'There are undoubtedly many possible relations; but only one impossible relation: the absence of a relation.' (Vivieros de Castro 2003:10)

- the man in groundhog day realized this, yes? the 'absence of a relation' is akin to an 'absence of perspective' - like Merleau-Ponty's normative ideal, the 'view from everywhere' which signals also a complete lack of body, a lack of perspective, and dissolution/death (or just absence, endless death-like repetition for the groundhog man).

so when Vivieros de Castro describes the "everywhen" world of spirit ancestors (1998:343), he is speaking about precisely a lack of tension between entities with relationships. For Amerindians (Amazonian Indians), the world of the ancestors (aka 'death') is a place where there is no differentiation between species bodies, no difference between perspectives. So whilst Amerindians and the rest of us remain not dead, whilst we have an embodied perspective on the world, we will also be part of a system of relationships. 'many possible relations'. i.e. many possible tensions between selves and others, and tensions between people and things. For instance people and places. Or people and maps.

Google maps cannot present a 'view from everywhen' because until we loose or transcend our bodies altogether, we will unavoidably take an embodied perspective on the world and thus live in a tensive relationship with places and their people and their things. All this underlies the 'abstract' map... itself (even in virtual form) a 'thing' which we perceive.