Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural View of Mathematical Ideas (Marcia Ascher)

Book Review: Mathematics Elsewhere: An Exploration of Ideas Across Cultures, Volume 50, Number 5

Marcia Ascher's new book, Mathematics Elsewhere , is certain to stimulate discussion of the nature of mathematical ideas and how they find their expression. For many Westerners the term " mathematics " means the intellectual exercise begun by the Greeks of stating theorems and then proving them by beginning with explicitly stated axioms and using logical arguments. Of course, in ancient Greece ...

What Does Equality Mean?--The Basque View

From Ethnomathematics to Ethnocomputing: indigenous algorithms in traditional context and contemporary simulation

Ethnomathematics faces two challenges: first, it must investigate the mathematical ideas in cultural practices that are often assumed to be unrelated to math. Second, even if we are successful in finding this previously unrecognized mathematics, applying this to children’s education may be difficult. In this essay, we will describe the use of computational media to help address both of these ch...

Sand Songs: The Formal Languages of Warlpiri Iconography

algebra we learn ed . The visual algebraic components of Warlpiri iconography are obvious. We have a finite set of symbols and the symbols may becombined to make more complex struc tu res accord ing to a finite set of ru les. Compare this to the formation of equations in college algebra where the letters x and y, the in tegers 2 and 3, and the symbols =, + : , and " combine to make the complex ...

Anthropology and Education

Ethnomathematics is the study of mathematical ideas and practices situated in their cultural context. Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs) are web-based software applications that allow students to create simulations of cultural arts—Native American beadwork, African American cornrow hairstyles, urban graffiti, and so forth—using these underlying mathematical principles. This article is a r...