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In this book, Ubiratan D’Ambrosio presents his most recent thoughts on ethnomathematics—a sub-field of mathematics history and mathematics education for which he is widely recognized to be one of the founding fathers.
In this truly one-of-a-kind book, Ascher introduces the mathematical ideas of people in traditional, or "small-scale", cultures often omitted from discussion of mathematics. Topics such as "Numbers: Words and Symbols", "Tracing Graphs in the Sand", "The Logic of Kin Relations", "Chance and Strategy in Games and Puzzles", and "The Organization and Modeling of Space" are traced in various cultures including the Inuit, Navajo, and Iroquois of North America; the Inca of South America; the Malekula, Warlpiri, Maori, and Caroline Islanders of Oceania, and the Tshokwe, Bushoong, and Kpelle of Africa. As Ascher explores mathematical ideas involving numbers, logic, spatial configuration, and the organization of these into systems and structures, readers gain both a broader understanding and anappreciation for the idease of other peoples.
This book addresses numerous issues related to ethnomathematics and diverse approaches to it in the context of mathematics education. To help readers better understand the development of ethnomathematics, it discusses its objectives and assumptions with regard to promoting an ethics of respect, solidarity, and cooperation across and for all cultures. In turn, the book addresses a range of aspects including pedagogical action, culturally relevant pedagogy, innovative approaches to ethnomathematics, and the role of ethnomathematics in mathematics education. Ethnomathematics offers educators a valuable framework for transforming mathematics so that it can more actively contribute to realizing the dream of a just and humane society. As such, its primary goal is to forge mathematics into a powerful tool to help people create a society characterized by dignity for all, and in which iniquity, arrogance, violence, and bigotry have no place.
Presents the emerging field of ethnomathematics from a critical perspective, challenging particular ways in which Eurocentrism permeates mathematics education and mathematics in general.
In this truly one-of-a-kind book, Ascher introduces the mathematical ideas of people in traditional, or ""small-scale"", cultures often omitted from discussion of mathematics. Topics such as ""Numbers: Words and Symbols"", ""Tracing Graphs in the Sand"", ""The Logic of Kin Relations"", ""Chance and Strategy in Games and Puzzles"", and ""The Organization and Modeling of Space"" are traced in various cultures including the Inuit, Navajo, and Iroquois of North America; the Inca of South America; the Malekula, Warlpiri, Maori, and Caroline Islanders of Oceania, and the Tshokwe, Bushoong, and Kpelle of Africa. As Ascher explores mathematical ideas involving numbers, logic, spatial configuration, and the organization of these into systems and structures, readers gain both a broader understanding and anappreciation for the idease of other peoples.
Mathematics Across Cultures: A History of Non-Western Mathematics consists of essays dealing with the mathematical knowledge and beliefs of cultures outside the United States and Europe. In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Inca, Egyptian, and African mathematics, among others, the book includes essays on Rationality, Logic and Mathematics, and the transfer of knowledge from East to West. The essays address the connections between science and culture and relate the mathematical practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay is well illustrated and contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both the history of science and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.
This book presents a collection of ethnomathematical studies of diverse mathematical practices in Afro-Brazilian, indigenous, rural and urban communities in Brazil. Ethnomathematics as a research program aims to investigate the interrelationships of local mathematical knowledge sources with broader universal forms of mathematics to understand ideas, procedures, and practices found in distinct cultural groups. Based on this approach, the studies brought together in this volume show how this research program is applied and practiced in a culturally diverse country such as Brazil, where African, indigenous and European cultures have generated different forms of mathematical practice. These studies present ethnomathematics in action, as a tool to connect the study of mathematics with the students’ real life experiences, foster critical thinking and develop a mathematics curriculum which incorporates contributions from different cultural groups to enrich mathematical knowledge. By doing so, this volume shows how ethnomathematics can contribute in practice to the development of a decolonial mathematics education. Ethnomathematics in Action: Mathematical Practices in Brazilian Indigenous, Urban and Afro Communities will be of interest to educators and educational researchers looking for innovative approaches to develop a more inclusive, democratic, critical, multicultural and multiethnic mathematics education.
This ground-breaking bibliography by distinguished Pacific researcher Nicholas Goetzfridt examines mathematical concepts and practices in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. It covers number systems, counting, measuring, classifying, spatial relationships, symmetry, geometry, and other aspects of ethnomathematics in relation to a wide range of activities such as trade, education, navigation, construction, rituals and festivals, divination, weaving, tattooing, and music. In compiling nearly five hundred citations, Goetzfridt makes use of the vast resources of writing about the Pacific from the 1700s to the present. In addition to discussing Pacific knowledge systems in general, his introductory chapter includes a helpful overview of the relatively new field of ethnomathematics and important theoretical reflections on the discipline as a research program. Extensive subject and geographic indexes provide numerous ways to experience the rich heritage and history of Pacific ethnomathematical concepts covered in this book, including: the 256 possible knotted fates enabled by the Carolinian sky god Supwunumen, etak segmentation concepts in stellar based voyaging, the highly diverse counting systems of Papua New Guinea, the alignment of stone structures with stars to mark the appearance of the equinox and solstice, and contemporary educational issues in the standardized teaching of Western mathematics.
The field of education is in constant flux as new theories and practices emerge to engage students and improve the learning experience. Globalization has created new challenges for mathematics educators as they are compelled to respond to the shifting patterns and practices of everyday life and stay abreast of the latest research in education, curriculum, development, and technologies. Globalized Curriculum Methods for Modern Mathematics Education is a comprehensive and timely publication that contains the latest research in mathematics education and modern globalized curriculum development and technologies. The book examines subjects such as teaching competencies, digital games for teaching and learning mathematics, and the challenges and prospects of globalized science curriculum. This is an ideal resource for educators, academicians, teachers, policy makers, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking to further their research in mathematics education.
Ethnomathematics of Negev Bedouins’ Existence in Forms, Symbols, and Geometric Patterns provokes a journey into the world of Negev Bedouins and attests to the beauty and sophistication of mathematics that occurs naturally in their craftwork, structures, games, and throughout Bedouin life. The major focus is Bedouin women’s traditional craftwork by which they reflect social and cultural activities in their weaving, embroidery, and similar pursuits. Their creations reveal mathematical ideas incorporated in embroidery compositions in repeated patterns of flowers and geometric figures in varying scales. The women use ground staked looms, stabilized by block-stones, to make multi-color, repeating pattern strip-rugs in a process practiced for generations. An image of this appears in the book’s cover photo collage. Bedouin men construct dwellings, tents, desert wells, and such. They and their children play games attuned to sand and other specific desert conditions. These activities of Bedouin women, men, and children require mathematical thinking and strategic reasoning to achieve desired outcomes. The book opens with a narrative of Bedouin history, followed by a brief overview of ethnomathematics, and concludes with discussion about bridging the gap between school mathematics experiences and those outside school. It considers mathematically problematic situations embedded in Bedouin sociocultural heritage likely to appeal to teachers for use with school students. The book is intended for a diverse audience from Bedouin communities in different countries to the general public and professionals, including ethnomathematicians and mathematics educators. Numerous photographs document the examples of Bedouin ethnomathematics. They are the subject of considerable analysis and appear throughout the book.
