Arantzazu Martinez

Far more than (real or imaginary) lines on the ground, sea, air and space, we need to

acknowledge that boundaries, borders and frontiers are the results of diverse interactions

between humans. They are based on diferent rationales and hold diverse implications

for coexistence, in both cases contingent on specifc historical circumstances. They are

n... See more

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English,

1

a boundary is “a line which marks the limits

of an area; a dividing line” , or “a limit of something abstract, especially a subject or sphere

of activity” . The defnition for border is “a line separating two countries, administrative

divisions, or other areas” , or “the edge or boundary of something,... See more

The origin of the “natural border” concept harks back to these first border maps and happens

to constitute an 18

th

-century coincidence: It was not only technically easier to draw the

boundary upon a line on the map, but politically also very convenient. As they considered

themselves to be reigning over a piece of land in the name of God, the... See more

Just as they were drawing their external borders, the recently established states undertook a

concomitant reorganization of their territories in order to confirm their rule upon them, and

this was done through a process of internal division. The emerging administrative grids can be

understood as a form of political rationality aimed at ensuring... See more

A historical review reveals that the invention of physical limits is linked to the process of

sedentary settling. The action of materializing compartmentalization into space may date back

to the days when the first Sumerian cities were fortified with walls. Such a broad perspective

indicates that national borders, even if they have strongly... See more

The mythological history

of the Western world stained with blood the first tracing of a border: It is worth noting that it

was because of a sacred furrow, plowed to distinguish the soil of the city to be, Rome, from

that of its unknown exterior, that Remus was killed by his twin brother Romulus. This deed

was in reaction to Remus’ mocking of the... See more

Boundaries have been a key component of the modern territorial vocabulary. They have

origins in Euclidean thinking, which sees space as two-dimensional. They also fit in well with

Kantian rationality, which considers space and time as two symmetrical conditions of human

experience. They can be considered “a generic term for the linear spatial... See more

By the end of the century Mayhew’s successor Charles Booth produced the Poverty Maps

(1889–99), hand-colored to show seven classes in the metropolis, street by street: the lowest

class, vicious, semi-criminal; the very poor, casual employment; the poor; the mixed, some

comfortable, others poor; the fairly comfortable, good ordinary wages; the... See more

Moving from geographical boundaries of the state to the boundaries of identity, Connolly

considers a pluralized culture’s most sensitive political crux as “the tendency by established

identities to fundamentalize what they are by demonizing or rendering needy what they

are not” (1985 194), highlighting the ambiguity of boundaries, that they bond... See more