Mathematics Elsewhere

Mathematics Elsewhere is a fascinating and important contribution to a global view of mathematics. Presenting mathematical ideas of peoples from a variety of small-scale and traditional cultures, it humanizes our view of mathematics and expands our conception of what is mathematical. Through engaging examples of how particular societies structure time, reach decisions about the future, make models and maps, systematize relationships, and create intriguing figures, Marcia Ascher demonstrates that traditional cultures have mathematical ideas that are far more substantial and sophisticated than is generally acknowledged. Malagasy divination rituals, for example, rely on complex algebraic algorithms. And some cultures use calendars far more abstract and elegant than our own. Ascher also shows that certain concepts assumed to be universal--that time is a single progression, for instance, or that equality is a static relationship--are not. The Basque notion of equivalence, for example, is a dynamic and temporal one not adequately captured by the familiar equal sign. Other ideas taken to be the exclusive province of professionally trained Western mathematicians are, in fact, shared by people in many societies. The ideas discussed come from geographically varied cultures, including the Borana and Malagasy of Africa, the Tongans and Marshall Islanders of Oceania, the Tamil of South India, the Basques of Western Europe, and the Balinese and Kodi of Indonesia. This book belongs on the shelves of mathematicians, math students, and math educators, and in the hands of anyone interested in traditional societies or how people think. Illustrating how mathematical ideas play a vital role in diverse human endeavors from navigation to social interaction to religion, it offers--through the vehicle of mathematics--unique cultural encounters to any reader.

The authors are renowned mathematicians; their presentations cover a wide range of topics. From compact discs to the stock exchange, from computer tomography to traffic routing, from electronic money to climate change, they make the "math inside" understandable and enjoyable.

This book is a philosophical study of mathematics, pursued by considering and relating two aspects of mathematical thinking and practice, especially in modern mathematics, which, having emerged around 1800, consolidated around 1900 and extends to our own time, while also tracing both aspects to earlier periods, beginning with the ancient Greek mathematics. The first aspect is conceptual, which characterizes mathematics as the invention of and working with concepts, rather than only by its logical nature. The second, Pythagorean, aspect is grounded, first, in the interplay of geometry and algebra in modern mathematics, and secondly, in the epistemologically most radical form of modern mathematics, designated in this study as radical Pythagorean mathematics. This form of mathematics is defined by the role of that which beyond the limits of thought in mathematical thinking, or in ancient Greek terms, used in the book’s title, an alogon in the logos of mathematics. The outcome of this investigation is a new philosophical and historical understanding of the nature of modern mathematics and mathematics in general. The book is addressed to mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and philosophers and historians of mathematics, and graduate students in these fields.

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.

Every four years, beginning in 1984, the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) produces a review of Australasian research in mathematics education. The authors of the chapters in this volume have summarised and critiqued research conducted during the period 2004-2007.

The book presents a series of ethnographic studies, which illustrate issues of wider importance, such as the role of cultural traditions, concepts and learning procedures in the development of formal (or mathematical) thinking outside of the western tradition. It focuses on research at the crossroads of anthropology and ethnomathematics to document indigenous mathematical knowledge and its inclusion in specific cultural patterns. More generally, the book demonstrates the heuristic value of crossing ethnographical, anthropological and ethnomathematical approaches to highlight and analyze—or "formalize" with a pedagogical outlook—indigenous mathematical knowledge. The book is divided into three parts. The first part extensively analyzes theoretical claims using particular ethnographic data, while revealing the structural mathematical features of different ludic, graphic, or technical/procedural practices in their links to other cultural phenomena. In the second part, new empirical studies that add data and perspectives from the body of studies on indigenous knowledge systems to the ongoing discussions in mathematics education in and for diverse cultural traditions are presented. This part considers, on the one hand, the Brazilian work in this field; on the other hand, it brings ethnographic innovation from other parts of the world. The third part comprises a broad philosophical discussion of the impact of intuitive or "ontological" premises on mathematical thinking and education in the light of recent developments within so-called indigenously inspired thinking. Finally, the editors’ conclusions aim to invite the broad and diversified field of scholars in this domain of research to seek alternative approaches for understanding mathematical reasoning and the adjacent adequate educational goals and means. This book is of interest to scholars and students in anthropology, ethnomathematics, history and philosophy of science, mathematics, and mathematics education, as well as other individuals interested in these topics.

Desde la perspectiva sociológica, el concepto de tecnología no puede referirse únicamente a los objetos técnicos, sino también a los procesos sociales y culturales que involucra. La sociocibernética y la teoría de sistemas plantean un marco conceptual esencial para el necesario debate sobre el papel de la tecnología en la configuración de la complejidad social. La tecnología permite al sistema social gestionar la complejidad social. La tecnología permite al sistema social gestionar la complejidad de su entorno a la vez que, por otra parte, contribuye a incrementar y diversificar la naturaleza compleja de las interdependencias entre la sociedad y los actores individuales. Simultáneamente, la creciente complejidad social demanda nuevas formas tecnológicas que permitan gestionarla. En suma, la tecnología se halla en la base de cualquier discusión relevante sobre la naturaleza contemporánea de la sociedad, ya sea del lado de los problemas (riesgo, control, y vigilancia global, bioética y bioingeniería, manipulación mediática, ecológica etc.) o del lado de las soluciones (comunicaciones instantáneas, ubicuidad y movilidad, accesibilidad, disponibilidad de conocimiento, etc.).