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What can a map of notable births and deaths reveal about the spread of culture?
Culture spreads through people, but how does that really happen? This data visualisation from Nature Video charts the movement of 120,000 prominent cultural figures – predominantly European and North American – between 600 BC and 2012 CE, by plotting lines between where each one was born and died. While limited by its Eurocentrism – reflecting history as written by the victors – the visualisation proves to be an interesting tool for reimagining history.
Video by Nature
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Demography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
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Fairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
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Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes