Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

In Part 4 of the series, Jerry looks South. Perhaps the most fluid and mutable of the cardinal directions, for centuries it’s been defined negatively against North – visually North is ‘up’ and South ‘down’. But it’s also been a repository of fantasies, a vast unknown region at times populated by tropical islands, azure seas and fantastical creatures, but travelling further south, crossing the freezing Antarctic circle, explorers found a place of utter isolation and existential darkness. Today the political concept of ‘the Global South’ has replaced the discredited term ‘Third World’. It’s led to a new alignment of states south of the equator, from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa to South America and Southeast Asia - countries that share a history of colonial rule and that are most vulnerable to climate change.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, journalist and editor for Bloomberg City Maps Laura Bliss, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian of navigation Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author Irna Qureshi, director of the China institute at SOAS Steve Tsang, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, librarian at Hereford Cathedral Rosemary Firman, historian and sinologist Timothy Brook and historian of Islamic maps, Yossi Rappaort.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis Show less