Ethno cartography is an umbrella term for a number of methods applied in ethnology for the spatial representation of a selected folk culture phenomenon. Historically, the application of ethno cartographic methods can be divided into three stages: pre-ethno cartography (1700s to early 1800s), early ethno cartography (early 1800s to 1930s) and scientific cartography. One of the fundamental issues in ethno cartography shared across all these periods is the nature of the historical data which are overwhelmingly unbalanced in favour of some phenomena to the point of ignoring other, as well as the intrinsic inseparability of data on folk culture from their geographical, historical, chronological and socio-economic context. While this continues to be a major challenge, we believe these limitations can be overcome using the latest in digital technology, especially the geographic information systems (GIS), and this paper discusses the application of such technologies in the context of Czech ethnology.
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