Kaart van Noord-Amerika 1700 - 1735

This is an anonymous map of North America. The continent is rendered through the eyes of European colonial powers. What meaning can we glean from the figures adorning the upper-left corner? We see an indigenous man and woman. The man, lightly draped, stands with a bow, gazing away from the continent; the woman, seated, holds what appears to be a severed head. These aren’t neutral observations; they are symbols fraught with colonial ideology. They mirror the tales of conquest and the “wildness” Europeans projected onto the New World, a trope seen in classical depictions of defeated “barbarians” under Roman rule. Consider how this motif—the conquered native—reappears across centuries, morphing from classical friezes to modern political cartoons. The power dynamic remains, revealing a collective memory of dominance and submission. This map is not merely geography; it's a stage where the drama of cultural encounter unfolds, a play of power that resonates even now.