Publications

In this article we explore the possibility of implementing local mathematical practices in the current mathematics curriculum of the studied area. This research relies on two theoretical frameworks that focus on the value of culture in relation to the study of science and scientific practices in relation to the learning process. The analysis is based on an empirical long-term ethnographical investigation in the Northern Ambrymese society (Ambrym ...

In this article we explore the possibility of implementing local mathematical practices in the mathematics curriculum. This research relies on two theoretical frameworks that focus on the value of culture in relation to the study of science and scientific practices in relation to the learning process. The analysis is based on two empirical long-term ethnographical investigations in different places and with different peoples. The field research ...

Abstract

In this paper we first explore how Wittgenstein’s philosophy provides a conceptual tools to discuss the possibility of the simultaneous existence of culturally different mathematical practices. We will argue that Wittgenstein’s later work will be a fruitful framework to serve as a philosophical background to investigate ethnomathematics (Wittgenstein 1973). We will give an overview of Wittgenstein’s later work which is ...

This article is the transcription of an interview of ethnomathematician Marc Chemillier, (conducted by Eric Vandendriessche) in which he gives his viewpoint on several issues addressed by the young interdisciplinary field of research that is Ethnomathematics.

String figure-making is a procedural activity carried out in many societies of oral tradition. It consists in producing geometrical forms using a string knotted into a loop. In 1988, an American mathematician, Thomas Storer (1938-2006), published a long article in which he developed several formal approaches of string figure-making. One of these is the Heart-sequence. Passing the string around a finger forms a "loop". The point is then to focus, ...

This article discusses the concept of ethnomathematics from three perspectives: the epistemological, the political, and the educational. We use a theoretical toolkit that borrows the concepts of “discourses” and of “disciplining” from Foucault but also the concepts of “language games” and of “family resemblance” from Wittgenstein in order to analyze the pedagogical program of field education in Brazil. A philosophical analysis enables us to ...

This book addresses the mathematical rationality contained in the making of string figures. It does so by using interdisciplinary methods borrowed from anthropology, mathematics, history and philosophy of mathematics. The practice of string figure-making has long been carried out in many societies, and particularly in those of oral tradition. It consists in applying a succession of operations to a string (knotted into a loop), mostly using the ...

The practice of string figure-making has been observed since the late nineteenth century in various cultural areas, especially in societies characterized by the use of oral tradition. This activity consists in applying to a loop of string a succession of operations performed with the fingers - and sometimes with the teeth, the wrists or the feet - to obtain a figure. This activity is still practiced today by the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New ...

Introduction of the special issue “Ethnology and mathematics” of the French Journal in ethnology “ethnographiques.org”
http://www.ethnographiques.org/No-29-ethnologie-et-mathematiques

This article examines a chapter of the popular book Mathematical Recreations and Essays(5th to 9th editions) written by the Cambridge mathematician Walter William Rouse Ball (1850–1925). This chapter is devoted to “String Figures”, a procedural activity which consists in producing geometrical forms with a loop of string and which is carried out in many traditional societies throughout the world. By analyzing the way in which Ball selected some ...