Indigenous Knowledge and Ethnomathematics

Eric Vandendriessche is an ethnomathematician, researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), member of the Science, Philosophy, History laboratory (CNRS & University of Paris). He has published ethnomathematical research aiming at studying the mathematical character of different technical/procedural activities (string figure-making, sand drawing, mat making) as they are practiced in Melanesian societies. He has also published historiographical research. Recently, he coordinated the "Encoding and Transmitting Knowledge with a String: a comparative study of the cultural uses of mathematical practices in string figure-making (Oceania, North & South America)" (ETKnoS, 2016-2021) research project, supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
Rik Pinxten has worked as an anthropologist with the Navajo Indians of Arizona/New Mexico in the USA, on spatial knowledge in the language and in cultural practices. He developed a Navajo curriculum book for geometry teaching in primary school. With thoroughly comparative work on knowledge and studies in ethnomathematics, he has produced a synthesis on the use of anthropological studies in mathematics education. He has also published on epistemology and anthropology of knowledge. He is an activist and an academic.

Introduction to "Indigenous Knowledge and Ethnomathematics".- Creating 'Evocative Images' sunannguanik iqqaigutinik: Procedural Knowledge and the Art of Memory in the Inuit Practice of String Figure Making.- Modeling of implied strategies of Solo expert players.- Sand Drawing versus String Figure Making: Geometric and Algorithmic Practices in Northern Ambrym, Vanuatu.- Indigenous School Education. Brazilian Policies and the Implementation in Teacher Education.- Indigenous Mathematical Knowledge and Practices. State of the Art of the Ethnomathematics Brazilian Congresses (2000-2016).- Subverting epistemicide through 'the commons': Mathematics as re/making space and time for learning.- The Tapestry of Mathematics - Connecting Threads: A Case Study Incorporating Ecologies, Languages and Mathematical Systems of Papua New Guinea.- Indigenous mathematics in the Amazon: kinship as algebra and geometry among the Cashinahua.- The Western Mathematic and the Ontological Turn: Ethnomathematics and Cosmotechnics for the Pluriverse.- Conclusions to "Indigenous Knowledge and Ethnomathematics". Some lines of possible further research in ethnomathematics.

"This volume would be of interest to mathematics educators looking to bring relevance to their in-class activities, mathematical historians hoping to deepen their understanding of these topics, and finally, to mathematicians who are themselves wrestling with how colonization has impacted not only the peoples themselves but also the mathematics they bring with them." (Deborah Gochenaur, MAA Reviews, October 8, 2023)

“This volume would be of interest to mathematics educators looking to bring relevance to their in-class activities, mathematical historians hoping to deepen their understanding of these topics, and finally, to mathematicians who are themselves wrestling with how colonization has impacted not only the peoples themselves but also the mathematics they bring with them.” (Deborah Gochenaur, MAA Reviews, October 8, 2023)