Ethnomathematics and Cooperativism

Ethnomathematics is generally concerned with the resolution of practical problems and thus it is natural to investigate how this new science can be combined with cooperativism in order to foster sustained economic development. It is maintained that one way of developing this kind of investigation would include some business mathematics, informal logic and practical ethics. A project, implemented in a rural area of the Brazilian Northeast, is described in terms of both research into the community's ethnomathematical knowledge as well as pedagogical situations in which this knowledge and academic knowledge are taken into account. Resumo A etnomatemática geralmente se interessa com a resolução de problemas práticos e, assim, é natural investigar como essa nova ciência pode se juntar com o cooperativismo para promover o desenvolvimento econômico. Argumenta-se que uma maneira em que o referido tipo de investigação pode ser feito incluiria matemática financeira, lógica informal e ética prática. Descreve-se um projeto, implementado numa região rural do Nordeste do Brasil, em termos da pesquisa do conhecimento etnomatemático da comunidade, bem como em termos de situações pedagógicas em que tanto o mencionado conhecimento quanto o conhecimento acadêmico é contemplado. The present article describes the conjunction of two erstwhile separate areas of knowledge: ethnomathematics and cooperativism. The conjunction of these two areas, which was originally idealized by the present author and implemented, for the most part, by my students João Ferreira dos Santos and Rosana Ananias Silva da Costa, is both a research project about aspects of the ethnomathematical knowledge of two rural communities and an instrument for promoting sustainable economic growth in the communities investigated. Before laying out the theoretical framework and describing its implementation, however, I would like to set the stage by briefly outlining my conception of the nature of ethnomathematics. Ethnomathematics Although mathematicians have been, on the whole, slow to catch on, cultural anthropologists have long been interested in various aspects of what is usually seen as parts of