Science and policitcs: Two intrinsic aspects of argentine cartograph y knowledge[1912-1941]

Abstract

A cartographic projection entails a contradictory process in which there are technical and political decisions that can change or even replace the plan's initial objectives. Cartography's classic historiography claims, though, that such decision-making is the result of purely scientific and technical measures in which there are no political contradictions or interests. This paper attempts to trace -throughout the stages of Argentine cartographic production- the moments when science and politics intertwine in such a way that they become part of the cartographic science. In order to do this, we have chosen the cartographic projects of the IGM [Military Geographic Institute, by its acronym in Spanish]: the Plan de la Carta [a preliminary plan to the Argentine territory] and the Carta Militar Provisional [Provisional Military Map]; and the geodetic surveying of the vertical datum which was carried out together with the work entrusted to the Meridian Arch Measurement Commissión