Transformation of South Indian Local Society in the Late Pre

Transcription

Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Presidential Address
MAMORU SHIBAYAMA
In recent years GIS (Geographical Information System/Science)-based historical studies or “Historical GIS” comes into
limelight in historical studies. As GIS allows us to understand historical processes from the aspects of space and time, it will
change the conventional historical researches and lead to new paradigm.
The Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies (ANGIS) was founded in December, 2012, in order to develop the
historical GIS in Asian studies. The ANGIS is a network for all academics interested in historical GIS on Asia. It serves as an
umbrella network composed of various research groups or institutions (hereafter “units”) in the same field and works to
promote historical GIS on Asia by exchanging ideas, techniques, or sources among the members of units.
The ANGIS at this moment plans to perform the following activities.
(1) ANGIS organizes an annual international conference.
(2) ANGIS organizes an editorial committee to publish E-Journal annually.
(3) Other activities may be proposed by the units or members at the annual general meeting to be held concurrently at the
annual international conference.
The ANGIS is now in her primitive stage, but will try her best to develop activities with the collaboration among her
members. And, I do hope the ANGIS becomes a jumping board to deepen our understanding of the Asian past through GIS.
October 30, 2013
ⓒ2013 Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies
1
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
The Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies, Asia
or ANGIS (Asia)
1.
The Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies, Asia, (hereafter “ANGIS (Asia)”) is a network for all
academics interested in GIS-based historical studies on Asia. It serves as an umbrella network composed of
various research groups or institutions (hereafter “units”) in the same field.
2.
ANGIS (Asia) was founded in December, 2012, to serve the needs of units or members wishing to promote
GIS-based historical studies on Asia by exchanging ideas, techniques, or sources.
3.
ANGIS (Asia) organizes an annual international conference.
4.
ANGIS (Asia) organizes an editorial committee to publish E-Journal annually.
5.
Other activities may be proposed by the units or members at the annual general meeting of ANGIS (Asia) to be
held during the annual international conference
ANGIS office is born by the office-bearers of ANGIS (JAPAN), the national unit of the ANGIS in Japan for two years
till the end of November 2014. Next office-bearers will be decided at the annual general meeting in 2014 and run for
two years.
2
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
3-6
State of the Fields
Progress in Historical GIS in Japan
HIROSHI KAWAGUCHI
Tezukayama University
Abstract: Research works with historical GIS (HGIS) have well started since the beginning of the 21st century in Japan. Historical GIS will play a key role to integrate the results of individual research in the humanities and social sciences, including
historical geography. HGIS researchers must undertake following four important tasks. To propose a new framework for better
understandings of the region, the local history, and the lives of people in the past based on the discoveries with HGIS. To collect,
dispatch, and distribute relevant results from research works with HGIS. To develop a four-dimensional HGIS architecture with
longitude, latitude, elevation, and time axis, in order to fulfill spatio-temporal analysis. To construct a digital-historical gazetteer
with cross-reference functions between the names of places and their longitude/latitude, as well as an inter-local calendar conversion system.
Keywords: four-dimensional HGIS architecture, digital-historical gazetteer, inter-local calendar conversion system, spatio-temporal analysis, historical geography
1. Introduction
Geographical Information System (GIS) has made remarkable
progress since the 1980s. It is now developing interdisciplinary
studies and this trend implies terra incognita in the so-called
Geographical Information Sciences (GISc). During the 20th
century many Japanese historical geographers doubted that GIS
would enable them to make important discoveries, but a few of
them tried to analyze historical materials under serious constraints using conventional types of GIS software that did not
take into account temporal axis. This paper reviews major
achievements of Historical Geographical Information System
(HGIS) research in Japan.
It is possible to combine historical materials such as handwritten documents, old maps, fieldwork results, statistics, archaeological artifacts, etc. with spatio-temporal information.
However, it is very difficult to pinpoint the latitude, longitude
and time of a given historical event. It is also necessary to construct a data mining methodology to facilitate the discovery of
new data from historical materials using GIS. In order to overcome these two obstacles, cross collaboration across narrow
fields of study is important.
2. Academic Organization and Publication
Papers carrying GIS in the titles were first introduced at the
11th International Conference of Historical Geographers
(ICHG), in 2001 (Figure 1). At the 14th conference hosted by
Kyoto University in 2009 (the first meeting held in Asia), 9 per
cent of the sessions dealt with digital humanities and historical
GIS, while 5 per cent of the total number of papers included GIS
in the titles. As of the beginning of the 21st century, ICHG registered a substantial increase of research works with GIS.
In order to speed up the progress of historical GIS, the
Asia-Pacific countries support the GIS Center of the Academia
Sinica, the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography at Fudan
University, and the Center for Geographic Analysis of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. Their
excellent products  National Digital Archives Program
(NDAP) in Taiwan and China Historical Geographic Information System (CHGIS) developed with Fudan University and
Harvard University  are available on the Internet. The School
of Information at the University of California, Berkeley and the
Academia Sinica Computer Center in Taipei co-organized the
Electronic Culture Atlas Initiative (ECAI) and the Pacific
Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) to foster digital technology,
especially historical GIS.
Figure 1 Papers presented at the International Conference of
Historical Geographers.
In Japan, GIS research institutes and academic societies were
established since the 1990s: the Center for Spatial Information
Science (CSIS) at the University of Tokyo (1998) and the Center
for Integrated Area Studies (CIAS) at Kyoto University (2006),
approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology as Joint Usage Research Centers; the Geographic Information System Association of Japan (GISA) in
1992 and, in 2002, the Japan-Vietnam Geo-Informatics Consortium set up the International Conference on Geo-Informatics for
Spatial- Infrastructure Development in Earth & Allied Sciences,
GIS- IDEAS. The Asian Network for GIS-based Historical
Studies (Japan), ANGIS (JAPAN), has been established in December 2012. Since the year 2000, symposiums related to historical GIS have been held almost every year (Kawaguchi
2009).
The increasing number of papers on ICHG, the establishment
of new institutes and academic societies, as well as the frequency of symposiums, show that historical GIS is highly valued by computer scientists and specialists in the humanities,
social sciences and historical geography. Encouraged by this
positive trend, in 2005 Historical Geography prepared a special
3
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
issue on historical GIS and several books were published in
English (Knowles 2002; Gregory and Ell 2007; Knowles 2008,
etc.). In Japan, books on historical GIS started to appear from
the beginning of this century (Kaneda et al. 2001; Okabe 2006;
Uno 2006; Yano et al. 2007; Shibayama et al. 2008; Yano et al.
2011; Shibayama 2012; Japan Council for Historical GIS Research 2012; Yoshigoshi and Katahira 2012, etc.).
3. Four Tasks on HGIS
In order to reconstruct the lives of people in the past using
GIS as a methodological tool, historical GIS researchers must
undertake four important and urgent tasks (Kawaguchi 2009):
1.
To propose a new framework for better understandings
of the region, the local history, and the lives of people in
the past, based on the discoveries with HGIS.
2. To collect, dispatch, and distribute relevant results from
research works with HGIS.
3. To develop a four-dimensional HGIS architecture with
longitude, latitude, elevation, and time axis, in order to
fulfill spatio-temporal analysis.
4. To construct a digital-historical gazetteer with
cross-reference functions between the names of places
and their longitude/latitude, as well as an inter-local
calendar conversion system.
These four tasks were already identified in the last decade of the
20th century, in the light of the rapid development of storage
capacity and functions in computers and the Internet.
1. The aim of historical geographers is to find out how people
organized their daily living space, and they collect their research
results in “real world”, “imagined world”, and “abstract world”
as defined by H. C. Prince (Prince 1971). Methodical descriptions of the research process to obtain results can help create a
new framework to better understand the region, local history and
lives of people, and to develop information systems, including
HGIS. This new information system for historical geography
will allow: (i) to reduce data processing, (ii) to ensure data processing reliability, (iii) to preserve the historical materials in
digital form, (iv) to share the data and data analysis methods
with other researchers. It can also help researchers to systematize the methodology to visualize the spatio-temporal changes of
landscape, environment and regional structures, and to carry out
quantitative analysis to discover the underlying rules of living
space.
“Real world” carries case studies of landscape reconstruction
from historical maps, old photographs, satellite images, etc.
(Ogata 2000; Hirai 2009, 2012; Yano et al. 2011; Nishimura and
Kitamoto 2012; Yoshigoshi and Katahira 2012). Mamoru Shibayama reconstructed urban transformation in Hanoi and proposed a new Area Informatics methodology in his book (Shibayama 2012). The historical geography database of the Nara Basin project is developing a system to reconstruct the ancient
landscape (Ideta 2012). Also the natural environment was reconstructed in Nara and Hanoi (Kawasumi 2012; Yonezawa
2009). The distribution of population and domestic migration
were analyzed with HGIS (Arai and Koike 2003; Kawaguchi
2009; Takahashi and Nakagawa 2010; Nagata 2012; Kato and
3-6
Kawaguchi 2012).
In “imagined world”, Akihiro Tsukamoto analyses the spatio-temporal changes in places of scenic interest in Kyoto with
guidebooks and pictorial maps dating back to the 17th-19th
centuries (Tsukamoto 2006, 2009, 2012). The next step will be
to try to understand the mentality of the people in the past
through the appearance and disappearance of notable places
reflected in the presentation and distortions in old maps.
In “abstract world”, several attempts were made to find out
the underlying rules of regional structures. Tsunetoshi Mizoguchi discovered the core-periphery structure around the Nagoya
castle-town in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was proposed
by G. W. Skinner (Mizoguchi 2012). Kenji Ishizaki analyzed the
spatial pattern of the central places in the Nara Basin in the 19th
century (Ishizaki 2012).
2. In addition to the growth of HGIS research itself, it is also
important to develop a complete system to store, open and share
scientific information with HGIS. In a context of strong competition among the different media, researchers have to face a real
challenge to make the result of their research work look appealing to the international academic community. Web HGIS has
potential to become a more powerful and multiform medium
than printed books or journals. There are many efforts to construct virtual museums, digital archives, and e-learning systems
with Virtual Reality (VR), Computer Graphics (CG), and HGIS.
New technologies such as Semantic Web construct ontology in
the World Wide Web, and Linked Data connects many kinds of
data with Semantic Web. Some HGIS projects may follow the
steps of NDAP in Taiwan, which will transform its digital archive into an e-learning system. In Japan, the Virtual Kyoto
Project at Ritsumeikan University promotes attractive touristic
places in Kyoto (Yano et al. 2007).(1)
3. Scientists in the humanities and social sciences should bear
in mind GIS architecture when they use or construct HGIS, as it
influences the way to process, combine and share information of
historical materials. Before ESRI released ArcGIS 10 in 2010, it
was difficult to analyze and visualize spatio-temporal transition
with conventional GIS software. Only TimeMap, developed by
Ian Johnson, could visualize spatio-temporal changes with the
time bar function. In the last decade, computer experts in Japan
started to develop outstanding next generation four-dimensional
GIS architecture: Reki-Show Authoring Tool, by Masato
Hanashima (Hanashima 2005); GLOBALBASE architecture, by
Hirohisa Mori (Fujita and Mori 2012)(2) ; HuTime/HuMap, with
the collaboration of Shoichiro Hara and Tatsuki Sekino (Kubo
2007; Kubo et al. 2010; Hara and Sekino 2012). (3)
4. The digital-historical gazetteer and the inter-local historical
calendar conversion system are essential resources for HGIS to
shorten the process of drawing digital maps from historical materials. The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online and
the Alexandria Digital Library Project Gazetteer Development
are the leading digital gazetteers in the world. However, there is
no cross-sectional gazetteer for countries that use Chinese characters. In Japan, some geocoding services are provided through
the Internet. CSIS at the University of Tokyo offers a Geocoding
service for CSV formatted files on WWW.(4) Kenji Tani pro-
4
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
duced Geocoding and Mapping.(5) Yuji Murayama constructed
Gyousei Kukaku Hen’sen WebGIS and provides administrative
boundary data since 1889.(6) Ikuo Oketani released the Japanese
Historical Gazetteer Database with Dainihon Chimei Jisho
(Gazetteer of Imperial Japan), Dai-Nihon Jiin Meikan (List of
Buddhist temples in Japan), and old 1:50,000 maps (Oketani
2012). The Gaiho-Zu Digital Archive Project will construct a
digital gazetteer with old maps of neighbor countries, made by
the former Japanese Imperial Army (Yamamoto and Kobayashi
2012). Mitsuru Aida provides an inter calendar conversion system for Japanese, Chinese and Western local-historical calendars
(Aida 2007). These useful contributions can support HGIS projects worldwide if we standardize the metadata of the digital
gazetteer and calendar, develop the cross-sectional retrieval
system, and set up a portal to access each system.
4. Conclusion
This condensed review shows that in Japan HGIS research on
the four tasks mentioned above has well started in the first decade of the new millennium. As they are complementary and
supplement each other, it is necessary to foster collaboration
across specific fields of study and to systematize research
methodology by sharing specific research topics, discussing the
definition of the themes, finding ways to solve the problems,
and consolidating the results in a single complete system. HGIS
has potential to become a groundbreaking method for holistic
evaluation, offering a new framework for better understandings
of the regions, the local history, and the lives of people in the
past. It will also help overcome the divisions among the different narrow fields of study in the humanities and social sciences,
including historical geography.
Notes
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
It is possible to access the products of Virtual Kyoto Project in following site.
http://www.geo.lt.ritsumei.ac.jp/webgis/ritscoe.html (last
accessed 13 April 2013).
It is possible to download the recent version of GLOBALBASE from the following site.
http://www.globalbase.org/ (last accessed 13 April 2013).
It is possible to download the recent version of HuTime/
HuMap from the following site. http://www.h-GIS.org
(last accessed 13 April 2013).
It is possible to use Geocoding service from the following
site. http://newspat.csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/geocode/ (last accessed 13 April 2013).
It is possible to use Geocoding and Mapping service from
the following site. http://ktgis.net/gcode/ (last accessed 13
April 2013).
The administrative boundary data since 1889 are provided
from the following site.
http://giswin.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp/teacher/murayama/boundar
y/ (last accessed 13 April 2013).
References
[1] Aida, Mitsuru. 2007. “Constructing the ontology for historical cal-
3-6
endars: for supporting the studies of Japanese classic literatures
[Rekishow Ontology no Kouchiku: Nihon Kyuureki Jidai no
Bunken Kenkyu Shien no Tameni].” Information Processing Society
of Japan Technical Reports 2007(95), pp. 25-32.
[2] Arai, Yoshio and Koike, Shiro. 2003. “Grid-based population distribution estimates from historical Japanese topographical maps using GIS.” In Boots, B., Okabe, A., Thomas, R. (eds.), Modelling
Geographical Systems. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.
235-250.
[3] Fujita, Haruhiro and Mori, Hirohisa. 2012. “GLOBALBASE architecture and sharing the historical map base [GLOBALBASE Architecture to Rekishi Chizu Base no Kyouyu].” In Japan Council for
Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 23-37.
[4] Gregory, N. Ian and Paul S. Ell. 2007. Historical GIS: Technologies,
Methodologies and Scholarship. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
[5] Hanashima, Makoto, Tomobe, Kenichi, and Hirayama, Tsutomu.
2005. “Reki-Show authoring tools: risk, space, history.” Journal of
Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics 3(6), pp. 58-64.
[6] Hara, Shoichiro and Sekino, Tatsuki. 2012. “Development and
usage of the spatio-temporal analysis tool HuTime/HuMap [Jikukan
Jyouhou Syori Tool HuTime/HuMap no Kaihatsu to Riyou].” In
Japan Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS
Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and
Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 13-24.
[7] Hirai, Shogo. 2009. “Old maps and GIS [Kochizu to GIS].” In
Murayama, Y. and Shibazaki, R. (eds.). The third volume of GIS Series; GIS for Life and Culture Studies [The third volume of GIS Series; Seikatsu Bunka no Tame no GIS]. Tokyo: Asakura Shoten, pp.
171-184.
[8] Hirai, Shogo. 2012. “GIS analysis on castle town planning maps in
Sumoto [Sumoto Jyouka Ezu no GIS Bunseki].” In Japan Council
for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in
Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional
Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 109-120.
[9] Ideta, Kazuhisa. 2012. “Developing the database for historical geography in Nara Basin and its utilization [Nara Bonchi
Rekishi-Chiri Database no Kouchiku to Sono Riyou].” In Japan
Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 197-207.
[10] Ishizaki, Kenji. 2012. “The central place system in the Nara Basin
in the Meiji Era [Meiji-Ki no Nara Bonchi ni okeru Shuraku no
Cyushinse].” In Japan Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.).
Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction,
Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp.
159-170.
[11] Japan Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). 2012. Historical
GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure [Rekishi GIS no Chihei]. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan.
[12] Kaneda, Akihiro, Tsumura, Hiroomi, and Sin’nou, Izumi. 2001.
Introduction to GIS for Archeological Studies [Kouko-Gaku no
Tame no GIS Nyumon]. Tokyo: Kokon Shoin.
[13] Kato, Tsunekazu and Kawaguchi, Hiroshi. 2012. “Trial to develop
a HGIS for analyzing the domestic migration in the Edo Period
[Edo Jidai ni okeru Jinkou Idou Bunseki Sisutemu no Shisaku].” In
Japan Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS
Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and
Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 149-158.
[14] Kawaguchi, Hiroshi. 2009. “Data analysis system for population
and family studies on Japan in the 17th-19th centuries.” Japanese
5
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 7-11
State of the Fields
Past, Present and Future of Historical GIS in Academia Sinica
I-CHUN FAN† * HSIUNG-MING LIAO† TA-CHIEN CHAN†
LING-FANG CHANG†
† Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica
* Center for GIS, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica
Abstract: Since 1989, the Center for Geographic Information Science in Academia Sinica has committed itself to pursuing the
advancement of spatio-temporal technological integration. The focus is on the implementation of contemporary GIS technologies
in research in the humanities and social sciences, beginning with the construction and study of historic geographic data. The
Academia Sinica and National Science Council funded the construction of two spatio-temporal platforms, namely Chinese Civilization in Time and Space, and Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space, which cover the evolution of the social and natural environments in China and Taiwan respectively. For sustainability of the platforms, the Center continues its work on the
collection and digitization of various data domestically and overseas.
This paper shares our experience on constructing historical spatio-temporal data platforms and the collection and digital archiving of historical maps in retrospect, as well as future aspirations. Digital Humanities can be achieved through the development of geographic information systems, combining researchers’ expertise in the humanities with the data as research material
and topics. The ultimate aim is to integrate interdisciplinary studies of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Keywords: History GIS, digital archiving, humanities GIS, interdisciplinary integration
1. Introduction
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with their ability and
potential for spatial data integration and analysis being the most
distinguishing feature, have developed swiftly in various fields
(M.F. Goodchild 2009). Through the remarkable breakthrough
of spatial technology and the abundance and diversity of geographic information, GIS can be applied in academic research,
producing professional analyses with spatial and temporal dimensions (M.F. Goodchild and D.G. Janelle 2010). Recently, the
applications in history- and humanities-related research have
been increasing, and have attracted attention in these fields (H. J.
Kim 2009). In addition, GIS can also be utilized in daily life
applications, including the monitoring of air quality (T. Elbir, N.
Mangir et al. 2010), community participation and construction
(C. Rinner and M. Bird 2009, G. Brown and D. Weber 2013),
traffic control (Z. Z. Yang, Y. L. Jiang et al. 2009) and so on.
The main feature of GIS is its integrating capability, which provides a platform to fuse different types of spatio-temporal attribute data. However, there are many challenges needing to be
solved, such as the complex schema of the spatio-temporal database, the information retrieval and geo-tagging of large image
data, and the geo-reference of the various GIS data.
Therefore, the team of the Center for Geographic Information
Science initiated a project to integrate spatio-temporal data by
collecting and digitizing heaps of historical maps and aerial
photos in 1989, and then completed the construction of two
spatio-temporal platforms, namely Chinese Civilization in Time
and Space (CCTS) (Center for GIS in Academic Sinica 2003),
and Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space (THCTS) in
2003 (Center for GIS Academic Sinica 2003). An intelligent
interactive platform of GIS resources for the public is our ultimate goal. Currently, the center continues working on the completeness and diversity of the GIS data by collecting and digitizing historical maps and images of Taiwan and Mainland China.
2. Sharing Experience of Constructing Historical GIS
2.1 Historical GIS Platforms
The difference between CCTS and THCTS is that CCTS
mainly covers the maps of Mainland China, and THCTS covers
those of Taiwan. There was an academic need for such systems,
especially for historical studies of China and Taiwan. The characteristics of such systems were innovative at the time, since
prior to the 1990s, historical GIS mainly focused on thematic
maps, instead of incorporating time scales along with individual
themes. With the development of these two systems, the center
has successfully generated cross-disciplinary studies.
These systems include basic spatial images, WebGIS integrated application, and thematic characteristics. Image data on
CCTS include maps from ancient China through the Qing dynasty, and contain base maps supplemented with various types of
historical maps and remote sensing images that cover over two
thousand years of Chinese history. THCTS covers the historical
development of Taiwan, and includes images from the seventeenth century to the post-1945 period. Base maps are constructed using the Taiwan Bao Maps (the Historical Administration Atlas of Taiwan, HAAT), published in 1904, and the topographical map published in 1920. The scale of the HAAT is
1:20,000 and the scale of the 1920 topographic map is 1:25,000.
Furthermore, those base maps are supplemented with contemporary topographic maps, photos, and remote sensing images.
Once the data collection has been completed and stored in the
databases, users can access it through the systems. Figure 1
shows the structure of the system. It consists of two main servers, namely a Web server and Map server. The users only need
to enter their queries on their browsers then the Web server retrieves the data from the Map server. The Map server can then
access three various types of databases, including featured maps
with point indications, geographic images and polygonal data.
The Map server then sends the data back to the user through the
Web server. For textual data, users can retrieve it either directly,
or through the Web server (see Figure 1).
7
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 7-11
intricacy and the realistic portrayal of the spatial information
makes them valuable historical sources. The GIS platforms that
use such maps and implement modern surveying and geocoding
techniques prove to play an important role in academic research
and integrating different processes of cartography. Spatial base
maps and specialized spatial databases are the integration of a
dynamic cultural production, and this integration is the core of
the value of these historical and cultural Taiwan map systems.
Thirdly, the entire system design features scalability and integration: it can integrate various types of spatial and temporal
data and can be applied with a plethora of geographical orientations, producing, reproducing and displaying knowledge content.
Figure 1 System Structure of Historical GIS: Web Server
provided the content of web service which dealt with the client’s
requests. Map Server was responsible for processing the feature
data and converted both the vector and raster data into the image
format for the clients.
2.2 Main Features of the Systems
There are three main features of the systems. First, we reconstruct historical maps of China and Taiwan using the WebGIS
application, focusing on historical and environmental transitions.
The users only need Web browsers to query the maps or images
of interest. Through WebGIS, users can access, save, integrate,
process, analyze and display geographically related data without
the need for any commercial shareware. With the internet,
WebGIS can not only display spatial data, but also allow layer
analysis, queries, statistical processing, integration of images
and multi-media, etc. There are fewer requirements for general
users and it is also more cost efficient. Remote accessing of data
also diminishes the gap between users and technology.
Secondly, every map in THTCS has spatial data and detailed
metadata including the editors, references, time, illustration
techniques, measuring methods, and the proportional scale. Traditional paper-based maps are scattered in different places, and
analysis of these maps requires a considerable amount of time
and effort. With the contemporary GIS technology integrating
and digitizing maps with various illustration techniques, mapping becomes a useful tool for comparing the different maps in
different time periods. For example, the Taiwan Atlas of the
Qianlong reign presents the political and military domain during
the Qing Dynasty, ranging from current Henchun Peninsula (the
southern region of Taiwan) to Keelung Port and Heping Island
(northern region of Taiwan). It also covers the eastern mountainous regions, but the eastern coast regions including Yilan,
Hualian, Taidong, and Pingdong counties are not covered. Although these maps contain indications of water bodies and
mountains, these geographic features have not been measured
by modern technologies. In terms of coordinates, distances and
scales, these maps are considerably less accurate. However, the
2.3 Collection and Digital Archiving of Image Data
In order to enrich the GIS platforms, the center continuously
collects and digitizes documents and maps of China and Taiwan
domestically and overseas. The results to date have been fruitful.
To make data retrieval and application more friendly to users,
the team has constructed databases for maps and remote sensing
images from many resources including the Cadastral Survey
Archive for the Ministry of Interior, Forestry Bureau of the
Council of Agriculture, Water Resources Agency of the Ministry
of Economic Affairs, Library of Congress (USA), National Archives and Records Administration (USA), Archive for the Institute of Modern History (AS), Aerial Survey Office, Green
Energy and Environmental Technologies Department of the
Industrial Technology Research Institute, Aerial Photos of the
Ministry of National Defense, etc.
Various aspects of historic images can be reconstructed using
these collected data and consequently be used as sources for
academic research. Taking the image data collected by the US
Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), for instance,
the archive mainly comprises historical records of the US Air
Force. Within the archive, there are aerial photos of Taiwan
before and after air raids late in World War II, and it includes
detailed mission reports. Figure 2 shows Taipei city and the
Governor’s Office House after a bombardment. Figure 3 shows
the dense smoke after the bombing of Hsinchu airport, and Figure 4 shows the shell craters left around the vicinity after the
bombing. On 15 July, 2009, in a construction site of the Mass
Rapid Transit (MRT) in the Taipei Xinyi line on Hangzhou
South Road, an alleged blind shell of the 1945 air raid was
found. Fortunately, no injury was caused and the bomb was
successfully defused. For historians in the field of modern Taiwanese history, these materials provide solid evidence for the
research on military maneuvers between the US and Japan near
the end of World War II, and the impact on the infrastructure and
society of Taiwan. At the same time, intelligence on Taiwan’s
military collected by the US includes valuable resources that
contain information on the humanities and physical environments that also set the basis for research on Taiwan’s history.
In terms of digitization, both the scanner and the camera can
be used to deal with each type of map. A high resolution camera
is used for images that are bound together, with sizes too large
for the scanner, those that are seriously damaged, or those col-
8
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 7-11
lected from overseas (Figure 5). For decently preserved or
non-mounted photos, drum or sheet-feed scanners can be used
for scanning. Once the data have been scanned, a data retrieval
system is then constructed to enable query and application for
general users.
Once these historical platforms are set up, it is important to
ensure the sustainability of the incipient results, and this can be
done through increasing the diversity of the databases themselves. In order to do this, the center has digitized maps collected from domestic and overseas sources. In addition to digitizing
historical maps, there is also the geocoding and digitization of
maps that show historical boundaries and other theme maps. In
recent years, these have also been implemented in the research
on humanities and social sciences. Historic demographic transition, analysis of spatial concepts of ancient maps (Figure 6),
analysis of ship wreckage sites (Figure 7), etc., are just a few
examples. The center promotes and expands the horizon of humanities GIS through the collection of these different types of
attribute data, so as to allow a wide range of applications.
Figure 2 Dense smoke emitted after the attack on the Governor’s Office Building during an air raid on May 31, 1945.
Figure 5
Figure 3
Digitization using high-resolution camera.
Bombing of Hsinchu Airport by US Military.
Figure 6 Exploration of Spatial Perceptions in Ancient Maps:
The left figure was the old Taiwan map in Qing dynasty. The
right table calculated the spatial accuracy between the counties
on the map and their real locations.
Figure 4
Craters created by the bombing of Hsinchu Airport.
9
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 7-11
Figure 7 Spatial Analysis of Wreckage Sites: According to the
historical evidences of wreckage sites, hotspot analysis was
applied for elucidating the spatial distribution of underwater
archaeological sites.
Since technology progresses quite rapidly, the center realized
the urgent need to upgrade the platform, following the pace of
the advancement of software functionality. With the new generation of WebGIS technology, vector data was built into multiple
map tiles and provided the web services for enhancing service’s
efficiency and the convenience of value-added services. Previously, the platform allowed users to load, search, and overlay
the different layers and other basic display functions, but the
layers need to be transferred through entity data in order to construct images, edit and perform value-added analysis to map
layers in advance. This process leads to many drawbacks, such
as the lack of uniformity of maps, repeated reproduction of
maps, and difficulty in data renewal. The center developed a
platform for sharing geographic images in ArcGIS (commercial
software) and QGIS OpenLayer Plugin (open source) for the
purpose of increasing public accessibility (Figure 8). The purpose of this platform is to replace data with service. One single
party is in charge of maintaining and sharing maps accumulated
from various research projects. Figure 9 shows the application
of the OpenLayers Plugin technique for loading images onto
QGIS. Users can then use QGIS to digitize and add layers and
perform value-added analysis.
Figure 8 System Structure of Data Sharing Platform: The
structure was mainly served for raster images.
Figure 9 Add Map by Openlayers Plugin: With the Openlayers plugin in QGIS, the users could display different formats of
public available layers such as vector data, satellite images and
the Historical Administration Atlas of Taiwan.
3. Future Prospects
The center has been focusing on the collection and digitizing
of historical maps and the construction of historical GIS platforms. Recently the center has begun integrating knowledge in
different domains of the humanities for application and data
analysis. In terms of platforms, the center has developed a data-sharing plat-form of these maps in order to increase public
accessibility. Future goals for the center include the following:
1.
Increase public accessibility through expansion and promotion of data-sharing platform, and integrate data images
from various studies for sharing.
2.
Fortify and enhance application and analysis of maps and
archived data. The quality of the data may vary depending
on its period, for instance, and because data from each
discipline have their own unique characteristics, accuracy
of each attribute of the data may also vary. This then leads
to a discussion of the attributes and representativeness of
the data, analysis of the concept of maps, or geocoding of
maps, etc.
3.
Achieve integration of knowledge on technology in the
humanities, including the history, philosophy, linguistics,
literature, fine arts, archaeology, and music of various
cultures. Create and enliven knowledge through the discovery of new research materials and topics.
4.
Integrate various disciplines, as although there are ample
quantitative data analysis and research methods in the natural sciences and economics disciplines, these can be implemented in the humanities and social sciences, too.
At the core of the projects for the construction of the systems
initiated by the center is the hope of integration of interdisciplinary studies. Previously, each map had its respective functions,
but through these systems, layers of different maps can be integrated and provide an al-ternate perspective for researchers in
various disciplines. By taking advantage of the advancement of
10
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 7-11
technology, these systems have been, are, and will continue to
be the hub for achieving interdisciplinary research and humanities GIS.
References
[1] Brown, G. and Weber, D. 2013. “Using public participation GIS
(PPGIS) on the Geoweb to monitor tourism development preferences.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 21(2), pp. 192-211.
[2] Center for GIS Academic Sinica. 2003. “Taiwan History and Culture in Time and Space (THCTS).” 2013 (http://thcts.sinica.edu.tw).
[3] Center for GIS in Academic Sinica. 2003. “Chinese Culture in Time
and Space (CCTS).” 2013 (http://ccts.sinica.edu.tw/).
[4] Elbir, T., Mangir, N., Kara, M., Simsir, S., Eren, T., and Ozdemir, S.
2010. “Development of a GIS-based decision support system for
urban air quality management in the city of Istanbul.” Atmospheric
Environment 44(4), pp. 441-454.
[5] Goodchild, M. F. 2009. “Geographic information systems and science: today and tomorrow.” Annals of GIS 15(1), pp. 3-9.
[6] Goodchild, M. F. and Janelle, D. G. 2010. “Toward critical spatial
thinking in the social sciences and humanities.” GeoJournal 75(1),
pp. 3-13.
[7] Kim, H. J. 2009. “Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History.” Social
Science Computer Review 27(3), pp. 452-453.
[8] Rinner, C. and Bird, M. 2009. “Evaluating community engagement
through argumentation maps-a public participation GIS case study.”
Environment and Planning B-Planning & Design 36(4), pp.
588-601.
[9] Yang, Z. Z., Jiang, Y. L. and Chen, Y. 2009. “Developing a road
traffic control system with GIS.” Proceedings of the Institution of
Civil Engineers-Transport 162(4), pp. 189-194.
11
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 12-16
Article
Transformation of South Indian Local Society in the Late
Pre-colonial Period
TSUKASA MIZUSHIMA
The University of Tokyo
Abstract: This paper is to clarify the conspicuous features of transformation of south Indian local society in the late pre-colonial
period and to present a new interpretation of changes that south India experienced in the transient years from pre-colonial to
colonial period.
An analysis of one of the earliest sets of village accounts in the 1770s indicates a system in which people were assigned some
specific roles in the local society and some proportional shares in the whole local produce were attached to the respective roles.
The system, which was called mirasi system, integrated the society by incorporating the state, military chiefs, and religious authorities in the upper strata of the society in addition to those in the lower strata. A similar system was observed in most regions
in India in the early modern period.
However, the economic development during the period, accelerated by the increasing textile trade and by the entries of European trading powers critically shook the pre-existed production system as well as societal unit. The colonial land system later
introduced accelerated the process further till the society was broken into pieces.
Keywords: South India, local society, mirasi system, textile trade, societal unit
This paper is to clarify the conspicuous features of transformation of south Indian local society in the late pre-colonial period and to present a new interpretation of changes that south
India experienced in the transient years from pre-colonial to
colonial period.
An analysis of one of the earliest sets of village accounts, the
Barnard Report prepared in the 1770s (hereafter BR1770s),
indicates a system where the production cycle was maintained
through the distribution of shares called mirasi.(1) People were
assigned some specific roles in the local society, and specific
proportional shares in the whole produce were attached to the
respective roles. Local societies as well as people living there
were reproduced by this system. The system was called mirasi
system by the early British colonial officers posted in south
India.
The social structure of South India in late the pre-colonial
period can be summarized as indicated by Fig. 1. The mirasi
system integrated the society by incorporating administrative
(state), military (poligars), and religious authorities (temples,
Hindu, Muslim and other religious leaders) at the upper strata of
the society as well as those living in the local society at the
lower strata. For instances, poligars (military chiefs) and temples were among the major recipients of shares in a number of
villages as indicated in Figs. 2 - 4. It may be added that a similar
system was found in several other regions in India in the early
modern period, too.(2)
An investigation into the same accounts and into another
historical source on village landholders around the end of the
18th century(3), however, discloses two exceptional features.
First was the absence of those in trade and textile industry
among the recipient of shares and second was the emergence of
village leaders out of the village landholders. We will examine
them next.
Interestingly no traders or weavers were found among the
recipients of shares in the BR1770s. The fact indicates that they
sought opportunities not in the mirasi system but in the brisk
textile trade and rural-urban grain trade during the period. Eco-
nomic development and changes accelerated by the entries of
European trading powers into the textile trade and by the growing consumption market in the colonial port towns were definitely more attractive to them than the mirasi system type of
production system that basically functioned to maintain the
reproduction of local society in non-market economy. In other
words a change destructive to the mirasi system was growing
outside the mirasi system during the period.
Figure 1 Social Structure and Mirasi System in the Late
Pre-colonial South India.
60
55
50
40
Number
of
Poligars
30
24
20
22
24
15
13
11
10
6
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
10
20
50
1
1
1
100 132 148 388
Number of Villages where Poligars held shares
Figure 2 Number of Villages where Poligars (military chiefs)
held Shares in the Jagir.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from “Amount of Poligars’
Income in Chingleput - Marah and Ready Money Collection-,”
12
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 12-16
Permanent Settlement Records, vol.26: Statement of the Privileges of Poligar, in a Letter from Mr. Greenway, 30.10.1801.
5,333 mirasidars (village landholders) nearly 90 percent had
shares in less than one village. However, there were totally 248
mirasidars who had shares in more than 6 villages.
Table 1
'¶
K
"
"
³
"
¶
'%
K
O ¶
$y
y
"
$ ¶
"¶
"
' "¶
K
"
&
" ¶
P
'A
E
" ¶
"¶
"
" ¶
"¶
x²
|
%
Cº
"
"
¶
¶
"
%
C
"A
´
$
%
C
"y
x
C}
F
( %
&
J
'J
%y
I
I
(%
$
y
'K
K
$8
'Q
&
(
"E
$L
B
$
'Q
'R
H
"
±
$
%
H
'
x
"
³
#Q
$
y
$
$
H xE
'H
"E
E
'
E
'
$8
E
$
H
''
'
'
x|'y
E
Q
'
"|
E
'
Q
'E
E
"
¶
F
(²
'E
E
'E
(G
'
"F
º
$
y
'
E
$
'
E
y
'
E
"
'
E
'E
'
E
E
'
E
'E
'E
' E
'
'
E
'E
" ¸
G
&
D
R
(
"
±
" M
" E
'
"# ³
"¸
³
'
E
"
"¸
¸
O
" #"P
" ¸
¸
&%
$
B
&¸
D
"
´
"
##¶
"
Share (one village = 1) Number of M irasidars Cumulative %
0.0 - 0.1
2,062
39%
0.1 - 0.2
1,026
58%
0.2 - 0.3
640
70%
0.3 - 0.4
296
75%
0.4 - 0.5
395
83%
0.5 - 0.6
86
84%
0.6 - 0.7
82
86%
0.7 - 0.8
62
87%
0.8 - 0.9
42
88%
0.9 - 1
267
93%
1-2
190
97%
2-3
55
98%
3-4
22
98%
4-5
18
98%
5-6
7
98%
6-7
1
98%
7-8
4
99%
8-9
2
99%
9 - 10
2
99%
10
2
99%
11
1
99%
12
2
99%
N.A.
69
100%
Total
5,333
100%
N
W
E
S
Figure 3 Villages under the Jurisdiction of respective Poligars
in Ponneri (BR1770s).
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from “Account of the Privileges
enjoyed by Poligars of the Jagir for Fusly 1202,” Permanent
Settlement Records, vol. 44.
Pagoda Name
<その他の値すべて>
_
Pagoda23ForGIS.PAGODA
F
ALVAR PAGODA
#
ATCHESWERASWAMY PAGODA
"
AUDEKASAVA SWAMY PAGODA
k
BAUSHIACARER PAGODA
!
(
CAPAULESWARER PAGODA
+
$
CAREYAMONICASWAMY PAGODA
_
CARY KISTNASWAMY PAGODA
*
#
CAUMATCHYAMAH PAGODA
R
CODUNDA RAMASWAMY PAGODA
S
CUNDASWAMY PAGODA
D
MAROONDOO ESHWARER PAGODA
l
7
_
__
_
#
_ __ _ _ _ #
ó
ô
õ _#*
#_ ______D __
__
_ _____
_
_ _ __
l
_____
__
_ D _
_ __
_ ___
__
_
__ _
__ __D_
k
__
_ k_#* ___
__
_ _
_
_
_
_
_
k
_ __ _
_
l
_
S
_ _________
_
k S kk k
_
_
_
#
S
* __
_#
"
)
S
*
k
__
(
!
#
*#
*
*!(#
#
<Null>
"
)
#
#
NARSINGA PERMALL PAGODA
NEETEYACULEYANA SWAMY PAGO
_
PAULESHVERASWAMY PAGODA
!
PAULIA PUNDARUM
E
PRESENNA VENCATESWARASWAMY
W
SOMESHEWERA PAGODA
Ø
STALASYANA SWAMY PAGODA
å
TALESINGER PAGODA
TEROOVAMOOR TEYAGARAJASWAM
)
"
VADAGERY ESHWARER PAGODA
#
VARADARAJASWAMI PAGODA
k
VEERARAGAVASWAMY PAGODA
ó
ô
õ
VEJIA VERDARAJASWAMY PAGOD
Ú
VENGADESHWARASWAMY PAGODA
#
#
##
#
# #
#
# # ##
# #
##
##
# #
##
## #
#
#
#
# #
# # # # ##
##
## #
##
# ###
#
#
#
#
# #
#
#
#
#
#
#
# # ## # ##
## #
#
# ##
##
# # #
## # #
#
##
(#
!
#
# # ##
# #
#
#
## ### ##
##
# # # #
#
##
#
# ## #
(
# !
#
##
#### #### # ##
# # ##
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
(## ####### #
#!
##
## # #
(# #
!
# #
#
#
#
######
## # ##
#
#
#
#
#
# # #
## # #
#
_## # ######## #
#
#
# ##
##
##
##
#
##
###
# #
##
#
# #
## #
#
##
##
# ### !
(#
# # # ##
#
#
#
# #
# #
# # #
# #
# #
### # #
#
# # #
## # #### ## #
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
## # # #
# ####
## #
#
# #
#
#### # # ## # ## # # #
#
#
# # ##
# # #
# ##
# # # # ######
#
# ####
# #
#
#
# _#
###
##
#
#
########
# ##
#
# #
## #
#
#
# ### #
#
#
## #
# # ## # #
### #
##
#
# ###
## # #
# #
## ###
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
# # # ## # # #
#
# ##
# #
# # ## ### ## #
#
# ##
# ##
# ## # #
# ## # # ##
#
##### # # ## ##### ##
#
#
# #
#
#
## # # # #
# ## #
#
#### # # # ##
##
# ##
#
#
#
### ##
#
#
# #### # ## # # ### #
## # #
##
#
#
#
## # #
#
# # ##
# # # # ## # #### ###
##
# ## #
#
#
#
#
## # # ## ##
##
#
#
# # ## #
#
# #
#
# #
## #
# # ## # # # # ###
#
#
# ## # # ##
# # # #### #
#
#
# # ##### #
# ##
# # ##
## # # #
## #
##
# ## #
# ## #
#
#
#
#
## #
##
#
#
# #
##
# ##
##
# # ## # #
# ## #
##
## # #
#
#
# ##
### # #
# ##
#
## # # #
# # # ### # # #
#
# #
#
#
#
#
#
#
# # #
#
# ### ## # # ## ## #
## # #
# # ## #####
#### # #
##
#
# #
# ## # ##
_ # #### ###### ### ## ##
# #
# # ## ## #
#
### # ##
#
#
##
#
#
## # # # ## #
### ### #
# # # # # ## #
##
#
# ##
## #
# ## #
##
### #
#
#
#
S k Så å k
å
#
*#
kk k
*S
å å
k k kS#
kk
#
*
#
k kk S*#
*
#
#
*
*
kk
*#
#
*
F
*#
å å#
k lå å#*k*SåSS
* S
"
)
k_ ") k k
Fl#*#*å DåWl#*#*#*
*
åkk #
S#
#
k
*
k
k
*
F
k
#
*
kl k F
lD k #* S å#*S
)k klk
"
)"
"
)"
#
*
)k ll
å
!
#
*
kD _
l ")#*lD ") llå SS
"
) k "
)
S
D
å l ") lk k
k lå") l_l
D
l
lkl ")l
!
å ") 7 llEl ")D
Ø"
) kl
"
)D
l ll7
å! k ")")
l lk") ")kSlD
l! l") ")7D D SD D
#
* !
"
)
)"
D "
) l ØD Ø
! R#
l
* S k k
S
l R _EEEE7k ") D D ")D
R
R RR l
R " RÚ
R l
RÚ
R RRlRRRô
R RRlR
ó
õ l
ó
õ RR
R
RER
RRRR ô
k
R R Rô
ó
õ R
ó
õk R
R #ô
ó
ô
õ
+
$
#ô
ó
ô
õô
ó
õR
ó
õô
ó
ô
õô
ô
ó
õ
ó
õ
ó
ô
õ
ó
ô
õR
#
*Eô
ó
õ
ó
õ
ó
ô
õô
ó
õô
ó
õ
ó
ô
õ!
+
$
ó
ô
õ
R
"
l
!
YACAMBRESHWERASWAMY PAGODA
Figure 4 Distribution of Shares held by Major Temples in the
Jagir.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from “Statement of the Privileges of Pagoda,” Permanent Settlement Records, vol. 23, 1801.
As to the second or the emergence of village leaders out of
the village landholders, an examination of the same source on
the village landholders discovers an existence of a certain number of landholders who held shares in several villages in contrast
to many others who held shares in just one or two villages. Table
1 indicates the aggregated shares of respective village landholders. Whereas the majority of the landholders had less than one
share (i.e. less than one village), there were some who had more
than one in the aggregate. Table 2 indicates the number of villages in which the respective landholders held shares. Out of
Aggregated Shares of Landholders in the Jagir.
(One village = One share)
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from “Abstract State of the
Number of Meerassee Shares and of Meerassee Holders in the
Several Districts of the Jagheer in Fusly 1207 shewing also the
Quantity of Meerassee unclaimed & occupied by Pyacarries”
(Board‘s Collections, F/4/112, Nos. 2115-16, Miscellaneous
Accounts, Statistical Tables etc. accompanying Lionel Place’s
Report on the Company’s Jaghire, vols.1-2, Madras Revenue, 2
March 1803, draft 73/1802-03, E/4/890).
Table 2
Number of Villages where Mirasidars held Shares.
Number of Villages
1
2
3
4
5
6-9
10-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-75
TOTAL
Number of
Mirasidars
4,278
495
168
96
57
126
80
20
4
5
2
1
1
5,333
%
80.2%
9.3%
3.2%
1.8%
1.1%
2.4%
1.5%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
Cumulative %
80.2%
89.5%
92.6%
94.4%
95.5%
97.8%
99.3%
99.7%
99.8%
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
100.0%
Note: The column encircled indicates those having shares in
more than 6 villages.
Source: Same as Table 1.
To investigate the spatial base of these 248 mirasidars or village landholders, Fig. 5 are prepared (248 mirasidars are alphabetically arranged in the map). It is to be noted that the original
source or the Place Report listed totally 9,499 village landholders. There can be, however, many cases of people having same
name. If they are clubbed together by assembling those having
same name, the total number comes to 5,333. Tables 1 and 2
were prepared by following this procedure. There could be,
however, many cases for the same name belonging to different
people. Due to these conditions, the circles added to Fig.5 assume that if the villages whose shares were held by village
13
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 12-16
landholders with same name were located in close proximity,
they belonged to a single person. These encircles indicate that
there emerged village leaders out of the ordinary mirasidars or
village landholders in many parts of the area.
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.VENATEETAH
MP06.VENAYAKA_M
MP06.VENKAJIAH
MP06.VENKAMA_NA
MP06.VENKAT_ACH
MP06.VENKATA_NA
MP06.VENKATA_RA
MP06.VENKATA_RE
MP06.VENKATA_RO
MP06.VENKATACHE
MP06.VENKATAC_1
MP06.VENKATAC_2
MP06.VENKATAC_3
MP06.VENKATAC_4
MP06.VENKATAC_5
MP06.VENKATAC_6
MP06.VENKATAC_7
MP06.VENKATAKRI
凡例
MP06.VENKATAK_1
Taluk Boundary
MP06.VENKATAK_2
MP06.VENKATANAR
MP06.VADAMALAPA
MP06.VENKATAN_1
MP06.VADANT_ACH
MP06.VENKATARAG
MP06.VALAPAH_MU
MP06.VENKATARAM
MP06.VALAYUDA_M
MP06.VENKATAR_1
MP06.VALAYUDA_P
MP06.VENKATAR_2
MP06.VALAYUDEN
MP06.VENKATAR_3
MP06.VEERA_MUDA
MP06.VENKATAR_4
MP06.VEERA_REDD
MP06.VENKATAR_5
MP06.BUNGARU_RA
MP06.VEERABADRA
MP06.VENKATAROY
MP06.CHELLAPAH_
MP06.VEERADAM_A
MP06.VENKATAS_A
MP06.CHENGLEROY
MP06.VEERAPAH_M
MP06.VENKATASA_
MP06.CHEYALA_MU
MP06.VEERAPAH_N
MP06.VENKATASA1
MP06.CHINGLEROY
MP06.VEERAPERMA
MP06.VENKATASAH
MP06.CHINNATAMB
MP06.VEERAPER_1
MP06.VENKATASAM
MP06.CHINNATA_1
MP06.VEERARAGAV
MP06.VENKATASHI
MP06.VEERARAG_1
MP06.VENKATASUB
MP06.VEERASAMAI
MP06.VENKATAVER
MP06.VEERASAMI_
MP06.VERD_AIYAN
MP06.VEERASAMI1
MP06.VERDAPAH_M
MP06.VENAYAKA_M
MP06.VERDAPAH_N
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.ALAGAPAH_M
MP06.ALAGU_SING
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.ANDIAPAH
MP06.ANDIAPAH_M
MP06.ANNA_MUDAL
MP06.ANNARAM_AI
MP06.ANNASAM_AI
MP06.ANNAV_AIYA
MP06.ANNAVIAH
MP06.ANUDARAPAH
MP06.ANUNT_ACHA
MP06.APPACUTTI_
MP06.APPAH_MUDA
MP06.APPAJEE_MU
MP06.APPAL_ACHA
MP06.APPAN_AIYA
MP06.APPAV_AIYA
MP06.APPAV_AI_1
MP06.APPAVIAH
MP06.CHITTUMBRA
MP06.CHIYALA_MU
MP06.CHOLAPAH_M
MP06.CUNDAPAH
MP06.CUNDAPAH_M
MP06.CUNDAPAH_R
MP06.CUPAN_AIYA
MP06.CUPANA_MUD
MP06.CUPIAH
MP06.APPIAH
MP06.DURMAROY_M
MP06.ARMUGA_MUD
MP06.ESWARA_PAG
MP06.ARNACHELLA
MP06.GOVINDIAH
MP06.ARNACHEL_1
MP06.GURUVA_RAU
MP06.AYAH_MUDAL
MP06.IYAH_MUDAL
MP06.AYAV_AIYAN
4B
4A
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.MAHADAVIAH
MP06.MARAPAH_MU
MP06.MILAPAH_MU
MP06.MOTTAY
凡例
MP06.MUNIAN
Taluk Boundary
MP06.VERDIAH
MP06.CUNDAPEN
MP06.MUNIAPAH_M
MP06.MUNNAPAH_M
MP06.KALAPAH_MU
MP06.MURGAPAH_M
MP06.KOLUNDA_MU
MP06.MURTIAPAH_
MP06.KOMARAPAH_
MP06.MURTIAPPAH
MP06.KOMARAPAH1
MP06.MURUGAPAH_
MP06.KONDAMA_NA
MP06.MUSELY_NAI
MP06.KONDAPAH_M
MP06.MUTIA_MUDA
MP06.KONDAPAH_R
MP06.MUTIAH
MP06.KONDIAH
MP06.MUTIAH_MUD
MP06.KRISHN_AIY
MP06.MUTIAPAH_M
MP06.KRISHNA
MP06.MUTTA_PILL
MP06.KRISHNA_MU
MP06.MUTTAPAH_M
MP06.KRISHNA_RE
MP06.MUTTU
MP06.KRISHNAM_A
MP06.MUTTU_MUDA
MP06.KRISHNAMA_
MP06.MUTTU_NAIC
MP06.KRISHNIAH
MP06.MUTTU_REDD
MP06.LINGAH_RED
MP06.MUTTUKRISH
MP06.VURD_AIYAN
4I
MP06.VYDENADA_M
MP06.YELLAPAH_M
4J
Figure 5 Distribution of Villages by Village Leaders.
Notes: Only the 248 landholders or mirasidars having shares in
more than six villages are included in the figures and villages
where the respective landholders had shares are marked with
same color.
Source: Same as Table 1.
Another interesting feature of the period was the linkage between the emergence of the village leaders and the development
of market economy. Fig. 6 shows the distribution of a number of
trading community, sellers, and shops in the Jagir. Apparently
the period observed a highly developed commercialization.
Chettiyars
Sellers
Shops
4D
4C
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.PAPU_REDDI
MP06.PARASARAMA
凡例
MP06.PERMAH_MUD
Taluk Boundary
MP06.PERMAL
MP06.PERMAL_MUD
MP06.NAGAPAH_MU
MP06.PERMAL_NAI
MP06.NAINAPAH_M
MP06.PERMAL_PAG
MP06.NAINATTA_M
MP06.PERMAL_RED
MP06.NAMASEVOY_
MP06.PONNAPAH_M
MP06.NARAIN
MP06.PUTCHAPAH_
MP06.NARAIN_MUD
MP06.RAGAV_ACHA
MP06.NARAIN_NAI
MP06.RAGAV_AIYA
MP06.NARAIN_RAU
MP06.RAGUNAD_AC
MP06.NARAIN_RED
MP06.RAM_AIYANG
MP06.NARANIAH
MP06.RAMA_NAICK
MP06.NARASIAH
MP06.RAMA_REDDI
MP06.NARN_AIYAN
MP06.RAMAKRISHN
MP06.NARNIAH
MP06.RAMALINGA_
MP06.NARRAIN_RE
MP06.RAMANAPAH_
MP06.NARSIAH
MP06.RAMANUJ_AI
MP06.NAT_IEEAP_
MP06.RAMASAMIAH
MP06.NAT_LETCHA
MP06.RAMIAH
MP06.NAT_PARSAR
MP06.RASAPAH_MU
MP06.NAT_PASSAR
MP06.ROYAL_AIYA
MP06.NAT_RAGAVA
MP06.ROYALIAH
MP06.NAT_SURAPI
MP06.RUNG_AIYAN
MP06.NULLA_MUTE
MP06.RUNGAPAH_N
MP06.NULLATAMBI
MP06.RUNGIAH
4F
4E
BR1770s
BR1770s
ZS1801
Figure 6 Distribution of Chettiyars (Trader Caste), Sellers,
and Shops in the Jagir.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from BR1770s and ZS1801 (the
Permanent Settlement Records, vols.20-22: Statement of Zamindaris, in a Letter from Mr. Greenway, October 30, 1801).
The commercialization of the period was closely related with
the development of textile trade. The Jagir had a number of
weaving villages where a considerable number of weavers made
a living as is indicated by the distribution of weavers and looms
in Fig. 7. A comparison of the distribution of shops and looms in
Fig. 8 clearly indicates that the commercialization of the period
was deeply related with the textile industry of the period.
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.SABAPUTTI_
MP06.SADASEVA_M
MP06.SAM_AIYANG
MP06.SAMAIAH
MP06.SAMBIAH
MP06.SAMI
MP06.SAMI_AIYAN
MP06.SAMI_MUDAL
MP06.SAMI_MUTTI
MP06.SAMI_NAICK
MP06.SAMI_NAI_1
MP06.SAMI_PILLA
MP06.SAMI_REDDI
MP06.SAMI_SHAST
MP06.SAMIAH
MP06.SARAVANA_M
MP06.SASHIAH
MP06.SEERAM_AIY
MP06.SEETARAMIA
MP06.SHASH_AIYA
MP06.SHASHADRI_
MP06.SHASHIAH
MP06.SING_AIYAN
MP06.SINGAR_ACH
凡例
Taluk Boundary
MP06.SRINIVAS_A
MP06.SRINIVAS_1
MP06.SRINIVASA_
MP06.SRINIVASAR
MP06.SRINIVAS_2
MP06.SRINIVASIA
MP06.SUBBA_BUTT
MP06.SUBBA_ROW
MP06.SUBBAROY_M
MP06.SUBBIAH
MP06.SUBRAMANIA
MP06.SUBRAMANY_
4G
MP06.TANAPAH
MP06.TANAPAH_MU
MP06.TANAPAH_NA
MP06.TANDAVAROY
MP06.TANDAVAR_1
MP06.TAT_AIYANG
MP06.TREVENGADA
MP06.TRIMAL_ACH
MP06.TRIVALUR_A
MP06.TRIVENGADA
MP06.TRIVENGADU
4H
14
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 12-16
Table 3
Looms
Weavers
ZS1801
BR1770s
Households
Figure 7 Distribution of Weavers and Looms in the Jagir.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from BR1770s and ZS1801 (the
Permanent Settlement Records, vols.20-22: Statement of Zamindaris, in a Letter from Mr. Greenway, October 30, 1801).
Transactions of Landholdership in Ponneri Villages.
Location Code
(1971 Census)
PO165A
Source
Village
BRPO098
ASANPOODOOR
BRPO268
BRPO264
BRPO014
CHINNAMULLAVOIL PO037A
CODYPULLUM
PO016A
COOMMUNGALUM
PO115B
BRPO252
BRPO058
BRPO160
CUNACUMBACUM
PO145A
CUNCAVULLYPORAM PO148A
ENNOOR
PO044A
BRPO018
KISTNAPORUM
BRPO266
BRPO154
MAHAFOOSE CAWN PO035A
PETTA
NAITHVOIL
Unidentified
BRPO270
PARYMULLAVOIL
PO213A
BRPO068
BRPO128
BRPO302
PERINJARY
POOLIDARVACUM
SOORAPADE
PO075A
PO045B
PO029A
BRPO254
TIROOPAROO
PO143K
BRPO122
BRPO124
TOTTACAUD
VOILOOR
PO052A
PO091C
BRPO040
WOPPALUM
PO152C
BRPO034
MUTTERAVADE
PO159A
Description of Transaction
NIYOGEE BRAMINS RESIDING AT TUTTAMUNJA [PO100A], GENTOO BRAMINS THEIR RESIDENCE UNKNOWN, PUROOTAH
VELLALER RESIDING AT MADRAS
KAVARAI LANDHOLDERS OF CODEPULLOM [PO016A], KAVARAI COOPPE CHETTI WHO PURCHASED LANDHOLDERSHIP
KAVARAIS WHO PURCHASED LANDHOLDERSHIP
ANCIENT LANDHOLDERS PALLI FROM WHOM CHETTIS PURCHASED THE LANDHOLDERSHIP & FROM THE CHETTIS TULIVA
VELLALER PURCHASED THUS CHANGEABLE SHARES 5 FIXED
GENTOO BRAMIN, VISHNU BRAMINS, SHARE 30, RAKEAPA MUDALI PURCHASED THE LANDHOLDERSHIP, SHARE 2
SADIAPPA MUDALI LANDHOLDER OF MADRAS
LANDHOLDER. RESIDES AT POOLIDAVACUM [PO045B] & AUTTYPADE [PO043A], KONDAIKATTI VELLALER LANDHOLDER.
& COWKEEPER WHO PURCHASED LANDHOLDERSHIP: KONDAIKATTI VELLALER 6, KONDAIKATTI VELLALER PURCHASED
FROM ABOVE LANDHOLDERS. 5, COWKEEPER PURCHASED FROM ABOVE LANDHOLDERS.1
ANCIENT LANDHOLDERS ARE PALLI FROM WHOM THE CHETTIS PURCHASED THE LANDHOLDERSHIP & FROM WHOM BOUGHT
TULIVA VELLALER WHO ARE LANDHOLDERS NOW
NABOB MAHAFOOSE CAWN PURCHASED LANDHOLDERSHIP FROM CONDIGHETTY VELLALER LANDHOLDER
PO115A
THIS VILLAGE IS GIVEN AS SHOTRUM TO PONNARY NARAIN PILLAY AT 200 PAGODAS. KONDAIKATTI VELLALER,
NUNDA GOPAULER WHO BOUGHT LANDHOLDERSHIP
GENTOO BRAMIN LANDHOLDERS OF UNKNOWN PLACE, ANOTHER GENTOO BRAMIN RESIDING AT GARACANXXX [xxx] &
RUNGAPUTY PUNDIT STUL MOJUMDAR RESIDING AT PONARY [PO115C], VENGAMRAJAH NIYOGEE RESIDING AT
AROOMUNDA [PO017A] (WHO PURCHASED LANDHOLDERSHIP).
TULIVA VELLALER RESIDING AT MADRAS
KONDAIKATTI VELLALARS 3, COWKEEPERS BOUGHT SHARE 1
KONDAIKATTI VELLALER LANDHOLDERS. FROM WHOM PURCHASED THE LANDHOLDERSHIP BY LUCHUMAJEE PUNDIT OF
PONARY [PO115C]
GENTOO BRAMINS OF CUNASUMPACUM [PO145A]. ARSOOR[PO183A] VENCATACHEL MODALY PURCHASED PART OF LAND &
HAS TAKEN FOR MORTGAGE THE OTHER PART OF LAND FROM GENTOO BRAHMIN LANDHOLDERS OF TIROOPAROO
[PO143K].
KONDAIKATTI VELLALA OF NUTHVOIL[PO051A] WHO MORTGAGED THEIR VILLAGE TO NUNDA GOPAULER.
GENTOO BRAMIN OF VOILOOR [PO091D] 1, TUTAVAJEE BRAMIN AT VALLOOR [PO042I] 1, NIYOGEE BRAMIN AT
MADRAS 1, VISHNU BRAMIN AT MENJOOR　[PO050C] 1, NUMBY & SIVA BRAMIN AT MADRAS 1, KANAKAPILLAI 1
1. KANAMAULA VENCATEN'S SHARE PURCHASED BY ANDEAPPEAN WHO RESIDING AT COODVARY [XX], 1. RAHAVIAH
HAVE ONE XX RESIDING AT CHENNACAVANUM [PO157A], 2. SOORIYA SOLA & C. RESIDING AT COOMMUNGALUM
[PO115B]
HEAD LANDHOLDERS: TUMBAN, KURIAN, NYNAN OF MADRAS
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from BR1770s.
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
ll
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
ll
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
l
l
l ll
l
l
ll
ll l
l
l l
l
"
) l l
ll l
l
l
^
l l l
^
_
"
)
*___
) #
) "
lD"
^^_^l l ll l
^
^^
ll
ll l l l
^
ll
^^
l l l
l
l
l
ll lll ll l
l
ll
l l l
ll l l
l l^
l
l l
l
l
l l lll D l
D
l
l ll E
D
D0
D
D
D
D
D
l
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
"
)
"
)
l
0
E
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Rajah
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Rajah+Naick+Naick
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
_
D
D
Tuliva Vellala
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Tuliva Vellala+Mudali
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
^
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Rajah+Naick/Muttrajah
D
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
l
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Naick+Palli
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Naick+Covray
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Naick
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
N.A.
D
D
Mudali [Madras]
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
#
*
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
17
Economic development, accelerated both by the increasing
textile trade and by the entries of European trading powers, and
the village landholders’ involvement in it must have produced
not only their economic autonomy from the mirasi system but
also their political autonomy from the local society as well as
the state during the period.
Development of market economy invaded gradually many of
the key role-players in the mirasi system. Table 3 indicates the
cases of transaction of mirasidars’ right through sales or mortgages in Ponneri area recorded in BR1770s. A good number of
transactions by Chettis (traders), Kavarais (textile traders), and
by those living in Madras were observed. In other words there
occurred cases of outsiders of local society, mostly those engaged in trade, entering into localities through market transactions of landholdership. Similar interesting cases were observed
in the transactions of military chieftainship. As indicated in Fig.
9, the military chieftainship of the central part of Ponneri area
was acquired by those in non-military occupations and by a
person living in Madras, a place too far to do anything military.
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Figure 9 Distribution of Military Chieftains’ Jurisdiction in
Ponneri Area.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from BR1770s.
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
Figure 8 Distribution of Shops and Looms in the Jagir.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from the Permanent Settlement
Records, vols.20-22: Statement of Zamindaris, in a Letter from
Mr. Greenway, October 30, 1801.
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
These evidences clearly indicate that with frequent transactions of the rights to the shares and with the increasing disjunction of rights from the roles in the production system, the mirasi
system that had maintained the reproduction of local societies in
south India for centuries and the societal unity of local society
came to the brisk of collapse in the late pre-colonial period.
State
Mirasidars,
Village Leaders
Raiyat
Local Society,
Village
Land Lot
Raiyatwari System
Figure 10 Eradication of Intermediaries by the
Raiyatwari System.
15
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 12-16
After the years of war among the Indian, British and other
European powers, the English East India Company established
their control and started colonial rule. The colonial land system
introduced later in the early nineteenth century, especially the
Raiyatwari System, further accelerated the process that had been
occurring in the late pre-colonial period. By eradicating the
intermediaries such as village leaders and local chieftains between the state and a peasant and the same such as local society
and village between the state and land lot, the colonial government established the direct rule over the locality (see Fig. 10).
Actually what was done was to divide a locality and village into
hundreds or thousands of land lots as indicated by Fig. 11.
Collections, F/4/112, Nos. 2115-16, Miscellaneous Accounts, Statistical Tables etc. accompanying Lionel Place’s
Report on the Company's Jaghire, vols.1-2, Madras Revenue, 2 March 1803, draft 73/1802-03, E/4/890).
References
[1] Mizushima, Tsukasa. 1996. “The Mirasi System and Local Society
in Pre-Colonial South India.” In Robb, P. et.al. (eds.), Local Agrarian Societies in Colonial India: Japanese Perspectives. London:
Curzon Press, pp. 77-145.
[2] Mizushima, Tsukasa. 2002. “From Mirasidar to Pattadar: South
India in the Late Nineteenth Century, Land, politics and Trade in
South Asia, 18th-20th Centuries.” Indian Economic and Social
History Review, 39 (2&3), pp. 259-284.
[3] Marshall, P. J. (ed.). 2003. The Eighteenth Century in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution? New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
[4] Alavi, Seema (ed.). 2002. The Eighteenth Century in India. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Figure 11 Division of Land Lots in a Village in South India.
Source: Prepared by Mizushima from a Field Notebook of RM
Village.
Lastly I’d like to refer to the implication of this paper in the
historiography of India. A few decades ago a debate called “the
eighteenth century problem” was raised. In the debate the main
argument centred whether the period between the eighteenth and
nineteenth century can be characterised as “continuity” or
“break”. As has been discussed in this paper, the late
pre-colonial period observed highly developed commercialisation which critically shook the pre-existed production system as
well as societal unit. The colonial land system introduced later
in the period accelerated the process further till the society was
to be broken into pieces in the decades to come. The investigation done here, therefore, implies that the transformation during
the period can be characterised as initially as “continuity” but as
“break” later in the 19th century.
Notes
(1)
(2)
(3)
Mirasi is originally an Arabic word meaning anything
inheritable.
H. Kotani, M. Mita, and T. Mizushima. 2008. “Indian
History from Medieval to Modern Periods: An Alternative
to the Land-System-Centred Perspective.” International
Journal of South Asian Studies vol. 1, pp. 31-49.
“Abstract State of the Number of Meerassee Shares and
of Meerassee Holders in the Several Districts of the
Jagheer in Fusly 1207 shewing also the Quantity of
Meerassee unclaimed & occupied by Pyacarries” (Board‘s
16
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
17-21
Article
Historical GIS Studies in Japan: Scholarship and Internet
Dissemination of the Rapid Survey Maps
DAVID S. SPRAGUE†
†
NOBUSUKE IWASAKI†
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
Abstract: GIS analysis applied to historical issues has progressed rapidly in Japan. Progress has been rapid not only in scholarship, but also the dissemination of historical geographic data over the Internet in forms that are useful to both scholars and the
public. This paper summarizes recent GIS applications in and about Japan, then focuses on research and internet dissemination
based on the Rapid Survey Maps, or Jinsoku Sokuzu, the first extensive map series surveyed by modern cartographic methods in
Japan. Providing detailed land use information about most of the Kanto Plain containing the capital city of Tokyo in the 1880s,
the Rapid Survey Maps have led to a great deal of research on Japanese environmental history. The entire maps series can now be
viewed through WebGIS on the Internet as a seamless, georeferenced image in the Historical Agro-Environment Browsing System (HABS). In both GIS and image formats, these maps have been applied to the analysis of land use change, the spatial structure of land uses, and comparisons with even earlier maps and pictorial depictions of early modern Japanese landscapes. In addition, the broad public has been finding many new applications for the Rapid Survey Maps through the HABS system.
Keywords: Japan, rural landscape, Rapid Survey Maps, Jinsoku Sokuzu, WebGIS
1. Introduction
A broad array of historical material associated with location
are available for analysis by geographical information systems
(GIS), leading to the development of historical GIS as a subfield
in several fields of scholarship. Historical GIS applied to Japan
already has a long history itself but has expanded rapidly as
more scholars have become motivated to apply GIS to their
research topics in history, archaeology, and the humanities.
Researchers of Japan have available to them a large amount
of historical geographical information. The long histories of
human occupation, agriculture, trade, and urbanization, accompanied by ever expanding government administration, has produced a rich heritage of geographically based records, in the
form of maps, cadasters, demographic records, archaeological
sites, and much more (Mizoguchi, 1996; Yonemoto, 2003). Spatially accurate material accumulated even more rapidly with the
introduction of modern cartography to Japan after the Meiji
Restoration of 1868, when a new government adopted many
new technological innovations as part of their development program to modernize Japan.
A comprehensive review of historical GIS in Japan is beyond
the capacity of this paper. The research on the historical geography of Japan has been reviewed repeatedly (Kinda, 1997,
2010; Mizoguchi, 1996; Senda, 1982; Yonemoto, 2003). In this
paper, as part of the inauguration of the Asian Network for
GIS-based Historical Studies (ANGIS), we review selected examples of historical GIS research in and about Japan. We point
out a few early applications of historical GIS in recognition of
their significance, then briefly introduce historical geography
available on-line via the Internet with the intent of directing
researchers new to Japanese historical GIS towards sources and
data that may allow them to quickly familiarize themselves with
recent research. Then we focus on recent GIS analyses and
WebGIS applications developed by the authors using the Rapid
Survey Maps, or Jinsoku Sokuzu, the first modern topographic
maps surveyed in Japan (Figure 1).
Figure 1 A Rapid Survey Map depicting the village of Ushiku
in southern Ibaraki Prefecture in the northern Kanto Plain. Each
map depicts an area of 4 km x 5 km.
2. Historical GIS In and About Japan: Scholarship and Internet Dissemination
2.1 Historical GIS in Japan
Japanese geographers recognized early that GIS would make
possible hitherto difficult analyses. One landmark study of the
environmental history of Japan was carried out by Y. Himiyama
and his colleagues (Himiyama et al., 1995). They read into machine-readable form the land use of Japan from the 1/50,000
topographic maps of multiple time periods, and collated land use
changes for all of Japan in a 2-km grid. Their work was published as an atlas making available the maps and statistics that is
17
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
still unequalled today as a national scale environmental
time-series analysis of this time-depth. Another relatively early
GIS application to Japan was by Siebert (2000) who visualized
the development of Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region in
a GIS database covering shoreline and river changes, administrative boundaries, population, and rail network expansion.
Historical GIS continues to expand rapidly in Japan. For instance, in a recent volume a group of geographers and historians
collected papers from a conference on GIS hosted by the Information Processing Society of Japan and the Human Geographical Society of Japan (Japan Council for Historical GIS, 2012).
The papers cover a wide range of topics, from technical issues
concerning historical GIS architectures, map databases, or digital place name databases, to in-depth analyses of population
movements, environmental change, and historical landscapes.
These advances in scholarship are certainly one of the most
notable achievements of GIS for geographers and historians.
However, one of the greatest achievements of GIS in recent
years has been the efforts to make available to a broad audience
the basic data on historical geography relevant to both scholars
and the public. Needless to say, the key technologies that have
made this possible are the twin technological advances of software making GIS available on relatively inexpensive personal
computers, and of Internet tools to allow a global audience to
view or manipulate geographical data. Japanese geographers
have been very active in placing their data onto the Internet. The
Spatial Information Science Division of Tsukuba University has
placed on the Internet their database of historical Japanese administrative boundaries, and population statistics from the
1880’s to the 1930’s (Vista and Murayama, 2008;
http://giswin.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp/teacher/murayama/datalist.htm).
The Virtual Kyoto project by Ritsumeikan University not only
provides data on the city of Kyoto at various historical periods,
but also 3-D renditions of the streets and even festivals of Kyoto
to allow viewers to see what the social life of the city may have
actually looked like in the past from street-level viewpoints
(Nakaya et al., 2010; http://www.geo.lt.ritsumei.ac.jp/).
Figure 2 Large rural grasslands in 1881 as depicted in the
Rapid Survey Maps of the villages of Ushiku and Okami (now
Ushiku City) in southern Ibaraki Prefecture.
17-21
2.2 The Rapid Survey Maps
The historical GIS project by the authors is centered on the
scholarship and WebGIS dissemination over the Internet of the
Rapid Survey Maps, or Jinsoku Sokuzu. Created in the 1880’s to
cover most of the Kanto Plain surrounding Tokyo, the Rapid
Survey Maps are the first map series completely covering a
large geographical area surveyed by modern methods in Japan.
Drawn at 1/20,000 scale using plain table surveying, the maps
are accurate enough for direct comparisons with modern maps.
Color coded for major land uses, the maps provide very detailed
information on the Japanese landscape of that time.
The Rapid Survey Maps have been a boon to historical scholarship in Japan since the publication of the complete set in 1991
(Jinsoku Sokuzu Reprinting Committee, 1991). A large number
of studies based on them using various types of GIS have been
published on land use history. Geographers and ecologists have
used Rapid Survey Maps to study the rural woodlands (Inui,
1992; Shirai, 2002), grasslands (Ogura, 1996; Sakiyama and
Itoga, 1994; Sprague, 2003), land use history (Tsunekawa and
Bessho, 2003; Ichikawa et al., 2006; Iwasaki and Sprague, 2005;
Seguchi et al., 2007), or the effect of past land use on present
day vegetation (Koyanagi et al., 2009).
A crucial point that makes the Rapid Survey Maps valuable
for time-series GIS analysis is that it depicts the Japanese rural
landscape just before it started to be transformed by agricultural
and economic modernization. Many important land uses were
lost soon after the Rapid Survey Maps were surveyed and do not
appear in subsequent maps. Another important characteristic of
the Rapid Survey Maps is that most of the land use boundaries
are drawn with lines depicting roads and paths, allowing the
land use shown on the maps to be analyzed by a variety of GIS
techniques.
These characteristics enabled Sprague and Iwasaki (2010) to
map major changes in land use between 5 periods starting with
the Rapid Survey Maps for a study site in southern Ibaraki Prefecture in northern Kanto. In particular, previous scholars had
pointed out the existence of large rural grasslands in the northern Kanto Plain (Sakiyama and Itoga 1994; Koyanagi et al.
2009). The analysis found that the large rural grasslands depicted in the Rapid Survey Maps in 1881 (Figure 2), were mostly
gone by the time of the subsequent topographic maps issued in
the 1910s. Historical records show that many of the grasslands
were handed over to new farmers who turned them into fields
and woodlands.
In addition, Sprague (2013) quantified how land use in this
the same study site had been distributed across the landscape,
the grasslands in particular. The study used buffer analysis to
show how villages and fields were arrayed along river valleys
close to rice paddies, while woodlands were distributed
throughout the uplands. Most importantly, the large rural grasslands were concentrated far away from villages, down the middle of the plateau, where the ridge line would be if the plateau
was not so flat (Figure 3). One reason for this distribution may
have been the fact that the grasslands were a commons utilized
by multiple villages.
18
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
16
100
14
90
80
12
70
Distribution
from villages
10
60
8
50
6
40
30
4
20
2
0
Cumulative percent
Percent of grassland
10
0
200
400
600
800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
0
Distance
30
100
80
70
20
60
Distribution
from rice paddies
15
50
40
10
30
20
5
Cumulative percent
Percent of grassland
90
25
10
0
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100
0
Distance
70
Percent of zone
60
Distribution across
the plateau
50
40
30
20
17-21
the study area still existed 120 after the Rapid Survey Maps had
been surveyed.
2.3 The Rapid Survey Maps on the Internet
As part of our historical GIS project we created a complete
image database of the Rapid Survey Maps (Iwasaki et al., 2009).
The original reason for creating the image database was our
desire to view several sheets of Rapid Survey Maps as a single
seamless image. We had sometimes glued together paper copies
of the maps to make a large map, but with over 900 map sheets
as a whole, preparing a grand view of the Rapid Survey Maps
survey area was a laborious task using paper copies and glue.
Scanned images of the Rapid Survey Maps could be merged in a
GIS, and by continuing the scanning, the entire Rapid Survey
Maps set was joined into a single image, thus allowing us to
view a larger area at once.
Furthermore, we presented the entire image database to the
internet by Web GIS under the name of the Historical
Agro-Environment Browsing System (HABS, Iwasaki et al.,
2009). HABS can be accessed by most recent web browsers at
http://habs.dc.affrc.go.jp. The site lets the viewer browse freely
through the Kanto Plain of the 1880’s, while comparing the
maps to present day features overlaid on the image, and provides a link to view the maps on GoogleEarth.
The main objective of HABS is to bring the Rapid Survey
Maps to a broad public audience. The Rapid Survey Maps have
been in press for nearly twenty years but may have remained
appreciated only among scholars and map aficionados with access to them in their print form. With the presentation of the
entire map set by WebGIS, the applications of the Rapid Survey
Maps are now as diverse as the Internet audience.
10
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Proportional zone
0.8
0.9
1.0
Figure 3 The distribution of rural grasslands from villages,
rice paddies, and across the plateau, as depicted in the Rapid
Survey Maps of Ushiku and Okami villages (now Ushiku City)
in 1881 (modified from Sprague, 2013).
The spatial accuracy of the Rapid Survey Maps is a background issue that sometimes need to be addressed. The Rapid
Survey Maps had been surveyed precisely enough to depict even
small features, but the maps are slightly distorted so that spatial
adjustment may be necessary for fine-grain analysis. Sprague et
al. (2007) measured the persistence of the rice paddies between
the 1880s and the 1980s for a study are in southern Ibaraki Prefecture. A simple overlay between the rice paddies is sufficient
for a rough measure of rice paddy persistence. However, we
were particularly concerned about the persistence of narrow,
branching rice paddies. Some narrow branch rice paddies in the
Rapid Survey Maps were slightly misplaced so that some
branches did not always overlap with corresponding paddies in a
modern map. For these slightly distorted paddies, rubber sheeting of branch tips allowed a more accurate assessment of rice
paddy persistence. We found that about 72% of rice paddies in
Figure 4 The top page of the Historical Agro-Environment
Browsing System (HABS).
Accessible at http://habs.dc.affrc.go.jp
19
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
17-21
Figure 5 Changes in the course of the Kinu River in Shimotsuma City, Ibaraki Prefecture, seen between a Rapid Survey Map (left)
and aerial photographs (right) taken in 2008 (Digital Japan Basic Maps, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan), as shown in the
comparison images in the HABS.
For scholars, the advantage of HABS, as already stated, is the
ability to view a continuous version of the Rapid Survey Maps.
Fujita et al. (2010) took advantage of this characteristic to use
HABS to confirm the content of even earlier illustrations of
Japanese landscapes. The Shimousa Meisho-zue is a pictorial
atlas of famous places in the province of Shimousa, now part of
northern Chiba Prefecture. Published in the Late Edo Period, it
is a guide book describing famous scenery using birds-eye view
illustrations. The accuracy of these illustrations are difficult to
assess, since few contemporaneous maps remain of the locations
described. However, a comparison with HABS allowed Fujita et
al. (2010) to identify many locations by recreating the birds-eye
scenery in the Shimousa Meisho-zue with 3-D renditions of
HABS images draped over a digital elevation model.
For the public, the great convenience of HABS has led to a
large audience curious to see the condition of the land in the
1880’s of the land where they live and work today. HABS provides the means for an Internet user to directly compare past and
present maps in the Kanto Plain, where enormous changes in
land use and land form have taken place over the last 130 years
(Figure 5). HABS has been taken up in newspaper articles and
television shows. One reason for this is that the presentation of
HABS has coincided with popular publications on the geographical history of Tokyo and its surroundings. Another reason
is the curiosity of the public about the location of their residence.
Public interest in the landform of residential areas seems to have
grown especially after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.
3. Discussion
Historical GIS is producing new developments in both scholarly and popular applications for mapping and data dissemination. These trends are evident for the Rapid Survey Maps as well.
Academic applications of the Rapid Survey Maps take advantage of precision GIS analysis for detailed time-series analysis. At the same time, HABS provides broad-based visual appreciation of the Rapid Survey Maps, to satisfy the demands of
both scholarship and the diverse interests of the public. Iwasaki
et al (2009) explains the important role that HABS can play in
aiding policy makers or NGOs for planning the preservation of
rural landscapes and biodiversity, as well preparing for disaster
mitigation.
Even as scholarship with historical GIS continues to advance,
it is also providing the foundation to make history and GIS relevant for the public at large. The public interest in all manner of
information presented on the Internet is helping to bring greater
attention to historical geography, leading to new opportunities
for historical GIS as well that scholars can take advantage of to
promote the public understanding of geography.
References
[1] Fujita, N., Iwasaki, N., and Sprague, D. S. 2010. “Restoration and
Evaluation of Satoyama/Shrine Forest Landscape Analyzed with
HABS (the Historical Agro-Environment Browsing System) and
Shimousa Meishou Zue by GIS.” Landscape Research 73(5), pp.
589-594.
[2] Himiyama Y., Arai, T., Ota, I., Kubo, S., Tamura, T., Nogami, M.,
20
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Murayama, Y., and Yorifuji, T. 1995. Atorasu: Nihon-retto no
Kankyo Henka (Atlas: Environmental Change in Modern Japan).
Tokyo: Asakura-shoten.
[3] Ichikawa, K., Okubo, N., Okubo, S., and Takeuchi, K. 2006. “Transition of the Satoyama Landscape in the Urban Fringe of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Area from 1880 to 2001.” Landscape and Urban
Planning 78, pp. 398–410.
[4] Inui, T. 1992. Kanto Heiya no Heichirin (The Plains Woodlands of
the Kanto Plain). Tokyo: Kokon-Shoin.
[5] Iwasaki, N., and Sprague, D. 2005. “A Study of the Land Use History in the Japanese Macaque Habitat Expansion Area of the Boso
Peninsula, Japan.” Journal of Rural Planning Association 24, pp.
1-6.
[6] Iwasaki, N., Sprague, D. S., Koyanagi, T., Furuhashi, T., and
Yamamoto, S. 2009. “Development of the Historical
Agro-Environment Browsing System constructed by FOSS4G.”
Theory and Applications of GIS 17(1), pp. 83-92. (in Japanese)
[7] Jinsoku Sokuzu Reprinting Committee. 1991. Meiji Zenki Sokuryo
2-Manbun-1 Furansu-shiki Saishoku Chizu (Early Meiji survey
one-twenty thousandth French style colored maps). Tokyo: Kinokuniya. (in Japanese)
[8] Japan Council for Historical GIS (ed.). 2012. Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan. Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan. (in Japanese)
[9] Kinda, A. 1997. “Some Traditions and Methodologies of Japanese
Historical Geography.” Journal of Historical Geography 23(1), pp.
62–75.
[10] Kinda, A. (ed.). 2010. A Landscape History of Japan. Kyoto:
Kyoto University Press.
[11] Koyanagi T., Kusumoto, Y., Yamamoto, S., Okubo, S., and
Takeuchi, T. 2009. “Historical Impacts on Linear Habitats: The
Present Distribution of Grassland Species in Forest-Edge Vegetation.” Biological Conservation 142, pp. 1674-1684.
[12] Mizoguchi, T. 1996. “Studies in the Historical Geography of
Japan, 1988-1995.” Geographical Review of Japan Series B 69, pp.
21–41.
[13] Nakaya T, Yano, K., Isoda, Y., Kawasumi, T., Takase, Y., Kirimura, T., Tsukamoto, A., Matsumoto, A., Seto, T., and Iizuka, T.
2010. “Virtual Kyoto Project: Digital Diorama of the Past, Present,
and Future of the Historical City of Kyoto.” In Ishida, T. (ed.). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp.
173–187.
[14] Ogura, J. 1996. Shokusei Kara Yomu Nihonjin no Kurashi (Japanese Livelihoods As Seen From Vegetation). Tokyo: Ouzankaku. (in
Japanese)
[15] Sakiyama, N., and Itoga, R. 1994. “On the Change of Grasslands
Into Pine Forests in the Inashiki Upland.” Tsukubano Kankyo
Kenkyu (Environmental Research Tsukuba) 15, pp. 29-44. (in Japanese)
[16] Seguchi, R., Brown, R. D., and Takeuchi, K. 2007. “Land Use
Change From Traditional To Modern Eras: Saitama Prefecture, Japan.” In Hong, S-K., Nakagoshi, N., Fu, B., and Morimoto, Y. (eds.).
Landscape Ecological Applications in Man-Influenced Areas. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 113-128.
[17] Senda, M. 1982. “Progress in Japanese historical geography.”
Journal of Historical Geography 8, pp. 170–181.
[18] Shimizu, E., and Fuse, T. 2006. “A Method for Visualizing the
Landscapes of Old-Time Cities Using GIS.” In Okabe, A. (ed.).
GIS-Based Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Baton
Rouge: CRC Press, pp. 265-278.
[19] Shirai, Y. 2002. “Firewood and Charcoal Production and Land
Use in the Western Shimosa Upland during the Second Decade of
the Meiji Era: An Analysis of the Concise Chart and Scouting Report.” Rekishi Chirigaku (Historical Geography) 44, pp. 1-21. (in
Japanese)
17-21
[20] Siebert, L. 2000. “Using GIS to Document, Visualize, and Interpret Tokyo's Spatial History.” Social Science History 24, pp.
537-574.
[21] Sprague, D. S. 2003. “Function and Spatial Structure of Grasslands in the Kanto Plain: Did Plains Grasslands Exist?” Sochi-gaku
Kenkyu (Grassland Science) 48, pp. 532-536. (in Japanese)
[22] Sprague, D. S. 2013. “Land-use configuration under traditional
agriculture in the Kanto Plain, Japan: a historical GIS analysis.” International Journal of Geographical Information Science 27, pp.
68-91.
[23] Sprague, D. S., Goto, T., and Moriyama, H. 2000. “GIS Analysis
Using the Rapid Survey Map of Traditional Agricultural Land Use
in the Early Meiji Era.” Landscape Research 63, pp. 771-774. (in
Japanese)
[24] Sprague, D. S., Iwasaki, N., and Takahashi, S. 2007. “Measuring
Rice Paddy Persistence Spanning a Century with Japan's Oldest
Topographic Maps: Georeferencing the Rapid Survey Maps for GIS
analysis.” International Journal of Geographical Information Science 21, pp. 83-95.
[25] Tsunekawa, A., and Bessho, T. 2003. “Satoyama Landscape Transition in the Kanto Area.” In Takeuchi, K., Brown, R. D., Washitani,
I., Tsunekawa, A., and Yokohari, M. (eds.). Satoyama: The Traditional Rural Landscape of Japan. Tokyo: Springer, pp. 51-60.
[26] Vista, B. M., and Murayama, Y. (2008). “Internet GIS for Historical Regional Statistics.” Tsukuba Geoenvironmental Sciences 4, pp.
21–24.
[27] Watanabe, H., Murayama, Y., and Fujita, K. 2008. “Development
of ‘Historical Regional Statistics’ and Utilization of the Data: Focusing on Japanese Modern Era.” Journal of Geography 117(2), pp.
370-386. (in Japanese)
[28] Yonemoto, Y. 2003. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place,
and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Acknowledgments This work was supported by Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grant Number
25292213.
21
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
22-32
Article
GIS as a Tool for Researching the Socioeconomic
History of Modern Egypt
HIROSHI KATO†
†
HIROOMI TSUMURA*
Hitotsubashi University
*
Doshisha University
#
ERINA IWASAKI#
Sophia University
Abstract: Modern Egypt has a wealth of available statistical data and geographic information for the study of its socioeconomic
history. This paper aims to analyze the transformation of its agrarian society against the background of the transition from natural
to artificial irrigation, using GIS as a tool to link the statistical data with geographical information. The main focus was on the
trend in the changing number of rural settlements and their geographical distribution; the geographical distribution of the two
types of rural settlements over time － old traditional villages (qarya) and the new hamlets (‘izba) .The following two are the
main results. First is the two distinct patterns of settlement formation in relation to the transition of the irrigation system in modern Egypt. Almost all of the old villages were built in premodern times on the elevated lands with the natural irrigation system;
the new hamlets were constructed on the cultivated lands called basins or on the newly developed lands in the outer border regions of the Delta with the artificial irrigation system. Second is the changes in settlement patterns in response to the transition
from natural to artificial irrigation. This is clarified by focusing on the relationships between environmental characteristics such
as water flow lines, location of the settlements, insolation, and local topography.
Keywords: Egypt, irrigation, village, quantitative assessment, landscape, GIS
1. Introduction
Almost all of the Middle Eastern states have artificial boundaries because they were established after the First World War by
the European Great Powers seeking to further their own interests.
This historical legacy is a major factor in the underdevelopment
of nation-states in the region. Egypt, however, is one of the few
exceptions among Middle Eastern states in that it has historical
boundaries and traditions that have helped to instill a mature
‘national’ consciousness in the population. The formation of the
Egyptian nation began with the ‘Egyptians’—that is, the communities that developed along the Nile River—and only then did
the process move on to the political formation of the Egyptian
state.
Against the background of the transition from natural to artificial irrigation, this paper discusses the socioeconomic background to the formation of the Egyptian state, focusing on the
changes in village locations and their distribution in Lower
Egypt by using GIS to link statistical data and geographic information.
2. General trends in population and number of
settlements in modern Egypt
2.1 Two turning points in the socioeconomic history of
Egypt in modern times from the viewpoint of source material
It is well known that Japan built a modern state with remarkable speed following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. However,
one of the other early efforts by a non-Western country to establish a modern, independent state was made by Egypt. Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt in 1798 was the starting point for
Egypt’s modernization and westernization, and it produced as a
scholarly gift, the famous Description de l’Égypte, which contains a wealth of statistical and geographic data and information.
The French occupation of Egypt ended in 1801 after only
three years. Subsequently, Muhammad Ali (reign 1805–1848)
came to the throne and an attempt was made to establish a mod-
ern state in Egypt under the rule of this enlightened absolute
monarch. He instituted an economic policy that was externally
protectionist and internally monopolistic. The state expropriated
the profits from the agricultural sector in order to establish
state-run industrial sectors and a modern military. The expansion of Egyptian state power was remarkable, and its military
strength surpassed that of the Ottoman Empire in the First and
Second Egyptian–Ottoman Wars (1831–33, 1839–41).
However, the prevailing international politics of the early 19 th
century would not permit a new power to emerge, and the European powers exerted pressure on Egypt, including the use of
armed force, to force it to accede to the London Treaty of 1840.
The treaty recognized the family of Muhammad Ali as hereditary viceroys of Egypt—a position that the family retained until
the 1952 revolution, in which the king was deposed in a coup by
pan-Arab nationalist army officers—in exchange for Egypt relinquishing all of her conquered territories besides the Sudan.
Muhammad Ali’s attempts to build a modern state thus met
with failure. However, the agricultural wealth supported by the
waters of the Nile remained abundant. This availability of resources encouraged a renewed attempt to construct a modern
state, this time within a free trade regime. This second attempt
was led by Muhammad Ali’s successors, Said (reign
1854–1863) and in particular Ismail (reign 1868–1879).
Unfortunately, the bill for the construction of a modern state
was enormous. During the reign of Muhammad Ali, the nation
incurred no foreign debts. In 1862, Egypt borrowed from abroad
for the first time. The debt quickly accumulated, and in 1876,
only 14 years after the first loan, Egypt found herself bankrupt
and was placed under international supervision by the Western
powers.
In 1881, the deepening intrusions of the Western powers into
Egypt’s domestic politics triggered the country’s first nationalist
movement. Called the Orabi Revolution, after the military officer who led it, the movement collapsed the following year,
when British soldiers landed in Alexandria. Egypt was thereafter
placed under British military occupation, leading to the devel-
22
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
2.2 Trends in the population and the number of settlements
in modern Egypt
Before examining the specific changes in the number of villages and their distribution patterns over time, we will give an
overview of the general trends in population growth and the
number of settlements (towns and villages) in modern Egypt.
Figure 1 shows the population trends for the period 1800–2006.
It is clear that the beginning of the 20th century was the turning
point in the population trend, and that the population also drastically increased after the Second World War.
Figure 2 shows the trends in birth and mortality rates in Egypt,
and illustrates why the rapid increase in population occurred
after the Second World War. From a demographic viewpoint, the
overall population trend in modern Egypt is explained by the
long lag between the decrease in the mortality rate and the de-
22-32
crease in the birth rate: the former rapidly decreased after the
revolution in 1952, while the latter decreased only in the 1990s.
80,000,000
13,000
70,000,000
60,000,000
Population
Villages/towns
Population
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
11,000
9,000
7,000
Number of villages
opment of what was in fact a colonial administration. It is from
this time that statistics were first systematically compiled in
Egypt.
The first census was conducted in 1882, the year in which
Egypt came under British military occupation. This was in fact a
preparatory step for the first true population census, which was
conducted in 1897. Thereafter, the census was repeated at
10-year intervals, in 1907, 1917, 1927, 1937, and 1947. In tandem with the execution of population censuses, attention was
devoted to the gathering and compilation of economic, social,
and other statistics for the management of the State.(1)
Furthermore, at the same time, the production of maps of
Egypt using scientific ordnance survey techniques began as part
of the agricultural land survey project conducted between 1892
and 1907, which was the first time since French scholars had
produced the maps of Egypt on Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt.
Subsequently, maps containing specific information on, for example, irrigation and transportation came to be produced.
In summary, the socioeconomic history of modern Egypt has
two turning points from the viewpoint of source materials. The
first turning point is Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798,
which produced the Description de l’Égypte and was the starting
point of modern sciences in Egypt. The second is the British
military occupation of Egypt in 1882, which initiated the systematic collection of statistical data and geographic information
under British colonial rule.
Therefore, the socioeconomic history of Egypt from the early
19th century to the present can be divided into the following two
eras. The most recent of the two is from the early 20 th century to
the beginning of the 21 st century: rich documentary material is
available for this period, from which we can glean information
about Egyptian settlement and land use patterns as well as geography. A geographic information system (GIS), which is a tool
to link statistical data with geographic information, is useful for
the analysis of such rich source materials. The previous era was
from the early 19th century to the 20th century, for which little
geographic information and few statistical data are available.
However, in such a context, GIS can be used as an efficient tool
to link the available source materials and analyze their interrelations in order to develop new research fields and hypotheses.
5,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0
3,000
1,000
Figure 1 Population and number of settlements (towns and
villages) in Egypt, 1800–2006.
Note:The population before 1882 was estimated by Hirofumi
Tanada, Waseda University.
Sources: Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics
(CAPMAS) 1976 Population & Housing Census Volume 1. Total Republic ref. no. 93-15111-1980, Cairo, 1980. Statistical
Yearbook 2005, Cairo, 2006. http://www.capmas.gov.eg. Population census 1882, 1897, 1907, 1917, 1927, 1937, 1947; Statistical Yearbook 2008.
50
45
40
35
30
％
25
20
Birth rate
Mortality rate
15
10
5
0
Figure 2 Birth and mortality rates, 1897–2006.
Sources: As in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows a sharp contrast between the rapid growth in
the population and the slow growth in the number of settlements.
Here, settlements are meant by smallest administrative units
(villages and towns). Except for the census periods from 1907 to
1937, the number of settlements grew slowly: for example, from
3,634 in 1882 to 4,052 in 1947, and to 4,160 in 1960. The number of settlements remained relatively stable even in the latter
half of the 20th century, when the demographic explosion occurred. The number of settlements in Lower and Upper Egypt
was 4,590 in 2006.
The decrease in the number of settlements from the end of the
19th century to the beginning of the 20th century could be explained by the regulations prohibiting the construction of ‘new
hamlets’ (called ‘izba) and unifying some existing settlements
processes that increased markedly during this period in order to
facilitate better management in rural areas. By contrast, the slow
increase in settlements in the 20 th century is explained by the
absorption of the growing population primarily into the Nile
23
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Basin, mainly through rural–urban migration to Cairo between
1940 and 1970, and by the expansion of existing small and medium cities and villages from 1980 to the present day (instead of
the creation of new ones).
22-32
Figure 3 Qarya in Gharbiya Governorate at the beginning of
the 20th century.
3. Social transformation of rural Egypt in modern times
3.1 Transformation of the landscape in rural Egypt in
modern times
To show the usefulness of GIS as a tool for researching the
socioeconomic history of modern Egypt, three periods are chosen for comparison: (1) the beginning of the 19 th century, when
the French army occupied Egypt; (2) the beginning of the 20 th
century, when British colonial rule in Egypt was at its zenith;
and (3) the beginning of the 21 st century, the present day. We
aim to use GIS to link statistical data with geographic information, and the purpose of the comparisons among the three
time periods is to clarify the changes in the number of settlements and in their distribution patterns against the background
of the transition from natural to artificial irrigation.
Before the 19th century, the geographical location of a settlement in Egypt was determined by one simple condition: it required an elevated location (hill) that remained above water
when the Nile flooded, which occurred regularly once a year. As
a result, Egyptian villages have existed in the same places for a
long time. In addition, the villages took an agglomerated form,
and their sizes increased over time. Thus, Egyptian villages,
which were naturally formed agglomerations, also came to
function as administrative units.
The transition to an artificial system of irrigation in the 19 th
century resulted in a significant change in the layout of the
Egyptian countryside The banks that had previously surrounded
the cultivated lands (basins) to protect them from floodwater
were destroyed and these lands were subsequently converted
into small units of land for cultivation. The same rate of land tax
was imposed on these new cultivated areas. Moreover, hamlets
began to be constructed on the cultivated lands since these were
no longer flooded by the Nile. In addition, hamlets appeared
especially on the lands that were reclaimed after the 19 th century
in the area bordering the desert, where large farms for commercial crops had developed.
Thus, many new hamlets were born. The traditional old villages were called qarya (Figure 3); new hamlets were called
‘izba (Figure 4). Hamlets tended to be constructed as agglomerations attached to the old ‘mother villages’. The number of
hamlets increased rapidly with the demographic expansion, and
rendered the landscape of the Egyptian countryside drastically
different from that before the 19th century.
Source: Lozach, MM.J. et G. Hug, L’Habitat Rural en Égypte, la
Société Royale de Géographie D’ Égypte, Cairo, 1930, Pl. I.
Figure 4 ‘Izba in Gharbiya Governorate at the beginning of
the 20th century.
Source: Lozach et Hug 1930 : Pl. IV.
3.2 Settlements in the 20th century
Figure 5 indicates the locations where new settlements were
established in Lower Egypt between 1882 and 2006 based on
censuses. Black dots represent the old settlements that existed in
1907; the columns represent the change in the number of settlements between 1882 and 2006. Old settlements were mainly
located in the central Delta areas between the two Nile branches;
a typical example is Menufiya Governorate. Many new settlements, on the other hand, were built on the outer edges of the
Delta, such as in Buheira and Sharqiya Governorates after 1927.
Figure 5 Location of old settlements that existed in 1907 and
change in the number of settlements between 1882-2006 by
governorate.
Source: CAPMAS Population Census 1882-2006.
24
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Note: (1) Settlements here, as mentioned before, refer to the
administrative units, that are villages (qarya) in rural area and
towns (shiyakha) in urban area. Villages and towns are the
smallest units in Egyptian administration. (2) Black dots represent the villages and towns in the 1907 census. Their locations
were identified using the list of administrative units (qarya and
shiyakha) of 2006 census. The locations of 70% of the villages
and towns were identified, but some of them were not, due to
the change in the names or administrative boundaries.
22-32
Buheira and Sharqiya. Interestingly, however, nomads also inhabited areas inside the Delta, where it was not uncommon to
find settlements with 50 or so nomads.
Figure 6 shows the location of ‘izba (hamlets) in 1907. The
red dots represent settlements without ‘izba, which are located
in the central Delta area between the two Nile branches, such as
in Menufiya Governorate. By contrast, settlements with many
‘izba are distributed in the outer Delta governorates, such as
Buheira and Sharqiya.
Figure 7 Distribution of settled nomads in 1907.
Source: Niẓāra al-Māliya 1909.
Figure 6 ‘Izba distribution in 1907.
Source: Niẓāra al-Māliya 1909.
The outer edges of Delta where new settlements were built
housed a high concentration of nomads (referred to as ‘urbān in
the census) (Figure 7). Nomads played an important role as a
subsidiary army to the regular army in the Egyptian state and as
merchants in Egyptian society in modern times, although their
role has been underestimated in the study of the modern history
of Egypt. Nomads had for many years enjoyed the privilege of
being exempt from the military draft, to which all other Egyptians were subject. This privilege was nullified under the pretext
that it was a ‘racial’ (‘unṣur) privilege, and nomads were finally
incorporated as ‘Egyptians’ in 1956, when all laws and regulations that differentiated between the Bedouin and other Egyptians were abolished.(2) The situation peculiar to nomads in
modern Egypt is reflected in the fact that they were distinguished from other Egyptians and registered as the distinct category of ‘nomads’ in Egyptian censuses before their incorporation as ‘Egyptians’ in 1956.
Figure 7 shows the locations of settlements inhabited by nomads. Black dots represent settlements that housed more than 50
nomads. Some of the settlements had more than 3,000 or even
10,000 nomads. Settlements with a high population of nomads
tended to be located in the outer Delta governorates, such as
3.3 Two types of Egyptian village qarya and ‘izba
As mentioned earlier, there are two types of settlements: ‘old’
and ‘new’ that are called village (qarya) and hamlet (‘izba) respectively. These two categories of settlement are distinct not
only in the history of their formation but also in their landscape
and the lifestyle of their inhabitants. Figure 8 shows the year of
construction of houses in Abu Senita, Menufiya Governorate, a
typical old settlement in the central Delta area. In 2006, its population was 4,468.
Abu Senita is an agglomerated old village that does not have
any adjoining hamlets (‘izba). Most of the old houses are located in the village districts (ḥāra or nāḥiya). The cemetery and
holy mausoleum are located within the residential area of the
village. In addition, the residential areas of the village, originally situated at the crossroads of canals or roads, have expanded
along roads outside the village districts.
Figure 9 shows the year of construction of houses in Sidi
Oqba, in Buheira Governorate in the outer Delta area. It is a
typical new settlement composed of many hamlets (‘izba), with
a population of 20,429 in 2006. Sidi Oqba is composed of 52
hamlets (‘izba). The map in Figure 9 shows Izbat Sidi Oqba, the
biggest hamlet in Sidi Oqba.
The oldest house in Izbat Sidi Oqba was built in 1940; most
of the houses are new. The cemetery and holy mausoleum are
located far from the settlement. Old houses are located along the
main canal, and new houses have been built on agricultural land
far from the main canal.
25
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Figure 8 Year of construction year of houses in Abu Senita.
Source: Household survey data (2005).
22-32
variety of spatiotemporal data. A comparison of the historical
details of different irrigation methodologies will be the first step
toward quantitatively understanding how changes occurred in
the residential environment and land usage. Therefore, in this
project, the first step was to compile basic topographical and
environmental data for the Nile Delta area for use in GIS (3),
which is a method used in spatiotemporal informatics.
We collected Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data
and extracted topographical information for the Nile Delta area
only. The SRTM used interferometric synthetic aperture radar,
and was deployed on the STS-90 mission (4) of the Space Shuttle
Endeavour. The collected data from this mission were used to
create a digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth’s surface. In
this study, after downloading the freely available SRTM-3(5) data
from the FTP server, we generated a DEM for the Nile Delta by
sorting the data in the target area by latitude and longitude. (6)
Then, after converting these data to a DEM, the impact of noise
and missing values in the SRTM data was minimized by calculating spatial autocorrelation values; this was done by scanning
a 55 kernel (Figure 10).
Figure 9 Year of construction of houses in Sidi Oqba.
Source: Household survey data (2005).
4. Environmental assessment of Nile Delta settlements and their variation over time
4.1 Compiling the basic environmental data of the Nile
Delta
As we have discussed qualitatively up to this point, the expansion of rural society onto the very large area of wetlands in
the lower areas of the Nile Basin advanced dramatically with the
introduction of the innovative technology of artificial irrigation.
From a more detailed, micro viewpoint, with this advanced
technology and with land reclamation, the style of habitation
and land utilization in the villages changed from the traditional,
‘old village’ style that had been predominant in the early period
of expansion. As a result, a new type of settlement was created
that differed from the traditional pattern retained in the old villages. Therefore, when assessing the evolving Egyptian residential environment in terms of changes in spatial phenomena
through time, an important aspect is to consider such changes in
the patterns of settlement (such as village locations and layouts),
not only from the micro perspective of changes in individual
villages, but also from the macro perspective of settlement
trends across the whole Nile Delta.
In this section, we aim to discuss this ‘form’ by means of a
Figure 10 SRTM data and topography shadow-map.
(colored by elevation)
Although, under normal circumstances, satellite data that
provide environmental information at a higher resolution should
be used, in this study we acquired LANDSAT-T(7) and LANDSAT-ETM data, given that the original topographical data had
SRTM-3 resolution. When deficiencies were found in the freely
available data, we acquired affordable commercially archived
LANDSAT data (Figure 11).
We conducted fieldwork in the Nile Delta area, carrying out a
simple topographical survey by photographing the landscape.
We conducted a vegetation survey of the cultivated areas
twice—in March and September 2012—to obtain topographical
and environmental ground truth data. More details regarding the
investigation are given in later papers; however, the ground truth
data described above form the basis of this paper. Additionally,
we mapped the spot where a drilling investigation was carried
out as part of the acquisition of ground truth data. In the future,
we plan to encode not only the surface information, but also the
geological information for GIS analysis.
26
Figure 11
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
LANDSAT satellite data (compound True-Color).

4.2 Environmental assessment using the basic environmental data
Environmental assessment was carried out with the following
GIS modules from the DEM and LANDSAT. In addition, we
used IDRISI, developed by Clark Labs, as GIS software, and the
analysis utilized modules in IDRISI for analysis.

ELEVATION Generally, the elevation values that appear
in the DEM correspond to heights above sea level; however, in the case of SRTM, GSIGEO model
WGS84/EGM96 values are used. Therefore, technically,
the elevation is different from the actual height above sea
level in Egypt. In this study, we developed an application
that converts SRTM values to the actual heights above sea
level used locally in Egypt for the DEM construction
(Figure 12).

ASPECT In IDRISI, a module that determines the direction of the land’s slope at each pixel, called ASPECT, was
used; this calculates the direction of the slope based on the
difference between the absolute elevation values for adjacent pixels. This study also used this module to determine
the direction of the land’s slope for each pixel (Figure 13).

SLOPE In IDRISI, a module that determines the gradient
for each pixel, called SLOPE, was used; this calculates the
gradient based on the difference between the absolute elevation values for adjacent pixels. This study also used this
module to determine the gradient for each pixel (Figure
14).

HILLSHADE In IDRISI, a module that determines the
insolation on each pixel, called HILLSHADE, was used.
The calculation was based on the direction of the land’s
slope and on the sun’s position (direction and angular
height) relative to each pixel. It is necessary to average
these values over all four seasons, since the model requires
a specific input value for the position of the sun relative to
the pixel, which of course varies through the day and year.
Thus, we averaged the values calculated for the sun’s relative position at every minute of every day over a whole
year to calculate the standard insolation on each pixel. Average annual insolation thus became quantitatively comparable between pixels (Figure 15).

Runoff modeling and distance To understand differences

22-32
between natural and artificial irrigation—the principal objective of this study—it is necessary to calculate the direction in which water would flow naturally over the land
(that is, to model the so-called natural state), and then investigate whether there is a relationship between these
flow patterns and the spatial distribution of settlements
and arable lands. In this study, we extracted the number of
catchment accumulation pixels and expressed falling
overboard line setting the threshold on that extracted using
the runoff-modeling module in IDRISI. Then, we conducted buffer processing from this line and compiled data
indicating the horizontal distance from that process. (Figure 16).
Evaluation of the shoreline and distance Ordinary damp
ground can be made cultivable by developing artificial irrigation; this process is spatially related to the historical
process of the reclamation of lagoons or large brackish
waters extending along the Nile Delta coast. This fact is
confirmed by the phenomenon of settlements clustering in
the coastal area over time. In this study, the shoreline is
evaluated using LANDSAT data, similarly to the aforementioned distance from the falling overboard line: we
assessed the present coastline by overlaying with DEM,
and produced data indicating the horizontal distance using
the buffer-processing function of GIS (Figure 17).
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) The
majority of the presently cultivated and reclaimed land
was once—at least in the early modern period—lagoon or
damp ground. Soil conditions for such areas are worse in
the alluvial fan of the Nile Delta, which has also experienced damage from salt. We expect corresponding differences in the ability of the soil to nourish plants. For this
reason, we created NDVI data using Band3 (visible red reflectance) and Band4 (near-infrared reflectance)(8) in the
LANDSAT data set (Figure 18).
The environmental data described above allowed us to
stabilize the layer structure of the GIS data set as raster
data with the same kind of resolution as with each SRTM
resolution. We then linked this to the database that recorded the locations of rural communities and cultivated
land areas, which we entered in GIS form.
Figure 12
DEM from height above the sea level.
27
Figure 13
ASPECT distribution map.
Figure 14
SLOPE distribution map.
Figure 15
HILLSHADE distribution map.
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
22-32
Figure 16
Run-off Modeling and distance.
Figure 17
An evaluation of the shoreline and distance.
Figure 18
(NDVI).
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
28
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
4.3 Basic data on residential areas and the estimation of
historical data
In principle, it is impossible to simulate accurately the environment in the Nile Delta in the early modern or later modern
periods because of the unavoidability of using the present topography and environmental information when trying to obtain
information that has the same precision for the whole Delta.
Although it is possible to gather historical environmental data at
low spatial resolution (as well as better-resolved data, but on
environmental characteristics that are of little interest), spatially
resolved historical environmental data that would be appropriate
for GIS analysis are unavailable at present.
Nevertheless, by using census data and documentary records,
it was possible to map to a certain level of accuracy the residential areas and cultivated lands of modern times: what we now
call ‘rural society’. In this paper, we aim to clarify the sequence
of changes from the historical to the present conditions by
means of digital data. We therefore created maps of the distribution of villages(9) for three periods: (1) the 1800s, when the
French army occupied Egypt; (2) the 1900s, using the census
data compiled when the British colonized Egypt; and (3) the
2000s. These three maps are shown in Figures 19–21.
Figure 19
Distribution map of villages in the 1800s.
Figure 20
Figure 21
22-32
Moreover, since it is necessary to compile detailed data on
land ownership and harvest times of cultivated land, in this
analysis, we created Voronoi territories(10) as the ‘catchment
areas’(11) of target residential areas, based on the maps of the
distribution of villages; we then extracted the total territory for
each village, comprising the village itself and a catchment area
calculated by extending a buffer zone 3km beyond the village
perimeter. However, the spatial extent of villages, the year of
their establishment, relationships between inhabitants, and occupations are not known accurately. We chose a plausible range
of values for these parameters, thus creating a reasonable hypothetical setting.
4.4 Extraction of environmental data and principal component analysis (PCA) to link with the database
We configured the database to match the spatial environmental data tithe maps of the distribution of villages for each period.
For each village, in each period, we extracted the values of the
corresponding environmental parameters for its total area, including the catchment area, from the datasets. For the environmental parameters, we used the average values (that is, we averaged the values of each environmental parameter over all pixels in the catchment area) and standard deviations (to evaluate
the internal variation).(12)
Each of the seven environmental parameters is stored as an
average and standard deviation; therefore, the environmental
conditions in each village and its catchment area are described
by a data set of 14 variables. These could be interpreted separately; however, we attempted the dimensional contraction of
variables by PCA .As the variables were all expressed in different units of measurement, and had different standard deviations,
it was necessary firstly to normalize the values.(13) Next, the
normalized values were evaluated by PCA and cluster analysis
using R statistical analysis software (version 2.15.2).
We now summarize our findings from PCA.
First, when we inspect the characteristic vector for the first
principal component for data from the 1800s (Figure 22), the
variable ‘hs.mean’ (the HILLSHADE mean) is found to explain
a significant amount of the variance; however, in each individual principal component, this variance is not meaningful in the
1900s compared with the 1800s or 2000s. It is likely that
29
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
‘hs.mean’ captures the correlation between increased farm produce and the general abundance of vegetation in a given year. In
this sense, when considering the transition between conditions
of natural irrigation and completely artificial irrigation, which is
the main purpose of this report, we can perceive the tendency
for villages to spread into areas that enjoy increased agricultural
yields.
‘hs.mean’ was not heavily weighted in the major characteristic vectors for the 1900s data; from the diagram, we can see that
its weight is negligible in both Comp.1 and Comp.2.This may
capture the process whereby villages and their catchment areas
came to spread onto land with bad soil conditions (e.g., because
of salt damage) along the coast, during the transition from natural irrigation to artificial irrigation. ‘Seadis.mean’ is heavily
weighted in Comp.2 for the 1900s data. This may indicate that
villages did not spread along the Rosetta tributary of the Nile, or
other mid-range tributaries. It suggests rather that villages
spread out in a fan shape, with the edge of the Delta as the outer
edge of the fan and the Nile headwaters as the tip. Another
noteworthy feature is the significant weight of the variable for
the land’s slope and for its standard deviation, ‘Sl.mean’ and
‘Sl.stdev’, respectively, in Comp.1.This shows the aspect not
only for a flat field, but also for the lowland, which remained
difficult to cultivate, as it had experienced only a small increase
in elevation at this stage. Moreover, we should note the connection with irrigation suggested by the weight of ‘Rivdis.stdev’ in
the characteristic vectors. This variable shows a strong correlation with the distribution of villages in Comp.2 in the 1800s data.
The variable ‘Rivdis’is not strongly weighted in this principal
component for the 1900s and 2000s data; however, we can interpret this as reflecting the trend of growing independence of
settlement patterns from geographical constraints. When farmers
switched from natural irrigation to artificial irrigation by adopting technological innovations, the natural topographical variable
‘Rivdis’ became less important. Therefore, this may show that
the issue of water supply was solved by artificial irrigation.
When we plot the coordinates of each village in the space
defined by the first and second principal components (Figure
23), we see that the distribution becomes far more diffuse over
time (spreading out from a tight cluster in the 1800s). Furthermore, there are three mutually distinct classes of village in the
1800s (that is, three types are distinguishable in the space defined by the principal components); however, it is difficult to
visually discern either this clustering or how it evolves over
time.
Accordingly, we performed a cluster analysis using principal
components (on the village distributions in this abstract space).
In this analysis, we set threshold of 1800 about dissimilarity
distance (Figure 24). It can be seen that in the first period (the
1800s), there are three types of villages; there are five in the
second period (the 1900s); and eight in the third period (the
present day). These findings indicate that settlements have
clearly adapted to a variety of poor environmental conditions.
They also indicate that there are trends in the data that cannot be
explained solely by random processes such as the chaotic expansion of villages and cultivated land. Of course, as this is a
22-32
cluster analysis, not a causal one, we cannot understand these
findings in evolutionary terms; i.e., we cannot state that ‘a’ arose
because of ‘A’. The way of thinking of such a form was uncertain only in at least plot, but it may be understood as having
measurable validity with the use of GIS.
Figure 22 Characteristic vector plot
(top panel, 1800s; middle panel, 1900s; bottom panel, 2000s).
30
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
22-32
Figure 24 Cluster analysis of principal component score
(top panel: 1800s, middle panel: 1900s, bottom panel: 2000s).
5. Concluding Remarks
Figure 23 The principal component score distribution of each
village Plot
(top panel: 1800s, middle panel: 1900s, bottom panel: 2000s).
Modern Egypt has a wealth of available statistical data and
geographic information for the study of its socioeconomic history. This paper aimed to analyze the transformation of its
agrarian society against the background of the transition from
natural to artificial irrigation in modern times, using GIS as a
tool to link statistical data with geographic information. The
main focus was on the trend in the changing number of villages
and their geographical distribution.
The paper divided the analysis into two parts. Section 3 examined the geographical distribution of the two types of villages
over time: old villages (‘qarya) and the new hamlets (‘izba). The
results clarified the two distinct patterns of village formation in
relation to the transition of the irrigation system in modern
Egypt. Almost all of the old villages were built in premodern
times on the elevated lands with the natural irrigation system;
the new villages were constructed on the cultivated lands called
basins or on the newly developed lands in the outer border regions of the Delta with the artificial irrigation system.
Section 4 attempted to quantitatively evaluate the changes in
settlement patterns in response to the transition from natural to
artificial irrigation, by focusing on the relationships between
environmental characteristics such as water flow lines, location
of the villages, insolation, and local topography. Section 4 did
not use the specific census data for the population and number
of households in individual villages, nor the data on occupations
and the exact area of cultivated land, which were used in section
31
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
3. Nevertheless, we believe the quantitative methodology
adopted here has provided some useful insights.
There are still many challenges for future research; however,
it is obvious that it will at least be possible to qualitatively subdivide the trends identified herein into a collection of more specific patterns, for example, based on the characteristics of individual villages. There will also be a significant future role for
spatiotemporal information in studying the environment and
civilization of Egypt, and especially patterns of human settlement and land use in rural society. Continued deep study will be
required to refine this approach further.
(7)
(8)
(9)
Notes
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
One such case was 1897, when the general population
census was accompanied by the collection of other statistics. Statistics on social and economic aspects of village
life were also collected at the time of the 1907 census; for
example, Niẓāra al-Māliya, Iḥṣā’ īya ‘umūmī ’an
muḥāfaẓāt wa al-mud īr īyāt al-quṭr al-miṣrī [The general
statistics of Egypt by administration units] (Cairo, 1909),
published by the Ministry of Finance. This contains the
following statistical information at village level: number
of ‘izba, population, number of houses, number of nomads,
amount of tax paid on lands and palm trees (LE/year), area
of privately owned land (feddan), number of hauds, area of
taxed land (feddan), number of taxpayers, maximum
amount of tax (millime), area of islands (feddan), number
of palm trees, and number of springs and wells in oases.
Hiroshi Kato, ‘The Bedouin in Egyptian National Identity:
Minority or Vagabond?’, Usuki Akira (ed.) State Formation and Ethnic Relations in the Middle East, JCAS
Symposium Series 5, The Japan Center for Area Studies
(JCAS), National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, 2001, p.
184
In this paper, GIS stands for Geographic Information System, a computer application that integrates general spatial
information with an attribute database. GIS is also the abbreviation for Geographic Information Science, meaning
here spatiotemporal informatics; GIS also stands for Geographic Information Service, which is an applied domain
beyond the study of just software and applications.
SRTM was part of the Space Shuttle Endeavour mission
launched in 2000 by NASA.
This is mesh data with a resolution of 3 arc seconds (about
90m); SRTM-30 (about 900 m) and SRTM-1 (about 30m)
are also available. Currently, the highest-resolution, publicly available data that can be used for DEM in the Nile
Delta are SRTM-3.
In addition, one downloads SRTM information as raw data,
in a file with the specific extension ‘.hgt’. Free software is
used to convert it to a DEM. In this study, we
used‘HGT2TIFF’,which was developed by Doshisha University. Typically, one would use an application such as
3DEM. In addition, most GIS software includes an application or function for converting raw satellite data to DEM
format.
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
22-32
This is a multiwavelength, earth optical observation satellite. It is equipped with high-precision sensorswith30 m
resolution; the system is called TM (Thematic Mapper)
after LANDSAT4 (1984).
We extracted the NDVI by means of the conventional
image operation: (near infrared + red) / (near infrared –
red).
The distribution maps in particular are inexact. Some reasons for this are the challenge of obtaining good-quality
data for the 1800s and the difficulty of matching past settlements with current place names, as the names may have
changed significantly. However, the chances of introducing a major discrepancy are low as long as the researcher
is conscious of these uncertainties and exercises caution.
These are referred to as Thiessen polygons. This is a spatial interpolation method based on the perpendicular bisectors of pairs of points; individual points are arranged in
each territory.
We understand this as the range within which a village has
access to resources exclusively from the local environment.
Therefore, having set the Voronoi territory (10), we set the
catchment area perimeter at a distance of 3 km from the
village; i.e., approximately one hour of travel at a walking
pace.
Each environmental parameter value in each defined village territory is found quantitatively by averaging the values for each data layer for each pixel in the assigned area
(the village and its catchment area). For instance, in the
case of A village: it is in the 5-pixel range, its area is
40,500 m2 (90 m  90 m  5pixels), and its environmental
attributes are stored in the database: e.g., average elevation,
average gradient, and the corresponding standard deviations. We used the sample standard deviations, which presupposes that villages and catchment areas have ‘definite’
borders. However, village borders were poorly defined in
quite a few cases, and we can assume that predictive adaptation is necessary especially in the case of old villages.
In this paper, we used it, attaching importance to procedural reproducibility.
We adopted the method of subtracting the sample value
from the sample standard deviation, and then dividing the
standard deviation value for average 0, and standard deviation value 1.
32
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
33-44
Article
How did the Nomads Act during the 1916
Revolt in Russian Turkistan?
AKIRA UEDA
Graduate student, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo. JSPS Research
Abstract: This study applies the Geographic Information System (GIS) to the historical studies of the 1916 revolt in Central
Asia and specifically investigates the role of the nomads in this revolt. This historical GIS research compares nomads in Ferghana, Samarkand and Semirechie provinces to examine the relationship between the socio-economic situation and the uprisings and
particularly analyzes agriculture and Russian migration in nomadic area. This study shows that the Russian policy regarding the
nomads was implemented without principle. Although some nomads could secure profits, most lost their land or water. The socio-economic conditions of the nomads were forcefully changed, and they participated in the 1916 revolt. Though the specific
cause of the revolt was determined by various factors, this study suggests there may be correlations between the colonial economic policy of the Russian Empire and the course of the revolt.
Keywords: Turkistan, The 1916 revolt, nomadism, agriculture, irrigation
1. Introduction
This study applies the Geographic Information System (GIS)
to historical studies of Central Asia. It uses the 1916 revolt in
Turkistan as an example, and specifically investigates the role of
the nomads in this revolt. Although the relationship between
Russian colonial policy and the revolt of the nomads is important, few historical documents are available on the subject.
Nevertheless, research using GIS can clarify more detailed relationships.
This study compares four geographic areas to examine the
relationship between the socio-economic situation and the uprisings among the nomadic societies in Turkistan. Nomads had
Figure 1
lived in the region for a long time, and Russian peasants began
migrating to nomadic areas mainly after the 19th century. As
previous studies show, Russian migration and land expropriation
from nomads were important causes of the revolt of the nomads.
However, the course of events leading to the 1916 revolt varied
according to geographical area.
Section II provides a general introduction and the developments of the revolts. In sections III and IV, this study primarily
examines the nomads in Ferghana Province, the Hungry Steppe,
and the Tair-Sheikh Steppe(1) from a fact finding level, but it
only refers to Semirechie as it has been investigated in previous
studies.
Russian Turkistan.
33
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
The nomads of Turkistan
With the annexation of the Khanate of Kokand in 1876, Russia completed its conquest of Central Asia. Russian Central Asia
was generally divided into a northern steppe area and a southern
oasis area. In the northern area, most natives were of nomadic
descent and lived not only in the Steppe provinces but also in
Turkistan. In particular, they occupied the foothills and deserts
of Turkistan. The historical term “nomads” (кочевник), as it
appeared under Russian rule, referred to a category in the country’s taxation system.(2) It did not usually imply that the people
categorized under this label followed a nomadic lifestyle.
Therefore, in this study, the term “nomads” generally refers to
the administrative group categorized by the Russian authorities.
Figure 2 shows the characteristics of Russian Central Asia.
Most stockbreeders, who were primarily nomads, lived in the
Steppe provinces; however, some lived in Turkistan, especially
in the Semirechie, Syr-Darya, northern part of Zakaspi, and
western part of Samarkand Province. Figure 2 also illustrates the
difference in population density between the Steppe provinces
and Turkistan. In other words, agriculture facilitated higher
population density. The concentrated population in the Ferghana
Valley was a notable example of this tendency.(3)
Regarding the ethnicity of nomads, in Ferghana Province and
the southern part of Semirechie Province, most nomads were
Kyrgyz, while Kazakh nomads occupied the Hungry Steppe, the
Tair-Sheikh Steppe, and the northern part of Semirechie Province.
2. The 1916 revolt
The edict on June 25, 1916, which ordered native males of
Turkistan and other areas to work behind the rear of Russia’s
33-44
forces fighting in World War I, provoked massive rebellions in
Russian Central Asia. The scale and spread of the 1916 revolt
were unprecedented.
Soviet researchers have argued that the 1916 revolt was an
anti-imperial and anti-feudal mass movement; however, in some
areas, reactionaries agitated the masses and provoked them to
attack Russian immigrants and officials (Tursunov 1962:
234-235). On the other hand, American researcher R. A. Pierce
indicates that most natives regarded the Russians as interlopers
(Pierce 1960: 295-296). Japanese researchers Nishiyama and
Nishijima examined the differences in Russian policy in the
settled and nomadic areas (Nishiyama 1990: 65-106, Nishijima
1994: 24-43).
In Turkistan, the Russian authorities created almost all funds
for the land for Russian peasants by sacrificing nomadic pasture
lands. In other words, Russian land policies primarily affected
nomadic society, and the Russian influence on Central Asian
society can be examined by analyzing the revolt of the nomads
in Turkistan. However, previous studies of the nomads’ revolt in
Turkistan, such as that conducted by Nishiyama Katsunori
(1990), only examine Semirechie, where most natives, as in the
Steppe provinces, were nomadic Kazakh and Kyrgyz. In Semirechie, a violent civil war broke out between Russian immigrants and Kazakh/Kyrgyz nomads. Before the revolt, Russian
authorities strongly encouraged the migration of Russian peasants and expropriation of the nomads’ land on a massive scale
(Nishiyama 1989: 42-43, 48-49). After the revolt, Governor
General A. N. Kuropatkin recognized that land expropriation
from the nomads in Semirechie Province intensified the revolt
(Galuzo 1929: 51, 65).
Figure 2 Population of Russian Central Asia in 1897.
Source: PVP (1899-1905).
34
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Previous research concerning the nomadic areas in Turkistan
where the settled and nomadic groups lived closely, such as
Ferghana and the Hungry Steppe, is incomplete. Therefore, this
study analyzes Ferghana Province, the Hungry Steppe, and the
Tair-Sheikh Steppe, and posits that a number of the processes
behind the revolt derived from socio-economic differences,
particularly in terms of contradictions in societies and social
unrest under Russian rule.
The course of the revolt
The first uprising began on July 4 in the city of Xojant in
Samarkand Province and involved urban settled people. Uprisings rapidly spread to other areas in Samarkand and Ferghana
provinces. On July 13, unrest broke out in Jizzakh, and 83 Russians were killed by rebels. In Semirechie Province, where Russian settlers had expropriated the land of native Kyrgyz nomads
on a massive scale, uprisings commenced on August 6 and rapidly spread throughout the province. Many died, including 2,222
settlers who were killed by the rebels. Russian troops ended the
revolt in Semirechie Province in early September. However, the
revolt spread to the northern Steppe provinces. In Turgai Province, Kazakh leader Amangeldy Imanov organized the rebels
and laid siege to the city of Turgai. He stopped the revolt only
after the Russian February Revolution (Zenkovsky 1967:
133-136).
Nishijima (1994: 31-34) noted that the various uprisings
across Turkistan had common traits. For example, mass protests
against making labor-related lists and conflicts between the
native county officials and the masses were common. However,
the revolts in each area of Turkistan had local characteristics.
In the cases of Ferghana Province, the Hungry Steppe, and
the Tair-Sheikh Steppe, the behavior of the nomads can be described as follows:
In settled areas in Ferghana Province, the Uzbek, Sart, Tajik,
and settled Kyrgyz people rebelled by attacking native officials.
The uprisings were suppressed by the Russian army in September (IKSSR 2 1986: 337-338, Vosstanie 1932: 62). In nomadic
areas, too, rebels attacked native officials (Usenbaev 1997:
67-68, 73-75, 78, Vosstanie 1960: 338-339). Uprisings in the
mountain area continued into late October. Many rebels escaped
with their livestock to the interior of the Tian Shan mountain
range, Semirechie Province, or Xinjiang in China (Usenbaev
1997: 67-68, 73-75, 78, Vosstanie 1960: 338-339).
The southern part of the Hungry Steppe lies in Jizzakh County.
In the revolt in Jizzakh County, more than 80 Russians were
killed (Vosstanie 1932: 31). The rebels in Jizzakh were primarily
the settled Muslim population; the nomads in the Hungry Steppe
did not participate in the revolt, in spite of an appeal by the rebels in Jizzakh.(4) Because of tensions among the nomads in the
Hungry Steppe, the Russian chief of police visited the nomadic
area in order to assuage them. During his visit, a violent uprising
occurred in Jizzakh County; thus, he returned to Jizzakh across
the Hungry Steppe escorted by 30 Kyrgyz men (Vosstanie 1960:
117-119).
The Tair-Sheikh Steppe was a part of Kattakurgan County.
Here, rebels consisted of both nomads and members of the set-
33-44
tled Muslim population. In the village of Mitan in the
Tair-Sheikh Steppe, 3,000−4,000 people gathered and prevented
the county chief from receiving a message from the chief of
police (Vosstanie 1932: 23-25).
In Ferghana Province, the rebels attacked native government
officials who had requisitioned materials and labor. Although
there were violent uprisings in neighboring areas, uprisings did
not occur in the Hungry Steppe. The Tair-Sheikh Steppe, however, saw a mass protest movement against Russian authorities.
The following sections reconstruct the socio-economic conditions of the nomads in each area and demonstrate the relationship between the uprisings and the socio-economic situations
3. Ferghana
Information regarding the nomads’ uprising in Ferghana
Province is limited. Although a comprehensive Soviet study
about the 1916 revolt was published in 1962, it did not mention
the uprising of the nomads in Ferghana Province (Tursunov
1962). Later, K. Usenbaev published several books containing
information about the uprisings of the Kyrgyz nomads in Ferghana Province by not only consulting historical documents but
also analyzing oral sources (Usenbaev 1997).
As for the socio-economic change under the Russian rule in
Ferghana Province, the population of Kyrgyz nomads doubled,
increasing from 72,000 in 1889 to 158,000 in 1914 (SOF za
1889: 47 SOF za 1914: pri. 2.). (5) During the same period, the
total population in Ferghana Province also doubled, from approximately 950,000 in 1890 to 2,200,000 in 1914 (Hedin 1978:
198, SOF za 1914: pri. 2.). (6)
This chapter proposes to look at the economic causes behind
this population increase and reexamines the effect of the revolt
on nomadic society. In other words, this chapter analyses the
effect of the revolt as the collapse of the economic system
formed under Russian rule.
Russian authorities encouraged native farmers in Turkistan to
cultivate cotton for the benefit of the country’s textile industry.
Thus, various measures were adopted in Turkistan. First, a tax
preference for cotton cultivation was enacted and the Russian
National Bank organized credit cooperatives to provide financial
support to cotton farmers. The Russian authorities improved the
variety of cotton and hastened the popularization of American
cotton (upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L.) in Central Asia.
Furthermore, the strict policy on imported cotton aided the organization of cotton monoculture in Turkistan. In 1878, the duty
on imported cotton was 0.4 rubles per pud (16.38 kg), but in
1900, that rose to 4.15 rubles per pud. By 1913, Turkistan produced four-fifths of the cotton in the entire Russian empire, and
Ferghana Province produced three-fourths of the cotton in Turkistan (Aziatskaia Rossiia 2 1914: 275-298).
The GIS analysis of agriculture (Figure 3) indicates that the
cotton monoculture in Ferghana Province occupied the central
area of the province, irrigated by canals from rivers such as the
Syr-Darya, Sokh, and Isfara. The irrigation system in the Ferghana Valley was expanded during the time of the Khanate of
Kokand. On the other hand, at the base of the mountains and
foothills, wheat cultivation was common. Here, the only usable
35
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
water resources were restricted to small streams in narrow valleys and rainfall. In the climate of Central Asia, cotton and rice
can be cultivated only on irrigated farmland, while wheat may
be grown on rain-fed farmland. The base of the mountains and
foothills are suitable for rain-fed cultivation because the rainfall
in this area is greater than in the Ferghana Valley. For example,
in the city of Osh (about 1,000 m above sea level), annual precipitation was 333 mm. (7) Osh was situated in a transitional area
between the nomads and the settled Muslim population. The
cities in the Ferghana Valley generally had lower annual precipitation; for example, in Namangan (476 m) annual precipitation
was only 182 mm; in the city of Ferghana (580 m), it was 171
33-44
mm;(8) and in Andijan (491 m), it was 210mm. (9) In general,
annual precipitation in the Ferghana Valley was about 200 mm
or less. In contrast, at the base of the mountains and foothills,
annual precipitation exceeded 300 mm.
Other information can be inferred from the GIS map (Figure
3). For example, large rice fields were located in the eastern part
of the valley. Compared with cotton, the rice fields were located
on higher farmland. Comparing Figure 3 (agriculture map) and
Figure 4 (ethnicity map), the GIS analysis suggests that settled
Muslim groups such as the Uzbeks, Sarts, and Kipchaks engaged in cotton monoculture.
Figure 3 Amount of crop farming (wheat, cotton, and rice) in Ferghana Province from 1890-1904.(10)
Source: MSOF А (1897), MSOF М (1899), MSOF N (1910), MSOF O (1910), and MSOF К (1912).
Figure 4 Population and ethnicity in Ferghana Province in 1908.
Source: SNMF (1909).(11)
36
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Figure 4 shows the characteristics of ethnicity distribution.
The Uzbek nation currently includes former Uzbek, Sart, and
Kipchak people. These ethnicities and others were distinguished
from each other in the period of the Russian empire. The Soviet
Union divided the former Ferghana Province into separate national republics in 1924. After that, Uzbek, Sart, Kipchak and
other ethnicities living in the Ferghana Valley were considered
as a single Uzbek nation. The former Uzbek, Sart, and Kipchak people each had their own arrival histories in the Ferghana
Valley. First, in the Ferghana Valley, the Sart descended from
Turkic people who did not yet follow tribalism. The Uzbek and
Kipchak were Turkic nomadic tribes that came from the northern steppe to the Ferghana Valley. In the early 18th century, an
Uzbek group created the Khanate of Kokand in the Ferghana
Valley; the Kipchak had already arrived in the Ferghana Valley
in the 17th century. The GIS map shows that the Sart were the
overwhelming majority in the Ferghana Valley. The Uzbek were
concentrated in districts (волость) in the southern valley near
the cities of Kokand and Skobelev (currently the city of Ferghana). The Kipchak were concentrated in the northeast districts
in the valley along the upper stream of the Syr-Darya River, near
the city of Namangan.
In the Ferghana Valley, the progress of cotton monoculture
meant that the proportion of those self-sufficient in grain declined yearly while the price of grain rose rapidly (SOF za 1905:
30). According to records maintained by the authorities of
Andijan County, the price of wheat was 0.23 ruble per pud
(16.38 kg) in 1889, but it rose to 0.52 ruble per pud in 1892 and
1.23 ruble per pud in 1893 (MSOF А 1897: 41-42). In
1905–1906, the Kyrgyz uprising occurred in Andijan County
because of famine, and many merchants’ shops were destroyed
33-44
(Usenbaev et al. 1973: 96). Generally, the cotton farmers were
able to buy expensive imported grain because of their high income from cotton cultivation (SOF za 1906: 19, SOF za 1910:
20).
Regarding the agriculture by nomads, how they engaged in
agriculture in spite of moving from one place to another is important. Sowing in the spring was key for the coexistence of
nomadism and agriculture, as figures 5 and 6 illustrate. In the
spring, nomads sowed seeds in their winter quarters before
leaving with their livestock. In the summer, they pastured their
livestock in mountain or desert pasturelands. In autumn, they
returned to their winter quarters and harvested the crops, primarily wheat and barley (MKZ OSK 1915: 158-159).
Under Russian rule, nomads found difficulty in obtaining
grain from the market owing to a rapid rise in price. They expanded grain farming to secure the supply of food. However,
irrigation water was limited; as a result, irrigation percentages in
the farming by nomads declined, and they primarily engaged in
rain-fed cultivation (Ueda 2013: 119-120). In addition, the expansion of farming caused land disputes among the Kyrgyz
(MKZ A 1913: 39).
In Ferghana Province, there were close economic links between the nomads and the settled Muslim population. The nomads sold livestock at the market (bazaar), were paid to pasture
settled people’s livestock, and engaged in transportation. Some
of them worked on settled people’s farmland as seasonal labor
(MKZ A 1913: 62, 78, MKZ OSK 1915: 169-172). These connections protected the nomads from the famine that occurred as
a result of unstable crop yields from rain-fed cultivation (MKZ
A 1913: 60, MKZ N 1913: 54). The GIS analysis reconstructs
Figure 5 Ferghana Province in 1904.
Source: SOF za 1904: 16−17.
Figure 6 Samarkand Province in 1904.
Source: OS (1905: pri. 3−4).
37
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
the band of rain-fed cultivation (the yellow band in Figure 7)
undertaken by the nomads living near areas irrigated by the
settled Muslim population. To the north of this yellow band, the
Kyrgyz nomads cultivated crops such as wheat and millet on
their farmland, which was irrigated by mountain streams (the
blue arc in the upper portion of Figure 7). This agricultural situation was similar to that of the neighboring Semirechie Province.(12) On the other hand, to the south of the band of rain-fed
cultivation, cotton and rice fields spread in the Ferghana Valley
(the blue ellipse in the figure). These farmlands were irrigated
with a canal irrigation system. This suggests that the nomads’
unstable, rain-fed cultivation was supported by their economic
33-44
link with the settled Muslim population. Furthermore, their livestock numbers also declined under Russian rule, from 710,000
in 1891 to 570,000 in 1914 (SOF za 1914: 47, SOF za 1891: 14).
The nomads in Ferghana Province expanded rain-fed cultivation
in the field of agriculture, but reduced the total amount of their
livestock in the field of nomadism. The center of economy for
the nomads in Ferghana Province had gradually shifted away
from livestock to grain cultivation.
Figure 7 Percentage of irrigated farming by nomads and settled Muslim population in northern Ferghana Province.
Sources: MKZ A (1913: 176, 188), MKZ N (1913: 148), MKZ OSK (1915: 200).
38
Table 1
Rural population
Rural Kyrgyz population
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
33-44
Ferghana population.
1914
1,588,663
261,878
1917
Changes from 1914 to 1917
1,504,451
−84,212
−5.3%
235,474
−26,404
−10.1%
Sources: SOF za 1914 and SNF (1924).
Figure 8
Ferghana population.
There were some Russian immigrant settlements, with a collective population of about 15,000, located on the fringe of the
province in which the Kyrgyz lived. Many of the immigrants
settled illegally from 1902 to 1911, when the authorities prohibited more Russian immigrants from settling (SOF za 1914:
11−21, SOF za 1907: 10-13, Nishiyama 1989: 41, Komatsu
1986: 598−604).(13) Russian authorities did not expropriate the
nomads’ land to provide land to illegal settlers.
This study examines the degree of the effects of the 1916
revolt using a GIS analysis. Thus, the following GIS analysis
reconstructed the changes in population from 1914 to 1917. (14)
As the map and table show, the Kyrgyz population, who lived
primarily in the mountain areas, decreased by more than 10%.
Even though historical sources rarely mention the nomads’ revolt, the GIS analysis clarifies that the population decline of
these nomads was significantly more drastic than that of other
ethnic groups in Ferghana Province during the revolt. The population decrease in the foothill area, excluding Osh County
where the 1917 census could not be conducted, was noticeable.
How did this population decline in the foothill area occur, especially regarding Kyrgyz nomads?
As mentioned in Chapter 2, the revolt by Kyrgyz nomads in
the foothill area of Ferghana Province was more prolonged than
that in the Valley. In the suppression of the revolt, some Kyrgyz
were killed by the Russian army and some of them starved to
death during World War I.
Kyrgyz men on a conscription labor list escaped with their
livestock into the Tian Shan mountain range or the Pamir. At
that time, some of the settlements in these areas were not known
by the Russian authorities. The groups of escaped Kyrgyz attacked native officials including county heads and robbed them
of their livestock. The leaders of the escaped rebels were poor
people, such as Tarasbai Alybaev, who organized the rebels in
the Saroi mountain area before they were suppressed by the
Russian army (Usenbaev 1997: 67-68, 73-75, 78).
Kyrgyz refugees crossed not only the border of a province but
also a national boundary. A report from August 11 stated that
10,000−20,000 Kyrgyz escaped from Ferghana Province to
Semirechie Province (Vosstanie 1960: 338-339). Some Kyrgyz
escaped into Chinese Xinjiang, and they only returned after the
Russian Revolution. During the escape, many children, elderly
people, and women were killed and robbed by bandits and Chinese border guards. Kyrgyz refugees also faced difficulties in
Xinjiang and some children were sold. Other groups of Kyrgyz
39
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
escaped into Afghanistan (Budianskii 2007: 52-60).
At the same time, the economic situation of the Kyrgyz in
Ferghana Province was difficult. After the outbreak of World
War I, Central Asian natives suffered from increased taxes, expropriation of materials and rapid price rises. Especially, Ferghana Province suffered from food shortages, because this region had exported cotton to the center of the Russian Empire
and imported grains from other areas (Nishijima 1994: 28). Unseasonable weather in the spring of 1916 and locusts caused
cotton and grain crop failures. 1916 was called “the year of
hunger (Qakhatchilik)” (IUSSR 1 1956: 375, 377).
The economic situation for natives in Ferghana Province including Kyrgyz nomads deteriorated until the outbreak of the
revolt of 1916. Before the outbreak of the revolt, some Kyrgyz
of Namangan County had already started to escape into the steep
Tian Shan mountain range to avoid paying heavy taxes. They
robbed the rich of their livestock and escaped into the mountain
area in early 1916 (IKSSR 2: 336).
This chapter suggests that the negative influences of the revolt on the nomadic society were larger than that on the settled
Muslim population. Two major factors caused this situation.
First, the revolt in the nomadic area was more prolonged than
that in the settled area. In the valley, the revolt by the settled
Muslim population was suppressed by the Russian army in a
week. In the foothill area, on the contrary, the revolt of the nomads continued from July to October of 1916. A lot of nomads
suffered from hunger and fled into Chinese Xinjiang during the
prolonged revolt. The second factor was the unstable economic
situation of the nomads. The interdependence of nomads and the
settled Muslim population made it possible for nomads to expand their rain-fed grain cultivation. World War I ruined the
whole economic network of the Russian empire, including the
economic interdependence of nomads and the settled Muslim
population in Ferghana Province. The collapse of the cotton
economy in the valley had a direct effect on the unstable grain
supply of nomads.
Moreover, the 1916 revolt began as a protest movement
against the edict ordering a labor draft. This is one of the key
reasons the nomads in Ferghana Province did not attack Russian
settlements that were mainly illegal immigrants and involved a
tense relationship with the authorities, but attacked native officials directly engaged in the exploitation of the native population during World War I.(15)
4. The Hungry Steppe and Tair-Sheikh Steppe
This study also analyzes two steppe areas in Samarkand
Province. Russian settlements were built in both steppes, but
their influences on the nomad societies were extremely different.
In these steppes, the nomads were Kazakhs.
4.1 The Hungry Steppe (Jizzakh County)
Two primary questions arise regarding socio-economic
change in the Hungry Steppe: why did the nomads in the Hungry Steppe not participate in the revolt in Jizzakh and how did
the Russian authorities treat them before the revolt?
The development of the Hungry Steppe was one of the most
33-44
important issues in Russian economic policy for Central Asia.
Although the construction of the canal by the first Governor
General, Kaufman (1872-1879), was unsuccessful, Grand Duke
Nicholas Constantinovich resumed irrigation work and permitted migration by Russians in 1885 (Bartol’d 1927: 151-156).
The Grand Duke wanted his irrigation work to be used by both
Russians and Muslims (Peterson 2011: 152). However, the authorities of the Russian Empire planned to expand cotton cultivation by Russian immigrants (Bartol’d 1927: 153-154). In 1898,
control of the Emperor Nicholas I Canal was transferred from
the Grand Duke to state authorities; furthermore, in 1914, the
Russian Empire declared that only Christian settlements would
be permitted in the Hungry Steppe (Peterson 2011: 163-164).
However, probably under the influence of the Grand Duke, Russian authorities permitted nomads to use irrigation water from
the Emperor Nicholas I Canal. This is because the water from
old canals, which the nomads previously used, stopped flowing
because of the construction of the Emperor Nicholas I Canal
(MGS 1914: 45). In 1911, nomads had approximately 960 ha of
cultivated land irrigated by the Emperor Nicholas I Canal. It
amounted to 7 percent of all irrigated land and 62 percent of
irrigated land cultivated by Central Asian natives in the Emperor
Nicholas I Canal system area (Karavaev 1914: 53-54, 89-91). It
is noteworthy that Russian authorities considered the vested
rights of the nomads when the Emperor Nicholas I Canal was
constructed. Nomads in this area (the Savat district) cultivated
black gram (маш, vignamungo: 31%), wheat (26%), millet
(18%), barley (13%), cotton (5%), and other crops on irrigated
farmland. In addition, they cultivated cotton on the flood plain
of the Syr-Darya River (MGS 1914: 47).
The GIS analysis of the Hungry Steppe (Figures 9 and 10)
shows that nomadic groups using water from the Emperor
Nicholas I Canal primarily engaged in irrigated farming (MGS
1914: pri. 12-15). In Figures 9 and 10, the indigo blue area was
fully irrigated, while the white area contained barely any irrigated farmland. These maps indicate that most well-irrigated
areas were located along the banks of the Syr-Darya River,
while many inland areas did not have any irrigated land. The
proportion of irrigation in nomads’ land irrigated from the Emperor Nicholas I Canal was higher than those of other nomadic
group’s land in the central area of the Hungry Steppe and not
less than those of the neighboring nomads’ land irrigated by the
Syr-Darya River and local canals. This analysis also suggests
that the Russian settlements were established near the old, irrigated land of the nomads, which had been irrigated by the
Syr-Darya River and existing canals. In October 1913, a new
irrigation project was announced. In January 1914, the nomads
presented a petition to the authorities demanding the distribution
of irrigated land to them in compensation for their land on
which new irrigation construction was planned (TsGARUz, ф.
И-18, oп. 1, eд. 7385, л. 25a-б.). In spite of the precedent set by
the Emperor Nicholas I Canal, some officials opposed this petition, citing a related law (TsGARUz, ф. И-18, oп. 1, eд. 7385, л.
5a-б.).
40
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
33-44
Figure 9 Proportion of irrigation for the nomads in the Hungry Steppe.
Source: MGS (1914: pri. 12-15).
Figure 10
Emperor Nicholas I Canal.
4.2 The Tair-Sheikh Steppe (Kattakurgan County)
Another important question concerns how the Russian authorities treated the nomads on the Tair-Sheikh Steppe before
the revolt. Here, the nomads participated in protest movements
in the 1916 revolt.
In 1898, on the Tair-Sheikh Steppe, a Russian settlement
named “Fedorovskoi” was constructed. This settlement deprived
the nomads of water from the canals. The southern part of the
steppe was irrigated by three branch canals; one of them, Begliar,
had used most of the water that flowed in the Russian settlement.
The native nomads could use water from the other two canals,
but the canals functioned only one day a week. Therefore, water
to irrigate native nomads’ farmland was scarce.
Thus, the construction of the Russian settlement forced the
nomads to engage in rain-fed cultivation and change the types of
41
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
crops they grew. Before the arrival of the Russians, the nomads
mostly cultivated durra (sorghum, Indian millet) and millet under irrigation. After the arrival of the Russians, the nomads were
forced to convert to the cultivation of wheat and barley on
rain-fed farmland. The spring rainfall in this steppe occurs between early March and late April. By late May, the nomads
sowed the wheat and barley seeds on the rain-fed farmland. The
cultivation of durra and millet ceased because of the arrival of
the Russians. Moreover, the nomads also reduced their cotton
cultivation under irrigation.
The nomads of the Tair-Sheikh Steppe had almost become
peasants by 1913. Of them, 88% engaged in agriculture, and
87% of their income came from agriculture. Thus, the change of
agriculture significantly influenced the life of the nomads.
Some land disputes regarding rain-fed cultivation occurred
between people in the Tair-Sheikh Steppe and the neighboring
regions. The people from neighboring villages claimed their
right to the land on which the nomads of the Tair-Sheikh Steppe
were engaging in rain-fed cultivation (TsGARUz, ф. И-18, oп. 1,
eд. 7171, л. 3-4.). In contrast to the case of the Hungry Steppe,
the Russian settlement policy on the Tair-Sheikh Steppe disregarded the vested rights of the nomads.
In 1915, in Mitan Village on the Tair-Sheikh Steppe, people
refused to work on the irrigation-related labor. They claimed to
not be afraid of being arrested (Kovalev 1971: 107). Thus, the
nomad resistance had begun in the Tair-Sheikh Steppe before
the 1916 revolt.
As this section shows, the authorities’ policies concerning the
nomads varied between the two steppes in Samarkand Province
after the arrival of the Russians. This difference likely influenced the nomads’ attitudes toward Russian authorities during
the 1916 revolt.
5. Conclusions
This study’s historical research using GIS indicates relationships between the Russian settlement policy in Turkistan and the
revolt of the nomads. The results of the study are shown in a
comparative table below.
In all four geographic areas, Russian peasants settled in nomadic areas, but their influence on nomadic society varied in
scale and characteristics. First, in Ferghana Province, some of
the nomads’ land was expropriated by Russian authorities and
given to Russian settlers. It is noteworthy that the number of
illegal immigrants was larger than that of legal immigrants, and
land expropriation was undertaken only for legal immigrants.
Thus, many of the immigrants did not participate in land expropriation from the nomads. The distance between immigrants and
Area
Ferghana
Hungry Steppe
Tair-Sheikh Steppe
Semirechie
the authorities was larger than in other areas. The Kyrgyz nomads were forced into their lifestyle because of the cotton
monoculture introduced by the settled Muslim population, who
were strongly encouraged to do so by Russian authorities. The
nomads were forced to expand their rain-fed cultivation to obtain food. Nomad rebels in 1916 did not attack the Russian
peasants but the native officials who cooperated with Russian
authorities to expropriate labor from the Central Asian natives.
Second, in the Hungry Steppe, the nomads were adequately
compensated for the Russian immigration. The nomads received
sufficient water resources and maintained their irrigated agriculture. The nomads in the Hungry Steppe did not participate in
the 1916 revolt in spite of the fierce revolt in Jizzakh.
Third, in the Tair-Sheikh Steppe, the Russian settlement policy deprived the nomads of the water resources they previously
utilized. Even before 1916, the nomads were opposed to the
authorities regarding the recruitment of irrigation-related labor.
Finally, in Semirechie Province, the number of Russian immigrants that settled in the nomadic area was the largest. Here,
Russian immigrants primarily engaged in rain-fed cultivation.
The nomads’ pastureland was taken for Russian immigrants,
while the nomads continued their irrigated farming. The collusion between the authorities’ expropriation of land and the Russian peasants’ immigration was clearer here. The nomads fought
against the Russian immigrants and army in 1916, and several
nomads and Russian peasants were killed in the revolt.
The Russian policy regarding the nomads was implemented
without principle. Although some nomads could secure profits,
most lost their land or water. The socio-economic conditions of
the nomads were forcefully changed, and they participated in the
1916 revolt. Although the specific cause of the revolt was determined by various factors, such as rumors and individual
leadership, this study suggests there may be correlations between the colonial economic policy of the Russian Empire for
handling the nomads and the course of the revolt.
In addition, this study indicated the usefulness of historical
GIS. For instance, although historical documents barely mention
the revolt of the nomads in Ferghana Province, the GIS analysis
of the population change elaborates the scale of damage to the
nomadic society in the 1916 revolt. In the field of agriculture,
GIS shows clearly the interdependence between the settled
Muslim population’s economy and rain-fed cultivation by nomads. The relationship between Russian irrigation construction
and a local canal used by the nomads in the Hungry Steppe is
also shown by GIS analysis. This relationship was disregarded
by certain previous studies.(16)
Socio-economic situations
Russian
settlements
○
○
○
◎
The rebellions of 1916
deprivations of Changes in agriculture
land and water during the Russian rule
in rain-fed cultivation
○
○
◎
No change
in rain-fed cultivation
No change
Figure 11
33-44
Revolts
○
○
◎
Targets of rebels
Native officials
Native/Russian Officials
Immigrants
Results.
42
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Notes
(1)
A steppe is a large area of flat grassland with few trees,
generally located in Russia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. By the 20th century, nomads were living in the steppe
ecological zone. They acclimated themselves to limited
water resources and biomass in the Central Eurasian
Steppe. Generally, the northern half of Central Asia is
known as the Steppe region or the Steppe provinces, and
was an administrative district of the Russian Empire.
However, a steppe ecological zone is also located in
southern Central Asia (Turkistan). For example, the Hungry and Tair-Sheikh Steppes belonged to Samarkand and
Tashkent provinces in Turkistan.
(2) In Turkistan, natives primarily paid two taxes. The settled Muslim population paid a land tax that was based on
agricultural income. Nomads paid a tent tax in proportion
to the number of households. The authorities surveyed the
farmland of the settled Muslim population and observed
the prices of agricultural products to determine the land
tax on agricultural income.
(3) Regrettably, this paper could not refer to the 1897 census
of Semipalatinsk Province.
(4) The Hungry Steppe is located in northern part of Jizzakh
County, western part of Xojant County, and southern part
of Tashkent Province (Vosstanie 1960: 156-158).
(5) For this study, the 1889 population was estimated from the
amount of tax on houses and tents.
(6) Sergei Abashin pointed out that the statistics of Central
Asian demography compiled by the Russian Empire had
serious faults. The topic of the demography of Ferghana
Province is directly related to this paper’s argument.
Abashin suggested that the population of Ferghana Province from the 1870s to 1897 might be larger than official
statistics. For example, one book published in 1891 suggests that the population of the province might be a million or more, as opposed to official data that put the total
at about 800,000. An annual report of Ferghana Province
in 1890 also noted that the population of the province
would be no less than 1.5 million (Abashin 2012:
131-133.). I want to restudy this problem in another paper.
The natural population increase of the province under
Russian rule was at least probable, but its actual scale is
not clear at present.
(7) SKSA Ar (1927: 3). This amount of precipitation was the
average of 13 years up to 1927.
(8) SKSA Is (1927: 6). These amounts of precipitation were
the average of 25 years up to 1927.
(9) SKSA Ar (1927: 3). This amount of precipitation was the
average of 13 years up to 1927.
(10) This paper uses elevation data created by the Ferghana
Project in the Islamic Area Studies Project. Cf., Komatsu,
Goto (2004).
In Ferghana Province, land surveying to determine land
tax on agricultural income was conducted in Andijan
County from 1890 to 1893 (MSOF А 1897: 31), in Mar-
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
33-44
giran County from 1894 to 1896 (MSOF М 1899: 2), in
Kokand County from 1899 to 1902 (MSOF К 1912: 15), in
Osh County from 1903 to 1904 (MSOF O 1910: 2), and in
Namangan County from 1897 to 1899 (MSOF N 1910: 2).
As Komatsu, Goto 2009 and Abashin 2012 pointed out,
this source only listed the predominant ethnicity of villages (Komatsu, Goto 2009: 103, Abashin 2012: 143). Nevertheless, this source contains important data about ethnicity distribution in Ferghana Province because of its detailed data sets on village level. In Figure 4, the data were
subtotaled to a district (волость) level.
The Russian peasants primarily engaged in rain-fed cultivation in Semirechie Province, while the nomads continued with irrigated farming. (Ueda 2013: 115).
After 1913, the Russian authorities restarted legal migration (SOF za 1913: 11−24). Some land disputes between
Russian settlers or authorities and the Kyrgyz nomads occurred before the 1916 revolt (Usenbaev etc. 1973: 93-96,
138-139).
These data do not include information from Osh County
due to the lack of census data from 1917. The 1914 census
counted both rural and urban populations, whereas the
1917 census counted only the rural population. Therefore,
Table 1 compares the rural populations in 1914 and 1917.
In Osh County, the Kyrgyz constituted the majority. If the
data from Osh County were available, a decrease in the
Kyrgyz population would be more noteworthy.
To be precise, conflicts between the native population and
native officials in country offices were common under
Russian rule. When an election of a county chief was held,
disturbances often occurred, because county chiefs could
arbitrarily use their power at the time of tax collection, etc.
(Zima 1959: 67, 71-72).
For example, Igambedyev 1965: 22-23.
References
[1] Abashin, S. 2012. “Empire and Demography in Turkestan: Numbers
and the Politics of Counting.” In Uyama, Tomohiko (ed.). Asiatic
Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts. pp.
129-149.
[2] Aziatskaia Rossiia 2. 1914. Азиатская Россия, том 2, Земля и
хозяйство. Санкт-Петербург.
[3] Bartol’d, V. V. 1927. История культурной жизни Туркестана.
Ленинград.
[4] Budianskii, D. M. 2007. История беженцев-киргизов (1916-1927
годы).
[5] Galuzo, P. G. 1929. “Восстание 1916 г. в Средней Азии.”
Красный архив том 34, pp. 39-94.
[6] Hedin, S. 1978. ヘディン（金森誠也訳）. 『ペルシアから中央
アジアへ』. 白水社.
[7] Igambedyev, R. C. 1965. Голоднпая степь, ее прошлое и
настояшее. Ташкент.
[8] IKSSR 2. 1986: История Киргизской ССР том 2. Фрунзе.
[9] IUSSR 1. 1956: История Узбекской ССР том 1. Ташкент.
[10] Karavaev, V. F. 1914. Голодная степь в ее прошлом и
настояшем (Статистико-экономический очерк). Петроград.
[11] Kovalev, P. A. 1971. Революционная ситуация 1915−1917 гг. и
43
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
ее проявления в Туркестане. Ташкент.
[12] Komatsu, H. 1986. 小松久男. 「アンディジャン蜂起とイシャ
ーン」. 『東洋史研究』 44(4), pp. 589−619. “The Andijan Uprising
and Ishan.” THE TOYOSHI-KENKYU The Journal of Oriental Researches 44(4), pp. 589-619.
[13] Komatsu, H. and Goto, Y. 2004. “The Ferghana Project: Central
Asian Studies with GIS.” In Okabe Atsuyuki (ed.). Islamic Area
Studies with Geographical Information Systems, New Horizons in
Islamic Studies. London and New York, pp. 103-121.
[14] Komatsu, H. and Goto, Y. 2009. 小松久男・後藤寛「中央アジ
アの動態を読む―GIS による地域研究の試み―」. 水島司・柴
山守編『地域研究のための GIS』. 古今書院, pp. 95−112.
[15] Masal’skii, V. I. 1913. Россия, Полное географическое описание,
том 19, Туркестанский край. Санкт-Петербург.
[16] MGS. 1914. Матераилы по землепользованию туземнаго
кочевого населения района Голодной степи и прилегающих
местностей
Ходжентскаго
и
Джизакскаго
уездов
Самаркандской области. Ташкент: Главное управление
землеустройства и земледелия, Переселенческое управление.
[17] MKZ A. 1913. Материалы по киргизскому землепользованию:
Ферганская область: Андижанский уезд. Ташкент.
[18] MKZ N. 1913. Материалы по киргизскому землепользованию:
Ферганская область: Наманганский уезд. Ташкент.
[19] MKZ OSK. 1915. Матераилы по землепользованию кочевого
киргизского населения южной части Ферганской области:
Ошский, Скобелевский и Кокандский уeзды. Ташкент.
[20] MSOF А. 1897. Материалы для Статистическаго Описания
Ферганской области, Результаты Поземельно-Податных
Работ, вып. 1 Андижанский уезд. Нов. Маргелан.
[21] MSOF М. 1899. Материалы для Статистическаго Описания
Работ, вып. 2 Маргеланский уезд. Нов. Маргелан.
[22] MSOF N. 1910. Материалы для Статистическаго Описания
Работ, вып. 3 Наманганский уезд. Скобелев.
[23] MSOF O. 1910. Материалы для Статистическаго Описания
Работ, вып. 5 Ошский уезд. Скобелев.
[24] MSOF К. 1912. Материалы для Статистическаго Описания
Ферганской области Результаты Поземельно-Податных
Работ, вып. 4 Кокандский уезд. Скобелев.
[25] MS t. 7, v. 1. 1916. Матераилы по обследованию туземнаго и
русскаго старожильческаго хозяйства и землепользования в
Семиреченской области, том. 7, вып. 1, С.-Петербург.
[26] Nishiyama, K. 1989. 西山克典. 「帝政ロシア・セミレーチエ
地方に於ける植民の展開--1867−1914 年」. 『北大史学』 29, pp.
32−53 ． “The Colonization of Semirech’e in Imperial Russia
(1867-1914).” HOKUDAI-SHIGAKU The Journal of Historical Association of Hokkaido University 29, pp. 32-53．
[27] Nishiyama, K. 1990. 西山克典. 「中央アジアに於けるムスリ
ム蜂起と革命：セミレーチエ地方を中心に (1916−1917 年)」
『北
海道大学文学部紀要』 38(3), pp. 65−106. “Muslims’ Uprising and
Revolution in Central Asia: A Case Study of Semirech’e
(1916-1917).” The Annual Report of Cultural Science: The Faculty
of Letters, Hokkaido University 38(3), pp. 65-106.
[28] Nishijima, S. 1994. 西島聡子. 「トルキスタンにおける 1916
年のムスリム蜂起―フェルガナ州を中心に―」『北大史学』
34, pp. 24−43. “The Moslem Uprising of 1916 in Russian Turkestan: A Case Study of Ferganskaja Oblast.” HOKUDAI-SHIGAKU
The Journal of Historical Association of Hokkaido University 34,
pp. 24-43.
[29] OS 1905. Обзор Самаркандской области за 1904 г. Самарканд.
[30] Peterson, M. K. 2011. Technologies of Rule: Empire, Water, and
the Modernization of Central Asia, 1867-1941. Cambridge, Massa-
33-44
chusetts.
[31] Pierce, R. A. 1960. Russian Central Asia, 1867-1917: a study in
colonial rule. Berkeley.
[32] PVP. 1899−1905. Первая всеобщая перепись населения
Российской империи, 1897 г. С.-Петербург.
[33] SKSA Is. 1927. Современный Кишлак Средней Азии, вып. 6,
Исфаринская волость (Ферганской области Узбекской ССР).
Ташкент.
[34] SKSA Ar. 1927. Современный Кишлак Средней Азии, вып. 7,
Араванская волость (Ошского кантона Киргизской АССР).
Ташкент.
[35] SNF 1924. Материалы всероссийских переписей в
Туркестанской республике, вып. 4, Сельское население
Ферганской области по переписи 1917 г, Ташкент.
[36] SNMF. 1909. Список населенных мeст Ферганской области.
Скобелев.
[37] SOF.−1917.
Статистический
обзор
Ферганской
области.1889-1914 гг. Ташкент.
[38] TsGA RUz. Центральный Государственный Архив Республики
Узбекистан.
[39] Tursunov, Kh. 1962. Восстание 1916 года в Средней Азии и
Казахстане. Ташкент.
[40] Ueda, A. 2013. 植田暁. 「帝政ロシア支配期のクルグズの社会
経済的変容―フェルガナ州における天水農耕の普及を中心に
―」. 『内陸アジア史研究』 28, pp. 101−126. “Socio-Economic
Changes in the Kyrgyz in the Russian Empire: The spread of
rain-fed cultivation in Ferghana Province.” The Nairiku Ajiashi
Kenkyu Inner Asian Studies 28, pp. 101-126.
[41] Usenbaev, K. et al. 1973. Возникновение и развитие
революционного движения в Киргизии в конце XIX-начале XX вв.
Фрунзе.
[42] Usenbaev, K. 1997. 1916: героические и трагические страницы.
Бишкек.
[43] Vosstanie. 1932. Восстание 1916 года в Средней Азии: сборник
документов. Ташкент: Госиздат УзССР.
[44] Vosstanie. 1960. Восстание 1916 года в Средней Азии и
Казахстане: сборник документов. Москва: Академия наук
СССР.
[45] Zenkovsky, S. A. 1967. Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia. Cambridge.
[46] Zima, A. G. 1959. Киргизия накануне Великой Октябрьской
социалистической революции. Фрунзе.
Acknowledgement
for JSPS Fellows.
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid
44
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
45-60
Article
Coast Line Expansion and Social Dynamics.
The Comal Estuary 1850s - 2010s(1)
PUJO SEMEDI
Dept. of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Gadjah Mada University
Abstract: Examination of topographical maps and satellite imagery of Comal River estuary, from 1853 until present reveals that
the area has undergone continuous land expansion as a result of heavy siltation from upstream. We hypothesize that the top soil
lost in the hill range due to erosion has increased the land area in the estuary. This study places the increase in land area in the
Comal River estuary in the context of socio-economic dynamics in the surrounding area; with the growth of sugarcane industry
in the lowlands and expansion of coffee fields and human habitation to the hill range of Central Java during the second half of the
19th century, the establishment of irrigation networks in the first half of the 20th century, and efforts at forest rehabilitation from
the 1930s to the present. Questions about the appropriation of the new lands in the Comal estuary need to be raised, too. Does the
emergence of new land areas provide an opportunity for landless farmers to escape from their proletarian status? If so, how does
this process evolve?
Keywords: land expansion, social distribution, Java
1. Introduction
The use of GIS in ethnography is still in its infancy. Anthropologists are quite familiar with maps, topographical or else, but
so far maps have been utilized mainly as auxiliaries to give
more realistic descriptions of the geospatial context of their
research subject, rather than as data subjected to analysis itself.
While by nature anthropologists are sensitive to social structure
and cultural variation, they are less sensitive to geospatial distribution and dynamics, since these matters are thought to be the
domain of geographers. An argument I would like to put forward
here is that geospatial information can be—and should
be—subjected to ethnographic analysis since it contains a lot of
socio-cultural and political-economic data, or to put it in other
words, a great amount of ethnographic data are kept in maps.
Landscapes as represented in maps are related to or result from
certain social constructs; different features in maps of similar
place from different times most likely indicate different social
constructs.
In our research on Comal sub-district, Central Java, Indonesia
we have used a set of topographical and cadastral maps from
1850s to the present. Visual information collected during a rapid
ground check observation clearly shows that in the last hundred
and fifty years, the estuary of the Comal River has been expanding significantly as a result of erosion in the head water
area and along the river basin, which in turn related to expansion and intensification of land use, mainly for agriculture. Who
cultivates the new lands around the Comal estuary? How is the
new land distributed among cultivators? Has the presence of
new lands provided a way for landless farmers in the area to
escape from their landlessness? Or is the newly emergent land
appropriated immediately by the land holding class? If that is
the case, what are the mechanisms of appropriation? In this
paper, the increase in land around the Comal estuary the Comal
estuary will be placed in the context of agro-ecosystem dynamics in the surrounding area to find out which elements lead to
the growth, as well as to identify the consequences that the increase in land brings to socio-economic life of farmers in the
area. This paper argue that access to land among farmers is not
merely matter of land availability and pro small-holding farmers
governmental policies (Eshleman and Hunt, 1991: 25). Escaping
landlessness requires a certain level of socio-economic
capability (Shresta, 1989: 373). Land may be available,
goverment policies may be pro small-holding farmers, but the
farmers need to have capability to retain the ownership, against
their own drive to earn short term revenue, and against land
accummulation by richer kin and neighbours.
2. The Comal River system in the 1850s
The central part of the North Serayu Range that stretches west
to east like the spine of Java Island is the headwater of the Comal River. Fed by several tributaries in the hill range, the river
snakes down to the lowlands and enter Java Sea, at a length of
50 kilometers. Nowadays almost the entire area along the river,
on the right and left-hand side, is heavily cultivated. There are
fishponds in the estuary, wet paddy fields in the lowlands, and
dry farmlands for cassava and maize with miniscule strips of
pine forest in the hills. Some secondary rain forest can still be
found around the sources of the river in the highest part of the
hill range, 500 - 1000 meters above sea level, but the forest is
not healthy due to small-scale, ceaseless tree stealing. Together
with other river systems all over Java, in the 1910s this river
system was subjected to thorough engineering in order to increase the river’s role in irrigation and to control annual flooding. Two large dams, the Mejagong dam in the uphill area of
Moga sub-district (25 kilometers upstream) and the Sukawati
dam (15 kilometers upstream) in the foothill area of Bodeh
sub-district were installed to provide technical irrigation for
28.974 hectares of rice / sugar cane fields (Ditjen Sumberdaya
Air, 2010). The lower part of the river, from Comal Town to the
estuary was straightened to maintain fast water flow and protect
the area from flooding.
The earliest reliable geospatial information on the Comal
estuary the Comal estuary is a topographical map from 1857
(Versteeg, 1857), which was drawn based on a survey conducted
in the 1840s, immediately after the Java War. As a means of
orientation, the map is quite accurate, but the coordinate is
poorly set. The map tell us that by the mid-1850s, the estuary of
45
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
the Comal River had formed a vast cape as a result of sedimentation—that the coast line on the left and right side of the estuary had grown seaward. Toponime indicates that in the past, the
coast line in the Comal area formed a more or less straight line
roughly between Asemdojong and Kalipraoe (lit. Boat River)
villages, which sometime in the past must have been located on
the shore as there was no river nearby. By the time the mapping
survey was carried out, the villages were already located 4 kilometers inland (red line in Fig. 1 the Comal estuary 1870s). By
the 1900s, on the right-hand side of the estuary, a 2.000 x 700
meters wide lagoon had formed north of Limbangan hamlet, as a
result of the difference in the speed of sedimentation between
the Comal River and the smaller Ketapang River (US Army,
1943).
I do not have yet the opportunity to check archive of Pemalang, but comparison with other area might help. The Pekalongan River, of equal length with Comal River and with its origins
in same hill range, some 30 kilometer east of Comal, experienced rapid expansion be-tween the 1750s and 1850s too. At the
time it was established in 1753, Fort Berschemer (Fort Defender) of Pekalongan town was located right on the estuary of Pekalongan river. A century later, it was located some three kilometers inland (van Schaik, 1986: 55). It appears safe to assume that
the Pekalongan and the Comal River underwent the same process.
The expansion of the estuary took place mainly because of
erosion in the head water and river basin areas. Between the
1750s and 1850s, the ecosystem of Pekalongan—Pemalang
underwent severe exploitation. The cultivation of coffee, which
commenced in 1710s, expanded to many areas at the cost of
natural forest (Nagtegaal, 1996: 155; Palte, 1989: 47). In an
effort to earn more revenue, the Dutch East India Company, the
real power holder along the north coast of Java, leased Simbang,
Ulujami, Sragi and Kalang districts to a Chinese captain from
Semarang (Wilsen and Havenga, 1870). These particuliere
gronden, private lands were mostly converted into farmlands to
produce rice, sugar-cane and other cash crops. Meanwhile, outside the private lands, farmers worked hard to fulfill their subsistence needs and to produce annual deliveries from the Pekalongan regency to the Dutch East-Indian Company, VOC. Prior
to the 1780s, these consisted of 350 koyang rice, 6 pikul (360
kg) indigo cake and 8 pikul (420 kg) cotton thread. By that period, the teak forest beyond the farmlands was subjected to intense logging. The regent of Pekalongan, for example, demanded an annual in natura tax in form of 480 teak logs—aside of
500 rix dollar—from Kalang farmers who lived in the forest
area.(2) So heavy was the exploitation that by 1805, Governor
General Herman Daendels ordered a logging ban to avoid further deforestation and to replant the destroyed forest with new
teak wood seedlings (Kumar, 1997: 323).
Unfortunately, in the first half of the 19th century, the reforestation program in Comal area went side by side with further
expansion and intensification of farming, and most dangerously,
with an increasing demand for fuel wood for sugar processing.
The 1870 map clearly shows the pattern of agricultural activities
along Comal River from the headwater down to the lowlands.
45-60
The lowlands between Comal Town at the foot of hill range up
to Karang Brai hamlet some 15 kilometers south were fully
converted into rice fields—in intercrop mode with sugarcane. In
the hill slopes, new hamlets emerged on the right and left hand
side of the Comal River. The production of sugar demanded
large, continuous supplies of fuel wood, and reports from
neighboring sub-districts tell how forest coverage between Tegal
and Pekalongan shrunk at a frightening speed. The expansion of
coffee cultivation in the hill area since the 1810s, the establishment of the Comal sugar factory in the 1820s and the introduction of the Cultivation System in the 1830s all put heavy pressure on the ecosystem, which manifested in a high rate of siltation (van Schaik, 1986: 55).
Rough calculation on the 1857 map suggests that Pesantren
hamlet was 4,6 km away from the estuary tip. Less than two
decades later, as indicated by the 1870 map, the distance had
grown to 6 km (Wilsen and Havenga, 1870). By 1870s, too, the
2 km wide Ketapang Lagoon had almost totally disappeared and
turned into land. An inaccuracy of coordinates in both maps
makes this estimation somewhat risky, but from the above, we
can nevertheless conclude that between 1840s and 1860s, the
coast line around the Comal estuary had roughly expanded between 1.5 to 2 kilometers seaward.
Figure 1 The Comal estuary 1870s.
Source: Kaart van der Residentie Tagal 1870.
The introduction of the 1870 Agrarian Law, which was followed
by the lease of large tracts of secondary forest and “waste lands”
to private companies for plantations increased the ecological
burden in the Comal area. In 1875, the coffee plantations of Kali
Lanang, Semugih and Moga were opened in the hills. In the
meantime, the lowlands between Comal and the foothills were
already cultivated by the Comal sugar factory. Along the coastline, at least three coconut plantations were opened, Pesantren
(160 hectares), Kedung Pedati (80 hectares) and McKenzie (40
hectares). Pesantren Plantation was owned by the Dutch company Moluksche Handelsvennootscap, Kedung Pedati was
owned by the Chinese enterpreneur Ong Liang Swie and
McKenzie was owned by a Scott-Dutch planter named Willem
Otto McKenzie (De Bussy, 1927). The direct ecological effect of
46
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
this development was an increase in the size of the deforested
area and more intensive topsoil hoeing, which both led to a
worsening rate of erosion.
Figure 2
45-60
quite common among big river estuaries whose main headwaters
are located deep in the uphill area of Java.
Willem Otto McKenzie ca.1960.
3. Comal estuary in the 1900s
The heavy ecological cost of agricultural intensification in
Comal came in the form of unstable water flows. By late 1890s,
floods and drought became a fact of everyday life among the
inhabitants of Comal. Every rainy season, the lowlands were
inundated, while during the dry season, farmers faced difficulties to irrigate fields. To protect Comal Town and its surrounding area from flooding in the 1910s, the Comal River was
straightened from a point north of the town to the estuary. As a
result, the estuary was moved some thousand meters to the east.
An accurate topographical map of the Comal estuary published
in 1913 clearly shows that Pesantren Plantation was opened on
new lands on the eastern side of the Comal estuary, between the
river and the coastline. Upon the project's completion, Pesantren
Plantation was located on the west side of the river, and the
process of siltation continued. As time passed by, mud transported by the river accumulated in the estuary and expanded the
coastline to the north and east. In a way, this pattern is reflected
in the gradual expansion of the Pesantren Plantation area. The
plantation acquired its first parcel of leased lands in 1886. As
lands expanded the plantation applied for second parcel, which
was granted in 1908 and once again, when the land expanded
further, the third parcel in 1921 (De Bussy, 1927: 365).
An overlay of the 1920s map with a Google earth satellite
image from the 1990s indicates that in the course of the 20th
century, the expansion had created 2.000 hectares of new land
on the left and right hand side of Comal River, and the expansion is still going on. Rough calculation suggests an expansion
rate of 20 hectares /annum. The absence of equivalent data from
the 19th century makes it difficult to estimate the difference in
the rate of expansion in the 19th and 20th century, respectively.
However, considering pressure on ecosystems along the Comal
River as indicated by population figures and land use changes, a
faster rate of expansion of the coastline in the 20th century,
compared to the 19th century, can be expected. This pattern is
Figure 3
The Comal estuary 1910s.
Members of the older generation in Pesantren village still
remember how, in the 1950s, just after the Independence War, a
spot north of Pesantren Plantation that from 1970s on, became
Sidomulyo hamlet, was still part of the sea. Slowly but obviously, the coastline expanded north-east and formed a swampy
area covered by mangroves. To the villagers’ awe, the fastest
rate of expansion occurred in 1984 immediately after the big
flood that broke Sukowati dam and swept Comal town bridge.
Accurate data on the size of the new land area created by the
flood is not available, but to the villagers’ observation, it was
around 200 hectares.
Figure 4
The Comal estuary 1900s-2000s.
47
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
The area within blue coast line was the Comal estuary until
1900s, based on the US Army map from 1943 (from a Dutch
Army map dated to 1922, data for which was probably collected
in the 1890s). The area blocked in yellow shows the new lands
that emerged in the course of the 20th century (based on a
Google Earth image).
4. The issue of—new—landownership
In a heavily populated area such as Comal, it never takes long
for new lands to become an object of human claim. For two
centuries, social and population pressure on farmlands have
constantly been heavy. As decades pass by, the number of landless farmers tends to grow steadily. Again, data from Comal
sub-district and Pemalang regency have not been consulted, but
from nearby sub-district of Ulujami we know that by 1870s
around 15 % of the population were landless. The emergence of
a landless class is of course not only related to population density, but also to the political-economic structure, since farmlands
as the crucial means of production in agrarian societies are always subjected to competition—and normally the ownership is
concentrated in the hands of the powerful (Knight, 1993: 4).
In the 1870s, the newly emerged lands east of the old bed of
the Comal River were soon appropriated by a plantation company that enjoyed the support of the colonial government (de
Bussy, 1927). Had the colonial government remained in power,
very likely the new land that emerged after the 1910s river rehabilitation project would have fallen into the hands of large
plantation company, too. But this was not the case. In the 1930s,
the world economy went into depression, and plantation companies in Java were hit by heavy blows. Many plantations and
sugar factories went bankrupt or reduced their production level
(van Schaik, 1996: 66; Semedi, 2001: 101). After the depression,
Asia entered the Pacific War and the colonial regime and their
plantation business kept going downhill. In spite of costly efforts that the Dutch and their business lobby had launched in
1945-1950, the colonial regime fell into oblivion.
After 1950, the post-colonial regime was not in favor of large
plantation companies, and the plantation lands fell to local,
lower level land accumulator—the famous Javanese landholding
farmers, sikep (Hüsken, 1996: 235). By the late 1950s, the new
land around the Comal River estuary was already encroached
upon by farmers, the landless and the land-holding alike. Each
started with a different motivation and ended up with different
results. The landless were motivated by the wish to escape their
landlessness and saw the new land as an easy opportunity to
make the wish come true. The landholders were motivated by
the wish to protect their family wealth from erosion due to inheritance, and they did so by laying their hands over wider
farmlands.
The poor farmers were soon to face disappointment. Socially
new, emerging land was recognized as a free land for anybody
to claim. However, claiming land and making it productive are
not the same. Claiming newly emerged land was almost costless.
After placing wooden stakes to set the borders, a farmer could
plant the land with anything he wished and then ask for land
ownership acknowledgement from the village head. However,
45-60
turning the land into productive farmland was so expensive that
poor farmers were brought down to their knees. In the meantime,
population growth in the area—from 84.000 in 1904 to 251.000
in 1988—had made competition over farmlands stiffer than ever
(Kano, 2001: 213). Gradually, the land claimed by the poor
dwindled in size as it was sold to rich land-holding farmers
piece by piece.
In the early 1960s the government utilized the new land east
and north of Pesantren Plantation as a settlement area for Independence War veterans —Corp Tjadangan Nasional, CTN. The
family of each independence war veteran got housing land and a
piece of farmland, but they did not stay long. They were city
dwellers and not really ready to live as peasant. Besides, the
land they were provided with was not suitable for agriculture as
it was partly submerged in brackish water. One by one they left
the settlement, but not before they sold the house and “farmlands” to local farmers. Easy to guess, between two groups of
local farmers—the landless and the landholding—it was the land
holding who had the greater opportunity to buy the
ex-independence fighters' lands, and they were usually success
in doing so. A group of brackish water fishpond owners from
Brebes district came to the new lands in the early 1970s, not
long after the hamlet was officially named Sidomulyo. Using
money they brought from their village of origin they bought
land, piece by piece, from local farmers and converted it into
fishponds. Gradually the hamlet grew bigger and was filled
mainly by migrants from Brebes.
In the mid-1980s a newly formed private company from Pekalongan bought around 150 hectares of the new land from local
farmers for intensive shrimp aquaculture. It was the time of the
shrimp culture frenzy in Indonesia, when profit margin from
shrimp culture was so lavish that almost everybody with access
to capital invested in the business. Large sums of money were
injected to convert the dry land on the verge of the tide line into
shrimp ponds. Brackish river water was circulated into the
ponds with help of diesel-powered pumps, and in order to
maintain the shrimps’ appetite—so that they would grow
fast—powerful lamps were installed to keep the area bright at
night. Unfortunately for the company, and for other shrimp
farmers, within 4 years shrimp cultivation along the north coast
of Java was struck by continuous harvest failure, as the environment could not carry the ecological burden of intensive
shrimp culture any more. When the businesses went bankrupt,
the fish ponds were abandoned and rented out to local farmers.
In the hands of small-holding farmers, the fishponds were utilized to raise milkfish in extensive mode. The return was low,
but the investment was not high, either, and moreover the production was stable, So the revenue was sufficiently high for the
business to be attractive.
Observations from a small block of new land, Block 003,
Sidomulyo hamlet, may illustrate the dynamics of ownership
among the farmers.
48
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
45-60
are still around in the estuary now, for the most part they are
employed as hired farmhands rather than as pond owners. There
was also process of land transfer between fish farmers from
Brebes and local land holding families. Probably motivated by
their status as migrants, fish farmers from Brebes tended to be
more successful in running their fish cultivation, compared to
local fish pond owners. As time passed by they managed to
increase their pond size through buying, and as a result, new
land around the Comal estuary the Comal estuary no longer
belongs to small farmers.
5. Conclusion
Figure 5 Land ownership Block 003.
Notes:
- The black-striped area are fishponds belonging to longtime
residents of Pesantren Village.
- The red-striped area are fishponds belonging to newly-arrived
inhabitants of Pesantren or farmers from other villages.
- The ownership of the blank areas is unclear.
The scale of the cadastral map of the new land of Block 003 of
Pesantren Village presented above is not fixed due to page
adjustment, and the map is not properly coordinated, either.
Ground checking shows that the site is located on the northern
side of Rabin river, 6048’07” S, 109 030”57” E on the south
corner, 6047”52” S, 109030”27” E on the northwest corner and
6047”34”S, 109030”36”E on the northeast corner. This block of
approximately 36 hectares' width is officially divided into 18
parcels of lands. At the time of land registration in the early
1990s each parcel was registered under the name of one owner,
but trading and inheritance has led to fragmentation. Each parcel
was split into smaller pieces, which are now listed under the
names of 79 owners. Ten out of 18 original land parcels with a
total size of 15.9 hectares (the red-striped parcels) to people
with a short history of land ownership in Pesantren Village,
dating back to the 1960s; 8 parcels with a total area of 20
hectares belonged to people with a land ownership history
dating back to the early 1900s. Those with a short history of
land ownership were mostly fish pond farmers from Brebes or
farmers from other villages, while those with land ownership
history were from land holding family in Pesantren Village.
Indeed many landless farmers were engaged in the opening of
the swampy new land on the estuary, but without proper support
of cash to run milkfish farming they soon lost their land either to
the landholding families or to fish farmers from Brebes. If they
I would like to draw two conclusions, firstly on the use of
GIS in historical ethnography such as this project and the secondly is on the new land around the Comal estuary the Comal
estuary. Even with limited knowledge of, and experience in the
use of GIS, its application has been very productive for our
research. Our research team have been collecting social-economic data that cover a long timespan, from 1906 to
2012, and I did a GPS ground check. Time constraints have
prevented me from including the data in this paper, which potentially will lead us into a more detailed discussion. In spite of
the limitation, the use of GIS in this paper has opened a path for
me to become engaged in a more challenging academic exercise
sensitive to social and geospatial dynamics across time. For the
second, by subjecting data contained in maps of the Comal estuary area to analysis, we can see how intensification of land use
in the headwater area has created vast areas of new land in the
estuary. Lack of accurate maps prevents us from specifying the
actual size of the new areas in the 18th-19th centuries, but better
topographical maps and satellite images in the 20th century
inform us that in the course of the century the land has expanded
by at least 2.000 hectares.
Although new land in the Comal estuary is open to anybody
and technically its emergence opens an opportunity for landless
farmers to escape from their landlesness, the political-economic
setting of the 19th century prevented farmers from owning it.
Large part of the land were appropriated by private plantation
companies, thanks to the political support of the colonial regime.
The post-colonial regime put the interest of smallholding farmers before that of big companies and in effect provided access to
the farmers for possessing the land. Yet this policy is not enough
to provide an exit from landlessness for the lowest strata in Comal farming communities. Escaping landlessness not only requires access to land, but also economic ability to retain it and
keep it productive. New land in the estuary was opened by
landless farmers but they had no ability to keep it productive
and retain the ownership. They reported their new land to the
village administration to obtain official acknowledgment, but
soon they lost their land title to somebody else with better financial capability through selling. Thus, the availability of land
does not automatically reduce the landless population in a
community. In the old colonial days it was government policy
that worked against landless farmers effort to own lands, while
currently it is market forces.
49
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
45-60
Notes
(1)
(2)
This paper is a result of Comal II Research Project, 2012,
a collaboration between CSEAS, University of Kyoto,
Dept. of Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University and Dept.
of Anthropology, Amsterdam university led by Professor
Kosuke Mizuno, Professor Hiroyoshi Kano and Mr Yako
Kozano. I owe them a sincere thanks for the opportunity to
participate in the project.
Kalang was a community of Javanese who specialized
themselves in carpentry, boat building and handicraft.
Although the spoke shared same language with other
Javanese they were looked down as a group with their
ancient religion, closed economic guild and mobile life
style (Wieringa, 1998). In the course of the 19th and 20th
centuries the community gradually mixed with their
neighbours, and the only living group can be found in the
sub-district of Kotagede, Yogyakarta.
References
[1] De Bussy, J.H. 1827. Handboek voor cultuur-en
handels-ondernemingen in Nederlandsch-Indie. Amsterdam: J. H.
de Bussy.
[2] Ditjen Sumberdaya Air. 2010. Profil Balai Besar Wilayah Sungai
Pemali – Juana. Jakarta: Departemen Pekerjaan Umum.
www.pu.go.id
[3] Eshleman, J. Ross and Hunt, Chester L. 1991. “Demographic and
Cultural Constraints on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program in the Philippines.” Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in
Southeast Asia 6(1), pp. 22-44.
[4] Hüsken, Frans. 1996. “Kesinambungan dan Perubahan Politik Lokal.
Administrasi desa dan kepenguasaan tanah dan tenaga kerja.” In
Kano, Hiroyosi, Frans Husken and Djoko Suryo (eds.). Di Bawah
Asap Pabrik Gula. Bandung Akatiga.
[5] Kumar, Ann. 1997. Java and Modern Europe. Ambiguous
Encounters. Surrey: Curzon.
[6] Nagtegaal, Luc. 1996. Riding the Dutch Tiger. The Dutch East India
Company and the Northeast of Java, 1680-1743. Leiden: KITLV
Press.
[7] Palte, Jan G.L. 1989. Upland Farming on Java, Indonesia.
Amsterdam: Netherlands Geographical Studies.
[8] Van Schaik, Arthur. 1986. Colonial Control and Peasant Resources
in Java. Phd dissertation. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.
[9] Van Schaik, Arthur. 1996. “Pahit-Pahit Manis: Seabad Industri Gula
di Comal.” In Kano, Hiroyosi, Frans Husken and Djoko Suryo
(eds.). Di Bawah Asap Pabrik Gula. Bandung Akatiga.
[10] Semedi, Pujo. 2003. Close to the Stone, Far from the Throne. The
story of a javanese fishing community, 1820s-1990s. Jogjakarta:
Benang Merah.
[11] Shrestha, Nanda R. 1989. “Frontier Settlement and Landlessness
among Hill Migrants in Nepal Tarai.” Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 79(3), pp. 370-389.
[12] Versteeg, W. F. 1857. Kaart van de Residentie Tagal. Batavia:
Haren Noman and Kolff.
[13] Wilsen, K.F. and Havenga, W. 1870. Topographische Kaart der
Residentie Tagal.
50
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Journal of Human Geography 61(1), pp. 2-22.
[15] Kawaguchi, Hiroshi. 2009. “Conference report from the symposium on the perspective of the historical GIS at Tezukayama University.” The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association 59(11), pp. 545-550.
[16] Kawasumi, Tatsunori. 2012. “Reconstruction of ancient topography and quantitative analysis of urban district in Heijyo-Kyo with
GIS [GIS wo Mochiita Heijyo-Kyo no Kochikei no Teiryouteki
Fukugen to Shigaichi no Ricchi Bunseki].” In Japan Council for
[17] Knowles, K. Ann (ed.). 2002. Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History, Redlands: ESRI Press.
[18] Knowles, K. Ann (ed.). 2008. Placing History: How Maps, Spatial
Data, and GIS are Changing Historical Scholarship. Redlands:
ESRI Press.
[19] Kubo, Masatoshi. 2007. “Proposal of Archiving Cultural
Resources with Spatiotemporal Information.” Current Awareness
294, pp. 24-27.
[20] Kubo, Masatoshi, Hara, Shoichiro, and Sekino, Tatsuki. 2010.
“Three-Dimensional Spatiotemporal Model and Its Application to
Analysis of Research Resources: Toward Constructing Historical
Knowledge.” Journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial
Intelligence 25(1) (Special Issue: Historical Knowledge-Based
Science), pp. 50-55.
[21] Mizoguchi, Tsunetoshi. 2012. “Core - Periphery Structure in the
Owari Plain during the 17th-19th centuries [17-19 Seiki no Owari
Heiya ni Okeru Cyusin to Syuhen].” In Japan Council for Historical
GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo:
Bensei Syuppan, pp. 227-237.
[22] Nagata, Yoshikatsu. 2012. “The process of the development of the
modern villages in the basin of the Songkram River in the northeastern Thai [Touhoku Thai no Songkhram Gawa Ryuiki ni miru
Gendai Kaitaku Nouson no Keisei Katei].” In Japan Council for
[23] Nishimura, Yoko and Kitamoto, Asanobu. 2012. “Reconstruction
of the landscape in Beijing with the imperial capital Map during the
days of Qianlong and old photographs [Kenryu Keijyou Zen-Zu to
Ko-Syashin wo Mochiita Peking Ko-Keikan no Saigen],” In Japan
Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 95-107.
[24] Ogata, Noboru. 2000. “A study of the city planning system of the
ancient Bo-hai State using satellite photos.” The Human Geography
(Jinbun-Chiri) 52(2), pp. 19-38.
[25] Okabe, Atsuyuki (ed.). 2006. GIS-based Studies in Humanities and
Social Sciences. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
[26] Oketani, Ikuo. 2012. “Constructing a database of maps and place
names [Chizu Chimei Database no Kouchiku].” In Japan Council
for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in
Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional
Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 79-88.
[27] Prince, C. Hugh. 1971. “Real, imagined, and abstract worlds of the
past.” Progress in Human Geography 3, pp. 1-86.
[28] Shibayama, Mamoru, Hara, Shoichiro, and Kishi. Toshihiko (eds.).
2008. Creating the Area Informatics [Chiki Jouhou Gaku no
Soushutsu: Asia Yugaku 113]. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan.
[29] Shibayama, Mamoru. 2012. South East Asia with the Area Informatics and Mapping [Chiiki-Joho Mapping kara Yomu Tounan
Asia]. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan.
3-6
[30] Takahashi, Shinichi, and Nakagawa, Satoshi. (eds.). 2010. The
demographic transition in Japan from the view of local population
[Ciiki Jinkou kara Mita Nihon no Jinkou Tenkan]. Tokyo: Kokon
Shoin.
[31] Tsukamoto, Akihiro. 2006. “Spatial distribution of sights in historical guidebooks and its changes over time: the case of Kyoto,
Japan 16C-18C.” Theory and Applications of GIS 14(2), pp. 41-52.
[32] Tsukamoto, Akihiro. 2009. “Unfolding the landscape drawing
method of Rakuchu Rakugai Zu screen paintings in a GIS environment.” International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing
3(1-2), pp. 39-60.
[33] Tsukamoto, Akihiro. 2012. “Space in the printed town maps in
early modern Kyoto [Kinsei Kyoto no Kankou Toshi-Zu ni
Egakareta Kukan].” In Japan Council for Historical GIS Research
(ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan: Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure. Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan,
pp. 121-130.
[34] Uno, Takao. (ed.). 2006. Practice of Archeological GIS: Reading
the historical Space with Advanced Technology [Jissen Koukogaku
GIS: Sentan Gijyutsu de Rekishi Kukan wo Yomu]. Tokyo: NTT
Syuppan.
[35] Yamamoto, Kenta and Kobayashi, Shigeru. 2012. “Utilization of
the Gaiho- Zu [Gaiho Zu no Katsuyou].” In Japan Council for Historical GIS Research (ed.). Historical GIS Perspectives in Japan:
Landscape Reconstruction, Environment and Regional Structure.
Tokyo: Bensei Syuppan, pp. 57-67.
[36] Yano, Keiji, Nakaya, Tomoki, and Isoda. Yuzuru (eds.). 2007.
Virtual Kyoto: Journey to the Past, Present, Future Kyoto [Virtual
Kyoto: Kako Genzai Mirai eno Tabi]. Kyoto: Nakanishiya Syuppan.
[37] Yano, Keiji, Nakaya, Tomoki, Kawasumi, Tatsunori, and Tanaka,
Satoshi (eds.). 2011. Historical GIS in Kyoto: Bilingual Version
[Kyoto no Rekishi GIS: Bilingual Version]. Kyoto: Nakanishiya
Syuppan.
[38] Yonezawa, Gou. 2009. “3-D Topographical analysis in Hanoi,
Vietnam.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 46(4), pp. 532-540.
[39] Yoshigoshi, Akihisa and Katahira, Hirofumi. 2012. Histrocal Disasters in Kyoto [Kyoto no Rekishi Saigai]. Kyoto: Shibunkaku
Syuppan.
Acknowledgments This paper is a revised version of the Historical
GIS section in Onoda, Kazuyuki, Shinji Miyamoto, Hirotsugu Fujita,
Taisaku Komeie, Norifumi Kawahara, and Hiroshi Kawaguchi. 2013.
“Historical Geography in Japan since 1980.” Japanese Journal of Human Geography 65(1), pp. 1-28. I wish to express my sincere gratitude
to Ms. Michiko Tanaka for her scrupulous proofreading. This paper is
supported by the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, B, No.25280123, project leader;
Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and fiscal years 2013-2015).
6
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
Article
A Preliminary Study on how G.I.S. Know-How Can Spatially Represent the Distribution of Nineteenth Century Illegal Gambling Apprehensions in the Province of Manila
MARCO STEFAN B. LAGMAN
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of the Philippines-Diliman
Abstract: Considering the wealth of historical data available on the Philippines, the traditional approach of archival research
has long been used to generate historical knowledge. However, this knowledge could be even broadened and further deepened
through the use of modern technological tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The use of GIS could potentially
provide a more visual, spatial, and nuanced means of understanding and analyzing archival information.
This paper aims to explore this combination of conventional documentary research with GIS tools. The Juegos Prohibidos
(Prohibited Games) police reports on illegal gambling cases, specifically on Monte and Panguingue, were given visual representation through maps in order to gain a better understanding of illegal card gambling behavior of the inhabitants of the Province of
Manila who were arrested from the 1880s to the 1890s.
The use of mapping technology provides a richer and deeper understanding of Filipino behavior during the last years of Spanish colonial rule. Not only can the use of this technology contribute to the fields of history and geography in the Philippines, it
can also promote the feasibility of utilizing GIS know-how in order to maximize other information gathered from archival records pertaining to the Philippines.
Keywords: gambling, historical geography, Juegos Prohibidos, nineteenth century Manila
1. Introduction
Gambling as an activity was said to have been observed in the
Philippines well before the arrival of western colonizers. By the
late nineteenth century, games that involved betting with money
involved had become a regular source of entertainment among
the country’s inhabitants (Le Roy 1905; Bowring 1963; Fernandez 1990; Bankoff 1991; Mallat 2012). Although certain forms
of gambling allowed the state to collect a significant amount of
revenue (Bankoff 1991), Spanish authorities nonetheless regulated some forms of gambling while deciding to ban others.
With respect to card games, panguingue, a version of rummy
that used Spanish cards or Baraja Espanol (Ledesma 2011) that
was said to be popular with both older individuals and women
(Mallat 2012), was allowed in certain places and times (Fernandez 1990). On the other hand, monte, a fast-playing Spanish
card game (Mallat 2012) wherein a player had to bet on either
two top or two bottom cards that have been dealt face up (Lara
2008), was considered an illegal activity irrespective of context
(Mallat 2012). While panguingue and monte still had its share of
enthusiasts until the late 1900s (Lara 2008, Ledesma 2011,
Szanton 1972), these games are no longer popular in contemporary Philippine society.
As part of their program to curb illegal gambling, the Spanish
government assigned its police forces, particularly their crack
guardia civil units to implement their laws against illicit gaming
and to arrest those who violated such policies. The activities of
these units in their areas of jurisdiction such as the Province of
Manila led to successful raids against panguingue and monte
players which were reflected in the police reports written down
and submitted by such personnel called Juegos Prohibidos (prohibited games) during the waning years of colonial rule in the
1800s. These documents, which usually followed a certain format with respect to the details they provided, have proven useful
in recreating particular facets of Philippine social life in the last
decades of Spanish rule as can be observed in the landmark
work of Bankoff (1996) on criminal activity in Filipino society
under colonial rule in the 1800s.
This paper argues, however, that the temporal, demographic,
and geographic data found within the Juegos Prohibidos can be
an even richer source of spatial insights and analyses if these
archival documents were used hand-in-hand with Geographic
Information System (GIS) techniques. As such, it is the researcher’s hope that this paper can demonstrate that the use of
such tools on archival data that can be geographically located
with a fair amount accuracy can further maximize the usefulness
of archival sources and thus encourage other historians and geographers interested in Philippine history to employ GIS as a
common and preferred tool in future historico-geographical
studies.
2. Methodology: From Nineteenth Century Police Report to GIS-Derived Map
The process of transforming Juegos Prohibidos Monte and
Panguingue arrests into points in various maps with different
features or symbols required the following: a) the creation of a
database containing geographic and demographic information of
each recorded arrest, b) the plotting of these aforementioned
cases as specific geographic points in a map, and c) the generation of base and thematic maps grounded on characteristics
contained in the said database.
The generation of a database for roughly 195 identified gambling arrests and their easy manipulation required the tabulation
of the following information on an MS Excel spreadsheet:
A)
B)
C)
Town/district where the specific apprehension occurred;
Present-day name of the aforementioned town or district;
Specific barrio (village) or street where the gamblers
were caught;
D) Year and month when the said incident occurred;
51
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
E)
Number of players and number of males and females in
the apprehended group;
F) Ethnicity of those who were arrested (indio, chino mixed,
chino, Spanish)
G) Social status of those who were arrested (low, medium,
high)
H) Place where the arrest occurred (house, boat, farmland,
empty lot, bamboo grove, wilderness)
I) Time of apprehension (daytime, nighttime)
J) Escapees (Yes/No)
K) Amount of money confiscated
L) Specific archival source
It is clear that the different classifications and
sub-classifications of the aforementioned information will lead
to the generation of thematic maps containing consistent specific points with different symbols and colors representing different descriptions. Of particular importance are those that pertain
to the specific locations of the arrests. It was observed that,
surprisingly, majority of the names and absolute locations of the
towns and barrios have remained stable, with only their classifications changing from village to the barangay, the current
smallest Philippine political unit, while those villages located
near the borders of two towns may sometimes have become a
component of a present-day nearby city in Metro Manila. This
contention was verified through the location of these specific
places through Google Earth and through other readily available
written documentary evidence (Mallat 2012; U.S. Adjutant
General’s Office 1898; Sanger, Gannett and Olmstead 1905). As
for the streets that were identified, some throughways now have
new names that were still identified in Google Earth, while others could no longer be determined. Roughly sixty (60) areas and
streets that could no longer be ascertained had to be removed
from the database due to their lack of specific locations.
Given the limits imposed by the Spanish colonial police reports, it was decided that any spatial or map analysis can only be
done at the regional level. This scale of analysis also took into
consideration the geographic extent of all recorded cases, specifically the location of the farthest points. The highest level of
precision attained in the research was at the street level, but
majority of identified sites exist today as present-day barangays.
Centroids were employed to plot all points in order to address
gaps in precision, while the difficulties presented by the overlapping of multiple cases in a single point was dealt with by
randomly offsetting succeeding points in order to differentiate
them vis-à-vis other cases.
Because there is a paucity of maps representing the Province
of Manila, especially ones that have a clear two-dimensional
coordinate system, and given the relative stability of the locations identified in the reports until present times, Google Earth
was used in plotting all identifiable points. While this same
procedure could have been done using a gazetteer in ArcGIS, a
commonly used integrated package of geographic information
science software applications (ESRI 2004), there was no available data that would have made the latter program useable.
Clearly the procedure employed in plotting the points was
rather lenient. Such an approach was unavoidable due to certain
constraints and considerations. For one, the usefulness of historical data greatly depends on what was recorded, and therefore,
its accuracy and precision is limited by whatever information is
available. The study intends to produce maps that can be utilized
for visual spatial analysis of gambling behavior during the latter
Spanish period in the Province of Manila. As such the mapping
process was more for illustrative than statistical purposes and
did not require a very high level of accuracy and precision.
Moreover, place names have remained fairly stable over time, as
a good number of nominal locations still exist to this day. The
only difference is that, due to improvements in geospatial technologies and the demands of modern day policymaking and
planning, boundaries are more or less clearly delineated, whereas in the past, naming and locating places was more arbitrary
and their boundaries were not yet clearly established. Other
places that did not retain their old names were only renamed. It
can also be argued that all other spatial characteristics (extent,
length, location, boundaries, and neighboring localities) have
most likely remained intact. Proof of this is that the current
boundaries of Metro Manila approximate that of the late nineteenth century Province of Manila minus two towns – Montalban and San Mateo.
As mentioned earlier, there were several cases in the initial
database that lacked or had insufficient spatial information and
thus could not be plotted in a map. Sufficiency was also decided
given the abovementioned considerations. Useable geographic
data led to the generation of place marks that were grouped into
a single place folder and exported as a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file, which is a type of file format employed to
present geographic information in browsers such as Google
Earth or Google Maps (Google Developers: KML Tutorial no
date). This KML file was then imported into ArcGIS using the
conversion function included in the ArcToolbox (“KML to Layer”), an ArcGIS software that allows for geographic processing
functions such as data management, data conversion and geocoding (ESRI 2004).
The imported KML had a field containing identification (ID),
which are numbers stored as text, for each point. Another column containing numerical information was created and calculated from the ID field to create an identical field as a back-up to
ensure that the database can be joined. The Excel spreadsheet
containing the initial database was also further processed to fix
bugs encountered when joining the table with the spatial data.
This processing activity included the following:
o Removal of spaces in field headers
o Re-encoding of numbers stored as text
o Spell checks and rundown for typographical errors
o Re-classification of data (e.g. generalization)
o Re-expression of string information containing numerical
data into mathematically-operable format (done specifically for the column indicating amount of different types
of coin money involved)
A join between the working (bug-free) database and the resultant layer was then made after which maps were then created by
52
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
setting proper symbols for each map.
The base and thematic maps all underwent Adobe Photoshop
for aesthetic purposes, and this was accomplished through the
following steps:
1. Base Map. To achieve the ‘old map’ effect, a stained
paper texture was imported as a background layer. Its
color balance was adjusted to achieve the desired effect.
A simple map was overlaid, and the polygon depicting
the landmass was removed, leaving the white area depicting Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. The opacity of
these white polygons was subdued. The resulting effect
was achieved - it now seems like the landmass was
drawn over a light colored paper.
a. Since the map was exported in A4 size with no
margins, the map had to be resized to fit within
the borders.
b. Fonts used were High Tower Text and a variant
of the Garamond family. Font spacing was
slightly increased for titles and headers.
2. Thematic maps. Other themes were exported from
ArcGIS in JPEG format, and imported in Photoshop as a
smart layer. The layers were rasterized and its white
spaces were removed either by manually deleting white
spaces using quick selection (magic wand) or by applying a blend mode that removes white from the layer
(multiply). Note that the themes were exported with a
line feature depicting present-day boundaries of LGUs
for reference in resizing. In this procedure, the lower left
corner of the new layer is anchored on the lower left
corner of the base map. Afterwards, the new layer is
resized from the upper right corner and down, carefully
maintaining the aspect ratio of the layer being resized
(holding down the Shift key). The resized layer is then
adjusted further, referring to the LGU boundaries to ensure that the points overlay, distortions are entirely
avoided and warping/offsets is minimized.
a. The legends were exported in the same manner –
A4 sized JPEG files containing the legend of
each map were also imported in Photoshop and
resized in exactly the same manner as the maps
so as to maintain their scale. Extra care was taken in creating a legend for proportionally symbolized maps.
b. Upon completion of each map, these were
grouped and turned off whenever a new map was
created. This left a separable base map where
more layers could be added later.
3. The Maps and their Analyses
3.1 The location of gambling incidents
Figure 1
Province of Manila base map.
The Province of Manila (Provincia de Manila), which was
formally established in the latter part of the 1850s, was composed of practically the same towns that made up the former
Province of Tondo (Lemps, 2000). With the exception of the
towns of Montalban and San Mateo on its northeastern portions,
the said province approximates the land area and the location of
present-day Metro Manila. It had a land area of 264 square miles
or 684 square kilometers and was composed of 23 towns (pueblos) and one city, the Ciudad de Manila, which was also considered as its administrative and economic center. From Manila
City, the northernmost and easternmost towns, Caloocan and
Marikina, respectively, were approximately 7 miles away, while
Muntinlupa, the farthest town south of the capital, was 21 miles
away (Adjutant General’s Office 1898). Manila City was
clearly the most populous settlement, but there were also heavy
concentrations of people in nearby towns of Navotas and Tambobong (Malabon) along the north as well as along the eastern
towns of the province Pasig, Marikina, Taguig (Sanger, Gannett,
& Olmstead 1905).
Even by simply observing the database that was developed
for this study, it is clear that Manila Province was the site of
many illegal gambling apprehensions. Yet the development of a
map indicating the distribution of these arrests all over the area
(See Figure 2.) yields quite a few insights that are easier to arrive at using spatial tools. For one, while monte and panguingue
arrests tend to concentrate in Manila City and then spill over
towards neighboring towns along its northern (Navotas and
Malabon) and southern (Pineda, Malibay, Parañaque) portions,
there is also a distinct concentration of abbreviated gambling
53
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
activities along the province’s eastern towns, especially the contiguous Makati, Pasig, Taguig, and Pateros pueblos, all of which,
with the exception of Makati, do not share any borders with
Manila.
Also, while panguingue activities seem to be greater in number compared to monte apprehensions, there seems to be no
clear pattern with respect to the distribution of these arrests.
Thus, it implies that similar to what has been argued in several
accounts, gambling activity during the nineteenth century Philippines was quite widespread.
Figure 3
City.
Map showing the component communities of Manila
Figure 4
Manila.
Distribution of Gambling Apprehensions, Ciudad de
Figure 2 Distribution of monte and panguingue gambling
arrests, Manila Province.
The high intensity of illicit gambling in Manila City, as
shown in Figure 2, merits attention, and mapping at a smaller
scale may be able to demonstrate which specific portions of the
capital these activities occurred. According to Lemps (2000), in
the nineteenth century, Manila City was named La Ciudad y Sus
Arrabales, which in English means “The Capital and its Surrounding Areas” (See Figure 3.). Here, the capital refers to Intramuros, or the walled city of Manila while the surrounding
areas outside of the walls (Extramuros) referred to the eleven
nearby communities that bordered the capital (Adjutant General’s Office 1898; Lemps, 2000). Figure 4 below clearly
demonstrates how majority of gambling activities successfully
interrupted by the colonial police forces were situated in the
Binondo area, a known commercial area filled with businesses
owned by Chinese and half-Chinese merchants, which include,
among others, gambling houses (Mallat 2012).
3.2 Urban-rural distribution of monte and panguingue
There are different means of classifying specific geographic
entities as being predominantly urban or rural entities. From an
economic perspective, it has become standard practice in the
Philippines to classify places where the main types of employment is non-agricultural (i.e., manufacturing, services) as urban
areas (Serote 2009). While Spanish police reports on gambling
seem to be inconsistent regarding the occupations of those ar-
54
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
rested for illegal gaming, studies by Bankoff (1996) and Lagman (n.p.) in both Manila City and the Province of Manila suggest that majority of those arrested were likely to have labor-intensive, service sector-based occupations.
The urbanity and rural nature of a specific area can also be
determined through the existence of infrastructure that is usually
associated with urban areas such as the existence of streets or
street plan, a commercial area, and other community-based facilities. As late as the 1970s, one of the criteria for determining
if a barangay or village could be considered an urban area was if
it had a clear street pattern (National Statistical Coordination
Board 2003), a feature that can easily be discerned in the colonial police reports that were studied. On the other hand, Filipinos do consider places that are called barrios or sitios as communities or components of provinces that are more rural in nature. Fortunately, the documents from the Juegos Prohibidos do
provide details with respect to the location of apprehensions, as
to whether they occurred in areas along streets or in barrios or
sitios. If these terms, especially the existence of streets, would
be used as markers of the urban or rural character of crime
scenes, it could then be argued that most gambling incidents in
Manila Province, with the exception of those that happened in
the Ciudad de Manila, were likely to have occurred in more
rural than urban settings (See Figure 5.).
ince gambled supports such contentions. All in all, almost 80%
of apprehensions actually led to the police arresting people who
were into illegal card games inside houses and other structures.
Nonetheless, it is important to point out how there were still
instances where Filipinos, especially those of lower class origins,
employed farms, open lots, bamboo groves and even portions of
sitio despoblados or wilderness areas to hide from the long arm
of the law (Lagman n.p.).
The information on the map below (See Figure 6.) indicates
that, while there were very few cases of people using the natural
environment as a site of their card gaming, the area covering
Pineda, which makes up part of present-day Pasay, and the town
of San Pedro de Makati, had wilderness areas or woodlands
where illicit gambling was played out. In relation this, it is important to note that these two places, which are now heavily
urbanized, were considered as rough country and part of the
province’s backwoods. Pineda back then was considered a village (despite its nearness to the capital) where betel nut, an agricultural crop, grew abundantly. The dense growth of these
crops made it a very rural area where brigands could hide from
the government. San Pedro de Makati, on the other hand, was
said to be a place that was conducive for convalescents (Mallat
2012; 108, 112).
Figure 6
Figure 5
Gambling incidents by place of arrest.
Gambling incidents in urban and rural areas.
3.3 Hiding places
Foreign accounts about the Philippines in the 1800s make
mention of the gambling places that Filipinos used to hide their
illicit gaming. Mallat (2012) and Bankoff (1991) narrate how
those who gamble would usually utilize structures such as
houses to evade authorities, and the spatial representation of the
precise place where inhabitants of the localities of Manila Prov-
It can be observed that areas classified as wilderness places
where gamblers were caught were all located outside of Ciudad
de Manila, with three of five (60%) of despoblado cases occurring just outside the provincial center, and two wilderness incidents happening along the eastern and western fringes of Manila
Province. In addition, gambling incidents where the exact nature
of the place could not be determined tended to concentrate in
peripheral areas such as the eastern towns of Pateros and Pasig
and the southern pueblo of Las Piñas.
55
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
3.4 More a daytime than a nocturnal activity
In his landmark work Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms
of Peasant Resistance, Scott (1985) argued that throughout history, the resistance of marginalized groups against the more
dominant sectors of society, such as the more privileged classes
and the state, rarely came in the form of direct confrontation and
rebellion and instead manifested itself in more indirect forms
that denied the latter of the ability to make claims on them. In
essence, evading the police and violating laws against certain
forms of gambling through uncoordinated means and done by
individuals whom the authorities would have difficulty identifying, such as those who do their illicit activities within structures, are examples of a weapon of the weak.
Common sense would dictate that doing activities in the cover
of darkness, especially in the outdoors, would be a reasonable
form of resistance and evasion by those who still want to gamble despite mandated restrictions. According to a previous qualitative study (Lagman n.p.) of monte and panguingue arrests by
the colonial police yielded several examples of gambling suspects who also employed the nighttime darkness to play their
favorite games. But a more quantitative and spatial analysis of
police report data demonstrates that those who got caught playing in the evening belonged to the minority, as most abbreviated
gambling sessions were held during the day (at least 60% of
all recorded cases). This was especially true for Manila City
where majority of the card game sessions that were raided by
the agents of the state happened in houses and other permanent
structures. The eastern towns Pateros and Pasig again seemed to
have been the recipient of several night-time raids by the colonial police. The same observations can be made for the nearby
pueblo of Makati (See Figure 7.).
3.5 Escape: An act of last resort
Police authorities would usually catch their targets while they
were immersed in their illegal card games. For the most part,
apprehended parties would cooperate with the police and would
not resist arrest. Again, it can be determined through a spatial
representation that majority of those who were caught gambling
in Manila City did not resist arrest, and the same can be observed in the northern towns of Navotas and Malabon (See Figure 8.). But the farther the apprehensions were from the epicenter of apprehensions along Manila’s Binondo District, the proportion of gamblers escaping from the authorities seemed to
increase. This becomes noticeable especially in the towns east
and south of Manila’s southern edge such as the former pueblo
of Pandacan, Pineda, and Malibay (present-day Pasay), Las
Piñas and the Pasig-Pateros-Taguig region.
Figure 8
Figure 7
arrests.
Daytime and nighttime distribution of gambling
Illicit gaming escapes and apprehension incidents.
3.6 Small groups and predominantly working class
Le Roy (1905), in his account of the Philippines, mentioned
the penchant of Filipinos to gamble. But what separates his narrations from other western visitors of the nineteenth and turn of
the century Philippines such as Mallat (2012) and Bowring
(1963) is that he made known his opinion that more well-to-do
members of Philippine society were able to avoid getting caught
by the police as they did their gambling within the safety of
their stone-made homes. Bankoff (1996) also mentioned that the
typical prisoner in the Philippines in the 1800s, regardless of the
transgression committed, was usually male, poor and illiterate
and held a job that paid in coin, the preferred betting item in
gambling sessions.
Philippine society during the Spanish period was highly strat-
56
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
ified as people were legally categorized based on their race or
racial mix, and titles (i.e., Don) were used by people to denote
individual status (Larkin 1972). For this study, Spaniards, people of Caucasian heritage and members of the native elite were
classified as members of the upper class, the more enterprising
ethnic Chinese, who paid more taxes than the members of the
local population (Mallat 2012) were categorized as individuals
of middle status, while untitled natives or plain indios belonged
to the low status category. Figure 9 below clearly indicates that
most successful apprehensions led to the arrest of ordinary Filipinos as they accounted for a vast majority of arrests in almost
all the towns that were included in the study. Very few Spaniards
and members of the local elite were caught by the authorities,
and those who were arrested resided primarily in Manila, especially in an area called Sampaloc, the northeastern end of the
city, with isolated cases in Marikina and Taguig. The ethnic
Chinese, on the other hand, were primarily arrested in Binondo,
a known prosperous area during the late 1800s (Agoncillo 1990)
until today; and even during the late 1950s, was recorded by
Philippine government as having a very high number of Chinese
residents (Amyot 1973). It should be noted, however, that there
were a few recorded cases in current-day southeastern Manila,
Makati and San Felipe Nery (modern-day Mandaluyong). Overall, it can be observed that successful raids by the police led to
the arrest of relatively small groups of gamblers, which ranged
from one person to sixteen individuals, with 60% of apprehensions netting not more than five players (See Figure 10.).
Figure 10
Number of apprehended players per police raid.
3.7 Gambling as more of a male than a female preoccupation
The database illustrates that gambling was predominantly a
male activity. Overall, 53% of all arrests involved at least one
female player, but it was only in the game of panguingue that
there was a higher rate of female involvement at 65% of all
cases. Nonetheless, only in 37% of all panguingue police reports
were the number of arrested women more than or equal to the
number of accosted males. The map below represents that majority of cases involved more males than females for the most
part. Nonetheless, converting the information into map form
allows one to realize that there are still certain portions of the
province where there were relatively a higher proportion of
women card players who were apprehended. This included parts
of present-day southeastern Manila and the then Pandacan town
(now part of Manila City), the Pineda (Pasay) area, the southern
towns of Las Piñas and Muntinlupa, as well as the contiguous
area comprising the eastern part of Makati, Pateros and Pasig
(See Figure 11.).
Figure 9 Number of participants per gambling incident and
their social status.
57
Figure 11
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
Gambling incidents by sex.
3.8 Gambling with relatively small stakes
Whether the players were male or female, native or of foreign
descent, it is also worth determining the amounts of money involved in these activities, and how the range of amounts were
distributed in the province. One way to learn if the money used
in betting was of a small or large amount during that time is to
compare these monies with the wages commonly received by
the people within the same period. Fortunately, the Philippine
Census of 1903 provides us with a means of comparing confiscated gambling money with people’s wages during the late
1890s. People who did menial labor in Manila and other urban
areas would have daily wages that ranged from around P.20 to
P.75 per day. A seamstress and a laundryman would only receive
P.20 for a hard day’s work, a daily laborer usually received P.37,
while a carpenter was a little bit better off as he, on the average,
would receive P.62 a day form his employer. On the other hand,
a tailor could command a daily rate of P. 75 and a clerk would
receive a monthly pay of P25 (Sanger, Gannett & Olmstead
1905). It should be noted that almost half (47%) of all police
raids against panguingue and monte gamblers never exceeded
one P1. If an average gambling session involved around five to
six players, then most sessions had individuals who, on the average, brought coins that never exceeded the money that an
ordinary person would earn in a day. As such, the amounts being
gambled by individuals would ordinarily be quite modest. It is
clear in the map below (See Figure 12.) that small gambling
money being betted in sessions was fairly scattered all over the
Province of Manila. What is also quite clear is that it is in the
Manila City area, particularly in the District of Binondo, where
amounts of P10 or more were wagered the most.
Figure 12 Distribution of amounts of money wagered in gambling sessions that were abbreviated.
3.9 Gambling in the midst of a revolution
Basic texts in Philippine history would note that it was also
during the latter part of the 1800s that Filipinos were led by a
group called the Katipunan, whose members were predominantly from the towns of Manila Province and nearby areas
(Guerrero 1998). The first battles between the Filipino revolutionaries and the Spanish colonial forces began in San Juan del
Monte, one of the towns of Manila Province. The said incident
led to the declaration of martial law in eight provinces in the
island of Luzon, including the Province of Manila, and this was
soon followed by continuous fighting between the two groups in
portions of Manila Province and in other areas where such a
state of emergency was declared (Quirino 1978; Guerrero 1998).
Despite being in the midst of great social upheaval and uncertainty, inhabitants of the province could still not stop themselves from gambling (See Figure 13.). Roughly 13% of all
police reports that were examined involved incidents that occurred from August 1896, the month the revolution started, up to
1897, a period wherein fighting between the Filipinos and the
Spanish colonial forces was still on going. Apparently, trends
during war-time mirrored that of more tranquil periods as the
Chinese still actively gambled in Manila’s Binondo District and
ordinary Filipinos still in different parts of Manila Province.
What should be noted, however, is that the relative size of the
groups that did gamble during the outbreak of the Philippine
Revolution was relatively larger than the usual five player group
size during peace time.
58
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
References
Documents from the Philippine National Archives:
[1] Juegos Prohibidos, SDS -1207 to 12511.
Printed Sources: Books and Articles
Figure 13 Distribution of gambling incidents during the initial
phase of the Philippine Revolution.
4. Recommendations and future directions
Historical research using archival data on nineteenth century
Philippines has been very effective in reconstructing aspects of
the lives of people during that period that may likely be neglected (Bankoff 1996). While such type of conventional research usually focuses on the socioeconomic aspects of nineteenth century Philippine life, modern tools provided by Geographic Information Science can help researchers maximize the
usefulness of their sources by adding a spatial component to
their analysis and understanding of the past. Through the geographic information provided by this paper on the distribution
and nature of illicit gambling activities of the inhabitants of the
Province of Manila, it is hoped that other archival researchers
would warm up to the possibility of incorporating GIS tools as
part of their menu of aids in their studies, especially in using
sources that can be geographically located with a fair amount of
accuracy.
The Juegos Prohibidos is by no means the only archival
source in the Philippine National Archives that can yield data
that can be spatially represented. From the past experiences of
this researcher, other materials such as urban real estate taxes
(Fincas Urbana), business permits (Contribucion Industrial),
land sales and transactions from notarial bundles (Protocolos),
and even fish corral permit lists (Pesquerias) are only some of
the bundle types on the Philippine National Archives in Manila
that are readily available to historico-geographical researchers
who are interested in employing GIS tools in their studies.
[2] Agoncillo, T. 1990. “Ancestral City.” In Gilda Cordero-Fernando.
Turn of the Century. Quezon City: GCF Books.
[3] Amyot, Jacques. 1973. The Manila Chinese: Familism in the Philippine Environment. Quezon City: Institute of Philippine Culture Ateneo de Manila University.
[4] Bankoff, G. 1996. Crime, Society and the State in the Nineteenth
Century Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press.
[5] Bankoff, G. 1991. “Redefining Criminality: Gambling and
Expediency, 1764-1898.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 12(2),
pp. 267-281.
[6] Bowring, J. 1963. A Visit to the Philippine Islands. Manila:
Filipiniana Book Guild.
[7] Constantino, R. 1975. The Philippines: A Past Revisited
(Pre-Spanish - 1941), Volume 1, 10th printing. Manila: Renato
Constantino.
[8] Fernandez, D. G. 1990. “The Merriment Mix.” In G.
Cordero-Fernando, Turn of the Century. Quezon City: GCF Books,
pp. 69-85.
[9] Guerrero, M. C. 1998. “Chapter Seven: The Katipunan Revolution
and Chapter 8: Surrender at Biak Na Bato.” In Dalisay, J. Y.
(executive editor) and Custodio, M. T. (project director) (eds.).
Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, Volume 5. Manila:
Asian Publishing Limited: A Joint Venture of Reader's Digest and
A-Z Direct Marketing, Inc., pp. 177-216.
[10] Lagman, M. S. (n.p.). “Reconstructing the Environment of Illegal
Gambling Activity in 19th Century Manila through the Juegos
Prohibidos.” Unpublished work presented at the October 2012
Philippine National Historical Society National Conference in
Silliman University, Philippines.
[11] Larkin, J. 1972. The Pampangans: Colonial State in a Philippine
Province. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[12] Lemps, X. H. 2000. “Shifts in the Meanings of "Manila" in the
Nineteenth Century.” In Macdonald, C. J.-H. and Pesigan, G. M.
(eds.). Old Ties and New Solidarities. Quezon City: Ateneo de
Manila Press, pp. 219-233.
[13] Mallat, J. B. 2012. The Philippines: History, Geography, Customs,
Agriculture, Industry and Ceommerce of the Spanish Colonies in
Oceania, 4th Printing. Manila: National Historical Commission of
the Philippines.
[14] National Statistical Coordinating Board. 2003. NSCB Resolution
No. 9, Series of 2003: Adoption of the Operational Definition of
Urban Areas in the Philippines. NSCB Website:
http://www.nscb.gov.ph/resolutions/2003/9.asp (last accessed October 24, 2012).
[15] Office, U. S. 1898. Military Notes on the Philippines. Washington:
Government Printing Office.
[16] Quirino, C. 1978. “The Kindling Point.” In Roces, A. (ed.). Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, Volume 8. Philippines:
Lahing Pilipino Publishing, Inc., pp. 1961-1968.
[17] Sanger, G. J., Gannett, H., and Olmstead, V. H. 1905. Census of the
Philippine Islands Taken Under the Direction of the Philippine
Commission in the Year 1903. Washington: United States Bureau of
the Census.
[18] Scott, J. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant
Resistance. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
[19] Serote, E. M. 2009. Rationalizing the Local Planning System.
Quezon City. Philippines: Department of Interior and Local
Government.
[20] Szanton, M. C. 1972. A Right to Survive: Subsistence marketing in
59
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 51-60
a Lowland Philippine Town. USA: Pennsylvania State University
Press.
Internet-based Sources:
[21] Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). Arc GIS 9:
What is ArcGIS?
http://downloads.esri.com/support/documentation/ao_/698What_is_
ArcGis.pdf (last accessed July 21, 2013).
[22] Google Developers. Keyhole Markup Language: KML Tutorial.
https://developers.google.com/kml/documentation/kml_tut
(last accessed July 21, 2013).
[23] Lara, T. T. (26 October, 2008). The man who went to wakes for a
living.
http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/409996/man-who-went-wakesliving (last accessed July 21, 2013).
[24] Ledesma, M. (14 June 2011). Monte, Mahjong, Panguingue Atbp.
Retrieved from “My Silay Heritage”:
http://www.silayheritage.com/2011/06/monte-mahjong-panguingueatbp.html (last accessed July 21, 2013).
Map Sources:
[25] Global Administrative areas (GADM). “GADM Vector Data for
Administrative Boundaries in the Philippines.”
http://gadm.org/download (last accessed September 25, 2012).
[26] OpenStreetMap. Visual Scale. “OpenStreetMap: The Free Wiki
World Map.” http://www.openstreetmap.org (last accessed September 25, 2012).
[27] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Province of
Manila base map>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil
Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10.
Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.,
1992-2010.
[28] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Distribution of
monte and panguingue gambling arrests, Manila Province>. Scale
1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September
2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[29] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Map showing
the component communities of Manila City>. Scale 1:300,000.
Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
Gambling Apprehensions, Ciudad de Manila>. Scale 1:300,000.
Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[31] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Gambling incidents in urban and rural areas>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City,
Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView
GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research
Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[32] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Gambling incidents by place of arrest>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView
[33] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Daytime and
nighttime distribution of gambling arrests>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[34] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Illicit gaming
escapes and apprehension incidents>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City,
Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView
[35] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Number of
participants per gambling incident and their social status>. Scale
1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September
2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[36] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Number of
apprehended players per police raid>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon
City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
[37] Tingin, Neil Eneri and Lagman, Marco Stefan B. <Gambling incidents by sex>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.,
1992-2010.
amounts of money wagered in gambling sessions that were abbreviated>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri Tingin,
September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands, CA:
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
gambling incidents during the initial phase of the Philippine Revolution>. Scale 1:300,000. Quezon City, Philippines: Neil Eneri
Tingin, September 2012. Using ArcView GIS. Version 10. Redlands,
CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 1992-2010.
Acknowledgment The author wishes to acknowledge Mr. Neil
Eneri Tingin for his invaluable assistance in the production of
all maps used in this paper.
60
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 61-64
Research in Progress
A Geographical Computerization of Nankai Megathrust
Earthquakes’ Tsunami Monuments and the Recent Application of
GIS in Japanese Ancient Historical and Archaeological Studies
YOICHI SEINO†
†
Kyoto University
MASAKAZU MATSUSHITA* TOMOKATSU UOZU#
*
University of KinDAI Himeji
#
Research Institute of History, Otemae University
Abstract: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami made us acutely aware that the history of the Japanese archipelago has
been one of recurring disaster. There are many stone monuments to commemorate the misery of disaster all over Japan, instances
of what has become known as “disaster heritage.” This project concentrates on surveying monuments related to the Nankai
megathrust earthquake in Wakayama Prefecture. Our report shows the fieldwork methods and advantages of using compact digital still cameras or smartphones with a geotagging function and an electric compass. We also consider the advantages of geographical computerization data and its future potential. Recently, geotagging data is more easily and inexpensively available, so
even untrained historians can use digital equipment. When the photographs are geotagged, we can apply the data widely, using,
for example, a GIS (Geographical Information System). The geotagged data are also meaningful for archives. This paper demonstrates how the relationship between the tsunami monuments and their altitude can be computed via a DEM (Digital Elevation
Model). In addition, we discuss the recent application of GIS in the study of Japanese ancient history and archaeology and how to
apply GIS in future studies.
Keywords: disaster heritage, stone monuments, GPS/GIS, fieldwork, digital still camera, geotagged photos, Japanese ancient
history and archaeology
1. Introduction
The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, led us to
recognize the concept of “disaster heritage,” that is, the materialized memories of disaster, such as the stone monuments established in the tsunami area. Case studies for the preservation of
disaster heritage sites are planned and put into practice in tight
collaboration with local municipalities in the coastal areas of
Iwate Prefecture, which were most heavily damaged by the tsunami.
Cultural heritage can act as an initiative for the reconstruction
of local communities. Historians, archaeologists, folklorists, and
cultural resource managers are responsible for calling attention
to the remarkable number of natural disasters that have hit Japan
in the past, through which humans have nevertheless persisted.
Therefore, research on “disaster heritage” is needed to combine
the psychological facet with the memory of disaster. “Disaster
heritage studies” includes systematizing the methods of conservation, risk management, and education regarding the heritage
sites that are endangered by disaster.
Actually, many stone monuments not only commemorate the
misery of disaster all over Japan but also are established to preserve the disaster memories by a settlement’s or a similar local
community’s people. So we consider that the stone monuments
are suited to analyze the positional information by computer.
This project concentrates on surveying monuments related to
the Nankai megathrust earthquake in Wakayama Prefecture as
the first example of “disaster heritage.” The Wakayama Prefecture is the area expected to suffer the most damage from the
Nankai megathrust earthquake, but the stone monuments in this
prefecture are not surveyed comprehensively yet. (1) The stone
monuments in the Kochi Prefecture or the Tokushima prefecture
are already surveyed (Kimura et al. 2002, Tokushima Prefectural
Government 2008-2010,) nevertheless these prefectures are also
the area expected to suffer from this earthquake. In this paper,
we introduce an easier way than what has previously existed for
untrained researchers to record the information gathered from
general surveys by GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
In addition, we introduce a simple analysis with this geographical information.
We also discuss the recent application of GIS (Geographical
Information System) in the study of Japanese ancient history
and archaeology and show its potential for future studies.
2. General Survey and How to Geotag the Data
As mentioned above, we will first consider the current distribution of stone monuments in Wakayama Prefecture. We collected the stone monuments positions from the distribution map
of the cultural heritages in this survey area or inquired of the
local government officers before the fieldwork and we inquired
of local habitants where the stone monuments are after entering
the survey area.
Figure 1
A digital compact still camera with GPS function.
61
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 61-64
Both speed and accuracy are necessary elements in fieldwork.
However, we were not able to simply record the information
without the use of paper now. The information recorded on paper is analog data, so it is not applied in various ways or connected to other geographical or temporal information. GPS
technology is the simplest way to record time and geographical
position with the fieldwork data, but until recently it has not
been easy for untrained users to master this technology. Recently,
GPS technology has been integrated into digital still cameras,
especially compact and low-priced models, and even
smartphones, making it easily accessible even to laymen users
(Fig.1). When users take photographs with this type of camera,
they can also record the geographical position data and the time
taken in Exif (Exchangeable image file format: a metadata format for digital photographs). This geographical information is
called a “geotag” and the action of recording it is called
“geotagging.” If the geographical position data is attached to
the photographs, it can be used in multiple ways.
3. Use Cases of Geotagged Photography
If we can obtain such information from the photographs, we
can use, manage, display, and analyze it on a GIS. For example,
if we have photographs with the geographic coordinate points,
we can import these photographs into Google Earth and instantly display where the photographs were taken (Fig.3). This function is useful for checking the photographs immediately after the
survey. It is also advantageous in managing and archiving survey records.
In addition, this information is then available for analyzing
the relationship of the stone monuments’ horizontal and vertical
positions. We imported the photographs into a GIS and plotted
the stone monuments on the DEM (Digital Elevation Model)
provided by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. We
can see the relationship between the location of stone monuments and altitude by virtual elevation tints (Fig.4). This is one
way in which geotagged photographs and their geographical
information are useful for fieldwork. Of course, we have to pay
attention that we are able to get only the current terrain data but
we are able to use them for the reference to consider the relationship between the stone monuments and the geographical
features.
Figure 3
Displaying the photographs on Google Earth.
Figure 2 The geographic position information and direction of
shooting.
For the fieldwork in this study, we selected and used a compact digital still camera with a GPS receiver and electromagnetic compass so we were able to quickly record a lot of stone
monuments over a large geographical area. The photographs
taken by this type of compact digital still camera have positional
information and the direction of shooting stored in Exif (Fig.2).
Simply taking a photograph of the research object releases us
from the work of keeping a paper analog. Of course, the geographical position is not the true position of the stone monuments but the location of the photographer.(2) However, the accuracy of the GPS receiver built into the compact digital still
camera is plus-or-minus 5m on average at the most and depends
on the circumstances around the positioning area, so this geographical position is not a problem unless the photographer was
standing far away from the object. Accounting for this potential
discrepancy, the GPS function is effective in macroscopically
acquiring the distribution of objects.
Figure 4 Displaying the photographs’ locations on a DEM.
The blue-to-red gradation indicates the elevation from 1 to 10m
[This map is partially made from the Fundamental Geospatial
Data (elevation) provided by Geospatial Information Authority
of Japan.]
62
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 61-64
4. The situation of GIS in the study of Japanese
ancient history and archaeology in Japan
4.1 In the study of Japanese ancient history
In this paper, we define Japanese ancient history as research
based on historical documents focusing on the ancient era (7th
century to 11th century.) In Japan, researchers of Japanese ancient history have not tended to adopt GIS for their research.
There have been certain numerical methods for Japanese ancient
historical studies, especially in socioeconomic history, such as
the comprehensive numerical studies by Goichi Sawada (Sawada 1927,) the studies about family registers or the Keicho by
Toshio Kishi (Kishi 1973) or the studies of the economics of
ancient temples by Rizo Takeuchi (Takeuchi 1932, 1934). Such
studies have usually used historical documents like Shosoin
Monjo (documents of the Shosoin Treasure Repository) and
their analyses have been mathematical. Otherwise, studies about
historical geography have normally focused on maps as images
and the research style has been qualitative.
The construction of the text database for historical documents
was very popular in Japan for about 20 years (Nakano 1994).
However, Japanese historians often use these databases only for
searching text. They usually use the computer for writing papers,
searching text, or viewing images of historical documents, but
not for numerical analysis or text mining.
Figure 5 Least-cost pathways analysis in Hitachi-no-Kuni,
ancient Japan (from Seino 2012 presentation).
The reason for this has to do with the methodological style in
conducting Japanese history. There are as many documents,
maps and chorographies in Japan as western world such as the
documents in the old church. There are also aerial photographs
in Japan. These include many materials from the ancient period.
The orthodox style of Japanese history is to collect and arrange
such materials by analog or other traditional methods. Historians
have ever thought spatially about the historical issues but they
have tended to visualize their ideas by hand. One of the reasons
for this was the previous limitation of technology. Under such
circumstances, the comprehension of these materials would take
an enormous amount of time. In addition, Japanese historians
have little time to be trained to use the computer for numerical
analysis so they tend to maintain the style that is familiar to
them.
On the other hand, GIS is usually a hypothesis-testing method
but Japanese history does not emphasize this method because
information about the ancient period did not remain entirely
intact and therefore does not have a homogeneity and consistency conducive to GIS technology. Therefore, it is necessary
to compensate for the missing information and this has been the
mainstream method in historical research.
4.2 In the study of archaeology
In this paper, we define archaeology as the historical research
based on archaeological sites, features, and artifacts. The application of GIS is mainly very popular in archaeological studies of
the prehistoric age in Japan, even though the lack of information
about human behavior is approximately the same as in other
areas. However, GIS technology is very popular in the archaeology studies of foreign countries. One reason for this tendency
is that the field of archaeology in foreign countries is usually
categorized as not only part of the humanities or literature but
also the natural sciences such as anthropology, and the interaction between archeologists and other scientists is more common
than it is Japan. Consequently, the adoption of the computer or
the numerical method has been more popular in other countries.
It was, however, introduced to Japan, particularly in the area of
prehistoric studies. There were many interchanges between foreign countries and Japan in relation to prehistoric studies because of this common methodology. On the other hand, archaeological studies about foreign countries have not only been limited by a lack of information, but also by the location of the
researchers. International projects consist of many researchers
who usually live in their own countries. GIS is also used as a
communication tool between them. However, in the study of the
Japanese ancient period, there are many materials available, so
researchers combine and compare the archaeological and historical information and are able to understand the environment
in the ancient period. Otherwise, they are not able to apply the
GIS because of the huge amount of materials. For a few examples, we can consider the works of Izumi Niiro (Niiro 2002:
381-384) who is an archaeologist of the ancient period.
As another example, there are studies by Katsunori Imazu in
which a GIS was used for Japanese ancient history (Imazu 2006:
5-15, etc.). He uses GIS or the numerical method in an effort to
understand the local area and its demographical environment in
ancient times. His ability to program is rare among Japanese
historians.
The application of GIS in Japanese archaeology is as popular
as viewshed analysis (Uno 2006: 165-180), but recently, the
least-cost pathways analysis has become more popular (Kondo
et al. 2010: 158-165). Yoichi Seino tries to uncover the ancient
local administrative policies in Ritsuryo State (Seino et al. 2010:
159-164, 2011: 37-42, 2012: 25-26, Fig.5).(3) His studies are
characterized by the application of FOSS4G (Free and Open
Source Software for Geospatial). FOSS4G has a powerful analysis capability and has many advantages for students and freelance researchers. Maintaining transparency and traceability of
63
Vol.1 (Nov. 2013) 61-64
the algorithm is not only important in scientific studies, but also
in education. Furthermore, most FLOSS (Free/Libre Open
Source Software) supports the standard format and interoperability, so it will avoid vendor lock-in and maintain the sustainability of data.
To encourage the use of GIS in various studies, we organized
the “Archaeo-GIS Workshop” for young researchers, beginning
in 2007, and are teaching each other through this forum (Kondo
et al. 2012: 334-342). It is very difficult to learn these techniques by oneself, so having a community of researchers and
experts available to one other is very important.
5. Conclusion and Future Tasks
Currently, we can obtain geographic position information
easily and at a very low cost. Geographic information is not only
useful for managing survey records, but also for analysis. These
technologies used to require expert techniques and knowledge
but this is no longer the case. We should actively adopt such
technologies and use them to obtain accurate and rich information in the field. These techniques are also useful in analyzing emergencies, such as natural disasters.
In the study of ancient Japanese history, the application of
GIS is an effective but uncommon method, so the purpose of
this project is to encourage its use in future studies. The infrequency of GIS application is due to the fact that Japanese ancient historians are unfamiliar with using the computer as a tool
for analysis. Their education in handling digital information is
necessary. This work is difficult but important for widespread
application of GIS in future studies.
Notes
(1)
(2)
(3)
Of course, there are some reports about the distribution of
stone monuments in the Wakayama Prefecture until now.
For example, some chronicles of local government in the
Wakayama Prefecture, by Tokutaro Hatori (Hatori 1980)
or by Yoshinobu Tsuji (Tsuji 1981).
We can only realize the position of stone monuments as is.
If we were able to know that the position of the stone
monuments are moved from their original place, we recorded that information.
In this analysis, he use the current terrain DEM, and the
r.walk module in GRASS GIS. He eliminated the water
area from the DEM referenced the current water area data
and calculated the least-cost pathways. For more details
about the calculation of this module, refer to the references.
References
[1] Hatori, Tokutaro (羽鳥徳太郎). 1980. “大阪府・和歌山県沿岸に
おける宝永・安政南海道津波の調査.” 地震研究所彙報 55 (2),
pp. 505-535.
[2] Imazu, Katsunori (今津勝紀). 2006. “日本古代史研究と GIS.” In I.
Niiro (ed.), 空間情報科学を用いた歴史学･考古学をはじめと
する人文科学研究の推進 . Okayama: Okayama University, pp.
5-15.
[3] Kishi, Toshio (岸俊男 ). 1973. 日本古代籍帳の研究 . Tokyo:
Hanawashobo (塙書房).
[4] Kondo, Yasuhisa and Seino, Yoichi. 2010. “GPS/GIS-aided walking
experiments and data-driven travel cost modeling on the historical
road of Nakasendo-Kisoji (Central Highland Japan).” In Frischer, B.,
Crawford, J. W., and Koller, D. (eds.). Making History Interactive.
Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology
(CAA). Proceedings of the 37th International Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States of America, March 22-26, 2009.
BAR International Series 2079. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 158-165.
[5] Kondo, Yasuhisa, Matsumoto, Go, Seino, Yoichi, Ako, Takayuki,
Fukui, Wataru, Sugiura, Makoto, Uozu, Tomokatsu, and Yamaguchi,
Hiroshi. 2012. “A Union of Dispersed Knowledge and People:
Achievements of Archaeo-GIS Workshop 2007–10.” In Zhou, M.,
Romanowska, I., Wu, Z., Xu, P., and Verhagen, P. (eds.). Revive the
Past. Proceedings of the 39th Conference on Computer Applications
and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Beijing, 12-16 April
2011. Amsterdam: Pallas Publications, pp.334-342.
[6] Kimura, Shozo (木村昌三), Komatsu, Katsuki (小松勝記), Okamura, Shozo (岡村庄造). 2002. 南海地震の碑を訪ねて. Kochi:
Mainichi Newspapers Kochi Branch (毎日新聞高知支局).
[7] Nakano, Hideo (中野栄夫). 1994. コンピュータ歴史学のすすめ.
Tokyo: Meichoshuppan (名著出版).
[8] Niiro, Izumi (新納泉). 2002. “GIS で復元する郷里制と集落: 若
狭西部を例に.” 地理情報システム学会講演論文集 11, pp.
381-384.
[9] Sawada, Goichi (澤田吾一). 1927. 奈良朝時代民政経済の数的
研究. Tokyo: Fuzanbo (冨山房).
[10] Seino, Yoichi (清野陽一) and Kaneda, Akihiro (金田明大). 2010.
“日本古代史における移動コスト分析の一応用例藤原仲麻呂
の乱における東山道ルートと田原道ルートの比較実験から.”
人文科学とコンピュータシンポジウム論文集人文工学の可
能性～異分野融合による「実質化」の方法～情報処理学会シ
ンポジウムシリーズ 2010 (15), pp.159-164.
[11] Seino, Yoichi (清野陽一). 2011. “延喜式諸国日数行程と移動
コスト分析.” 人文科学とコンピュータシンポジウム論文集
「デジタル・アーカイブ」再考 -いま改めて問う記録・保存・
活用の技術 -情報処理学会シンポジウムシリーズ 2011(8), pp.
37-42.
[12] Seino, Yoichi. 2012. “The spatial analysis about the Gun-ga distribution in the Ancient Japanese History.” JADH 2012 Conference
Abstracts. Tokyo: International Institute for Digital Humanities,
pp.25-26.
[13] Takeuchi, Rizo (竹内理三). 1932. 奈良朝時代に於ける寺院経
済の研究. Tokyo: Ookayamashoten (大岡山書店).
[14] Takeuchi, Rizo (竹内理三). 1934. 日本上代寺院經濟史の研究.
Tokyo: Ookayamashoten (大岡山書店).
[15] Tokushima Prefectural Government. 2008-2010. “南海地震を知
る～徳島県の地震・津波碑～.” 徳島県防災・危機管理情報安
心とくしま.
http://anshin.pref.tokushima.jp/bunya/tunamihi/more.html
(last accessed September 30, 2013).
[16] Tsuji, Yoshinobu (都司嘉宣). 1981. “紀伊半島地震津波史料.”
防災科学技術研究所研究資料 60, pp. i-392.
[17] Uno, Takao (宇野隆夫). 2006. “眺望の日本列島史.” In Uno, T.
(ed.), 実践考古学 GIS. Tokyo: NTT Shuppan (NTT 出版), pp.
165-180.
Acknowledgment This study was aided in part by a grant
from the JR-West Relief Foundation and the TOYOTA Foundation. We also would like to thank the collaborators, Shuji Kimura (Community Outreach Center, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University) and Masaaki Maeda (Wakayama
Prefectural Museum), for their contributions to this paper.
64
Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies Vol.1 (Nov. 2013)
Activities of ANGIS
ANGIS, newly founded in June 2012, organized 1 st ANGIS Conference on December 1-2, 2012 at the University of Tokyo in collaboration with a research project titled “Long-term Trends of India Villages” sponsored by the Japan Society of Promotion of Sciences
(Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research S21221010: http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~india-s/eHP/index_e.html) and the TINDAS
(http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~tindas/), both headed by Prof. MIZUSHIMA, Tsukasa. The program of the 1 st ANGIS Conference was
as follows.
Conference Program
The First International Conference of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies (ANGIS)
Date: 1st-2nd, December 2012
Venue: The University of Tokyo
December 1, 2012 (Saturday)
13:30
Opening Session
14:00
14:10
Registration
Opening Address
Keynote Address
SHIBAYAMA Mamoru
MIZUSHIMA Tsukasa
Session 1
GIS Studies in Asia
15:00-15:30
Activities in Japan (MATSUBARA Kosuke, SEINO Yoichi, KAWAGUCHI Hiroshi, SPRAGUE David, MIZUSHIMA Tsukasa)
15:30-15:45
Break
15:45-16:15
Activities in Taiwan (FAN I-Chun, LIAO Hsiung-Ming)
16:15-16:45
Activities in Philippines (LAGMAN Marco, MARTINEZ Ma. Simeona)
16:45-17:15
Activities in Thailand (LERTLUM Surat, NATAPINTU Surapol)
17:15-17:45
Activities in Indonesia (YUWONO Pujo Semedi Hargo)
17:45-18:15
Annual General Meeting (MIZUSHIMA Tsukasa)
18:15
Ending First Day
18:30-20:30
Reception
December 2, 2012 (Sunday)
Session 2
Information Infrastructure for ANGIS (Chair: SHIMADA Ryuto)
9:30-9:55
Application of Databases and Resource-sharing Systems (HARA Sho’ichiro)
9:55-10:20
Application of Spatiotemporal Information (SEKINO Tatsuki)
10:20-10:45
An Attempt at the Geographical Computerization about Nankai Megathrust Earthquakes’ Tsuna mi Monuments
(SEINO Yoichi)
10:45
Break
11:10-11:35
Urban Planning History of Middle Eastern cities viewed in Multi-layered Basemap System -Toward War Damage Reconstruction (MATSUBARA Kosuke)
11:35-12:00
GIS as a Tool for the Research on the Egyptian Socio-economic History in Modern Times (KATO Hiroshi &
Others)
12:00-13:00
Lunch
Session 3
Case Studies in Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Philippines (Chair: SHIMADA Ryuto)
13:00-13:25
An Approach to Build a Digital Gazetteer of the Rural Villages in Northeast Thailand (NAGATA Yoshikatsu)
13:25-13:50
Transformation of South Indian Society in the Colonial Period: A GIS-based Study of Land Records (MI
ZUSHIMA Tsukasa)
13:50-14:15
Russian Policy on Nomads in Turkistan and Revolt in 1916 (UEDA Akira)
65
14:15-14:40
14:40-14:50
14:50-15:15
15:15-15:40
15:40-16:05
16:05-16:15
Session 4
16:15-16:40
16:40-17:05
17:05-17:30
17:30-17:55
17:55
Coast Line Expansion and Social Dynamics. Comal Estuary 1850s - 2010s (YUWONO Pujo Semedi Hargo)
Break
Urban Development in Jakarta, Indonesia 1930-2010: GIS-based Time-line Analysis of Regional Characteristics of Built Environment using the Old Map and Population Census (MIMURA Yutaka)
A Preliminary Study on How G.I.S. Know-How Can Spatially Represent the Distribution of Nineteenth Century Illegal Gambling in the Province of Manila (LAGMAN Marco & MARTINEZ Ma. Simeona)
Past, Present and Future of Historical GIS Development
Break
East-West Corridor - Discovering Living Ancient Roads -Suvarnabhumi Project on GIS-Based Historical
and Interdisciplinary Studies (Chair: SHIMADA Ryuto)
In Search of East-West Corridor towards New Horizons on GIS-Based Informatics (SHIBAYAMA Mamoru)
Exploring East-West Corridor through Ancient Communication Routes: New Paradigm in GIS-Based Cultural
Studies (LERTLUM Surat)
The Study on Natural Resources Utilizing for Cultural Development in Ancient Time: The Study on Distribution of Archaeometallurgical Sites from East to West of Thailand (NATAPINTU Surapol)
Potential of Geographical Information Sciences in Prehistory: Case Studies from Paleolithic Archaeology
(KONDO Yasuhisa)
Closing
MIZUSHIMA Tsukasa
Besides the Conference, ANGIS participated in a seminar on GIS Approaches planned and organized by Drs. Liao, Hsiung-Ming and
Fan, I-Chun of Academia Sinica in March 2013. Both Drs. Liao and Fan are ANGIS core members.
66
Guidelines for Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies (JANGIS)
1. Journal of Asian Network for GIS-based Historical Studies (JANGIS) is a peer reviewed annual international journal.
2. All submissions should be sent by e-mail to: [email protected] in Microsoft Word and PDF. For the time being JANGIS
will be published annually.
3. All material should be written in English.
4. The length of an article should be around 10,000 words including footnotes and references. Abstract around 200 words should be
submitted along with the full paper.
5. The text should be typed single-spaced in 9 point type in Times New Roman.
6. Tables should be digital in EXCEL file and inserted within the main text. Figures (maps, photos, etc.) should be submitted in EMF
or JPEG file and be inserted within the main text. Tables and Figures should be numbered consecutively in the following way.
Table 1. Table 2….
Fig. 1. Fig.2….
7. The title of Table should be above the Table. The title of Figure should be below the Figure. Notes and Sources should be written
below Table or Figure.
8. Sources of references or quotations should be indicated in the text as follows: (Stein 1984: 185).
9. Footnotes, if any, should be numbered consecutively.
10. Reference List in alphabetical order should be attached at the end of the text.
Example (Titles in Italics):
Stein, B. 1984.Agrarian System of India, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mizushima, Tsukasa. 2008. "Ecology and Society", International Journal of Economic History, 14(5), pp. 34-56.
Utsunomiya, F. 2012. "Chinese Migrants in Kobe", in Mayama, S. (ed.), Migration in Asia, Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, pp.
78-101.
11. Sections should be numbered as follows.
1.
1-1.
1-2.
2.
2-1.
2-2….
12. All the Author should provide the following information.
Name
Affiliation
13. Papers should be submitted by the end of April, 2013.
E-mail
67
Editorial note
JANGIS, exploring a new research field, has now sailed to sea. Its destination is the link between time-series information with space
through GIS. We editors welcome ambitious contributors interested in interdisciplinary studies by using GIS. We also expect c omments and suggestions to polish JANGIS to enrich the understandings of our past.
Editor-in-chief
Hiroshi Kato
October 30, 2013
68

Transformation of South Indian Local Society in the Late Pre

Transcription

Similar documents

Shoreh Elhami - Center for Urban and Regional Analysis

Vancouver`s VanMap: Bringing Spatial Data to Everyone

Winston County, Louisville Tornado: DeSOto County GIS

GIS Department Alamance County

INTRODUCTION TO NON-AGRICULTURAL

Data-Driven Pages Survey 123 (Free) Layered pdfs Import Useful

of the data

Open-Source GIS:

GIS in wind energy and environmental studies

Hyde Park Corner - Leeds City Council