and engenders the territory, not the reverse
Evidence
Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - that engenders the territory, and if one must return to the fable, today it is the territory whose shreds slowly rot across the extent of the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges persist here and there in the deserts that are no longer those of the Empire, but ours. The desert of the real itself. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 6
Categorization
- DEFINE: The canonical definition of hyperreal and precession of simulacra in Baudrillard’s own words.
- XREF: Jameson’s concept of the postmodern is the direct Marxist counterpart/opponent to this poststructuralist account; signal becomes the real without origin. — connects to: Maps can precede and shape territorial reality rather than merely reflect it. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 660; Maps can construct territory rather than merely represent it — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 661; The map can create a national community where none previously existed — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 668 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Maps can precede and shape territorial reality rather than merely reflect it.
#corroborates(0.95) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 660 - Maps can construct territory rather than merely represent it
#expands(0.90) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 661 - The map can create a national community where none previously existed
#exemplifies(0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 668 - Map and census mutually constitute each other to bound identities territorially.
#qualifies(0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 662 - Colonial states invented historical maps fabricating ancient territorial identities.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 663