Fwd: [Isgem] Multimathemacy (anthropology of math) meeting in London

[Maria Droujkova]

Sounds curious!

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
919-388-1721

Make math your own, to make your own math

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Karen François <karen.f...@vub.ac.be>
Date: Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 8:46 AM
Subject: [Isgem] mailing list
To: Rik Pinxten <rikpi...@yahoo.com>
Cc: Is...@nmsu.edu

Dear colleagues and friends,

 

I would like to invite you to have a look at our initiative (see below) and I hope that some of you will submit (by January 15) a proposal so that we can continue our discussions and collaboration. http://www.nomadit.co.uk/rai/events/rai2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1021

 

Best wishes for all of you and a Happy New Year,

 

Karen François & Rik Pinxten

University Brussels & University Ghent-Belgium

 

British Museum, London, UK; 8^th - 10^th June 2012

(P04)

Multimathemacy: an anthropology of mathematical literacy

Location [TBD]
Date and Start Time [TBD] at [TBD]

Convenor

Hendrik Pinxten (Ghent University) email
Mail All Convenors

Short Abstract

This panel will focus on an anthropology of formal thinking and its contribution to the curriculum reform of mathematics education in multi-cultural societies. Based on the findings from ethnomathematics and critical-mathematics-education we will argue for a curriculum of multimathemacy.

 ----------------------

[Julia Brodsky]

Curious, but I have no idea what they are looking for, other than arguing that different people need different approaches - anything else to that? Do they plan to discuss the specific approaches, and recommend them to different groups of people? 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MathFuture" group.
To post to this group, send email to mathf...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mathfuture+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture?hl=en.

--
Julia Brodsky
www.artofinquiry.net

[Paul Libbrecht]

Julia,

EthnoMathematics is a math-education-theory, have a look at http://www.ethnomath.org/

I think they seem to intend discuss how this and related fields have influenced math-curriculum.

There's a zillion things to be done by comparing mathematics done in different times and different countries.

Also, have a look at the last ICMI study about mathematics in multilingual classrooms:

http://www.icmi-21.co.za/

I can also find you the proceedings of that study (the study volume is not ready yet).

paul

[kirby urner]

Hah, interesting.

What I'd be prepared to talk about, were I to give a talk, is post UK
ethnicities with more advanced conceptions and more space age
curricula, and why it's important for Brits to update their thinking
and become less backward as an Earthian subculture.

I might pay a few people to picket outside during the talk, about how
the British Museum is still holding on to a lot of antiques and
treasures gotten by naked aggression against meeker peoples. A lot of
that stuff should have been returned by now, more evidence that the UK
IQ is dangerously low.

I might tie in with the Occupy theme given the work in Chile etc. to
bring education more into alignment with the actual needs of real
people.

In my day, 'Geodesic Math and How To Use It' was of more practical use
(also the 'Dome Book' handbooks) than anything by a math professor
(Dr. Kenner was in the literature department), and yet the USA
curriculum was still taking its cues from the Brits. Those days are
over (I'm pretty sure the Brits will agree) but it's not unfriendly to
elder a weaker sibling or other family members and attempt to show
them less feeble-minded ways into the future.

Kirby

[Julia Brodsky]

Thank you, Paul. Do you happen to know a good  good generic introduction/overview of ethnomathematics? 

Recently, I observed two kids arguing about platonic solids and getting confused - in English you count faces, while in Russian you count edges :) 

Regards,

Julia

[Paul Libbrecht]

The best I found is the following but I found no "public" URL yet:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/40247876

Ethnomathematics and Its Place in the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics

Ubiratan d'Ambrosio

For the Learning of Mathematics
Vol. 5, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 44-48 
(article consists of 5 pages)

Published by: FLM Publishing Association

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40247876

It's just 6 pages long and convinced me really well.

paul

[kirby urner]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Paul Libbrecht <pa...@hoplahup.net> wrote:
>
> The best I found is the following but I found no "public" URL yet:
> http://www.jstor.org/pss/40247876
>
> Ethnomathematics and Its Place in the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics
> Ubiratan d'Ambrosio
> For the Learning of Mathematics
> Vol. 5, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 44-48
> (article consists of 5 pages)
> Published by: FLM Publishing Association
> Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40247876
>

Just checked it. Funny there's anything to be convinced about as
clearly all math is ethno-math in the sense of having been innovated
by real people mired in their spacetime continua, which always means
more than just an empty holodeck: one has culture, or multiple
cultures.

Good example: the math around polynomials owes everything to the
mentally athletic culture around Pisa, where patrons sponsored "fast
horse" algorithm developers to out-compute one another in factoring
polynomials of whatever degree (obviously higher is harder, to the
point of insolubility by algebraic means, though not more empirical
testing means ala Newton's method and others). Were it not for this
Mediterranean sport, of advanced factoring, we could not have had such
a place in the zeitgeist for Galois or Abel (of Abelian group fame).

The deficiency Wittgenstein saw then, which most anthropologists came
to see it later, with Frazer's 'Golden Bough' (a pioneering work in
ethnic science) is it was too blind to its own ethnocentrism (what
Brits / Scots / UKers are known for). Early ethnography has a bad
name as it was always biased towards "looking down" on "the others" as
"left behind" whereas one was oneself presumably tapping into some
"universal" or "global" namespace ("like we'll all talk in the future"
is the common conceit).

Wittgenstein's own investigations into the foundations of mathematics,
in contrast to Frege's / Russell's (with which he'd been intimately
familiar) was to branch away towards ethnic studies, but in a way that
showed off what a more unbiased approach would look like. Overcoming
deeply ingrained biases entails freeing oneself on one's own ethnicity
to an extent few of his contemporaries dared (or really could if
they'd wanted to).

<aside type="historical background>

For those who don't know, Ludwig WIttgenstein was one of the great
philosophers of mathematics (though not always welcomed by
mathematicians, who often prefer a Frazer-like ethnocentrism),
Austrian born, but eventually a Brit (a misfit, often un- or
under-employed, sometimes houseless, yet familiar with great wealth
and well connected, so not hurting for friends with benefits most of
the time).

The failure of Prussian education frustrated Wittgenstein terribly in
that he was unable to communicate with either students or parents in
that school system (he was an elementary / secondary school teacher
for awhile).

Note: Wittgenstein remained anti-Brit at some level, even after
putting down outward weapons against them (he'd fought for the
Austrians in WW1). He would say things about their national character
that proved he felt alienated, an outsider. For this reason, some
scholars have taken to examining his Russian sympathies. Kimberly
Cornish has gone furthest in this direction with his 'The Jew of Linz'
wherein he makes the case that Ludwig was actually in league with
Philby as a spy for Russian intelligence. I've been posting fragments
of a possible screen play to another list, suggesting how it might go
were the BBC, say, to do a made-for-TV version of this narrative.

</aside>

<advice>

The ethnic axioms and definitions of Euclid provide a splendid as
intro the the theorems-based-on-axioms model of math (one of the most
widely adopted by various ethnicities), however one can breathe new
life into that whole bag of concepts by doing more in the surrounding
curriculum to develop geometric thinking and awareness in cahoots with
the planar / trigonometric abstractions.

Start with polyhedrons (polyhedra) and get used to the idea of a
nomenclature / namespace surrounding them. Start verifying V + F == E
+ 2 well before looking at proofs of same.

Opportunities to build, weld, wire, will present themselves. Motor
skills are important in STEM, even if in "pure math" (not really our
business here) they let you get away with enormous levels of physical
incompetence (awkwardness, unskillfulness), in exchange for your
compliance as a cube farmer, i.e. a cube-contained animal (with or
without a ball and chain).

Some mathematicians can barely replace a light bulb except in their
own minds. Don't let them do that to you.

In general, be clear what a theorem means, what it asserts, and how
that gets used in practice, before you dive into the proving side.

Too often, the reverse is done: slave over a proof for a theorem
believed to have no real value or significance (no persuading or
convincing was done, instead a lazy "everybody should know this"
approach is adopted).

</advice>

My use of XML tags shows off my geek subculture heritage. We're the
people who bring you much that is annoying in this world, such as
Youtube and 'Annoying Orange'.

I'm thinking maybe Annoying Orange should join Vi Hart in working with
Sal and Khan Academy. He'd take on a role more like 'The Grouch' in
'Sesame Street'. He could heckle the lawyers more (a competing
ethnicity in some ways, was we both "code" and "implement rules" (our
stuff is just faster)).

Kirby

[kirby urner]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 11:40 AM, kirby urner <kirby...@gmail.com> wrote:

<< snip >>

> <advice>
>
> The ethnic axioms and definitions of Euclid provide a splendid as
> intro the the theorems-based-on-axioms model of math (one of the most
> widely adopted by various ethnicities), however one can breathe new
> life into that whole bag of concepts by doing more in the surrounding
> curriculum to develop geometric thinking and awareness in cahoots with
> the planar / trigonometric abstractions.
>

Garbled. Fixed: "The ethnic axioms and definitions of Euclid provide
a splendid intro to the theorems-based-on-axioms model of math..."

> Start with polyhedrons (polyhedra) and get used to the idea of a
> nomenclature / namespace surrounding them.  Start verifying V + F == E
> + 2 well before looking at proofs of same.
>

Here is where I would advise diving more into the "soap operas" of
mathematics, which is equivalently part of their Anthropology.

STEM + Anthropology = STEAM. Adding the anthro might as well be
through ethno-math, why not?

So we learn how Descartes had maybe discovered V + F == E + 2 but was
afraid to put it out there, because it connected back to Kepler and
Copernicus, still hot potatoes. Too topological for the day.

He encrypted his discovery instead, which is how Leibniz came to find
the notebook later (no, not on eBay) and deciphered it.

Fast forward to our own time, and you have H.S.M Coxeter, the great
geometer, hyping 10 * F * F + 2, where F is the number of intervals
between intertangent equi-sized spheres (not faces). You'll learn
about this formula in 'The King of Infinite Space' (his bio) but
curiously without an explanation of the formula, as the author deemed
that too much a NIH thing ("not invented here" -- not Coxeter's
discovery).[0]

S = 10 * F * F + 2 relates to the number of spheres in each successive
layer of a growing cuboctahedron of balls, how crystallographers in
Dr. Loeb's camp (Harvard, MIT) thought we might introduce the
so-called FCC lattice ( = CCP = closest cubic packing). This is a
post-cubist approach in some ways (less reliance on cubes) and
therefore is mildly maverick, slightly boat rocking. Even that little
amount of deviance is enough to cause minds to close shut (closing out
the cuboctahedron).[1]

Tibetan and Bhutanese Math has a cuboctahedron, plus when I was
serving in the latter region I provided some new views, complete with
V + F == E + 2 and 10 * F * F + 2. This was way back in the 1980s.
It wouldn't surprise me if Himalayan high culture were by this time 10
years ahead of the UK's at least, especially given the Swiss
connections.[2] Lots of computers in Thimphu these days (both human
and machine).

Kirby

[0] http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4207576271/

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=twF7pOYXSTcC&lpg=PA297&ots=lcoMIsLw_j&dq=harvard%20loeb%20cuboctahedron&pg=PA297#v=onepage&q&f=false

[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3859886616/

[Paul Libbrecht]

Well, 

For the population here you may be well right.

For the "math consumers" this is far from true, here are three examples:

Most of the normal learners I've met.

An education researcher in multilingual education, the wife of a math researcher, told me two months ago her surprise that different mathematics cultures existed... there's a world out there to convince and inform and I am not sure the history is the right way to do.

Similarly, an exhibit in Paris that is still running about "Mathematical Elsewhere" contains nothing about currently diverging mathematical cultures.

As a summary, I think, many understand mathematics to be a way to go away from culture!

paul

[Maria Droujkova]

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 1:28 PM, Julia Brodsky <in...@artofinquiry.net> wrote:

Thank you, Paul. Do you happen to know a good  good generic introduction/overview of ethnomathematics? 

Paul sent a cool article. If I give the elevator speech, I say ethnomathematics is about modern mathematicians building links between their theories and traditional arts and crafts.

Here is my explanation, from the NASA magnet suite we designed last year - the unit I called "Cheer for ethnomathematics!" was about making the Mars settlement beautiful. 

"Spending hours every day drawing the "Mona Lisa" may not be realistic for first settlers. On the other hand, you can count on the know-how of past cultures for quick and easy designs that are also strikingly beautiful. If you are covering your shelter in bricks anyway, why not lay them in patterns based on tribal embroidery from South America? When roofing the dome, take color and layout hints from basketry patterns from Africa or the Pacific Islands. As you insulate the tubes, program your robot to borrow frieze formulas from Roman buildings or Middle Eastern rugs. Traditional folk designs have been honed over the centuries to be pleasing to the eye. They are easily made by anyone in the village - or by your brick-laying bot, programmed with the formula."

Ron Eglash is the person who gave me the idea - he's always connecting ethnomath with computer math with interactive applets: http://csdt.rpi.edu/

MariaD

 

[kirby urner]

On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 5:42 AM, Maria Droujkova <drou...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 1:28 PM, Julia Brodsky <in...@artofinquiry.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you, Paul. Do you happen to know a good  good generic
>> introduction/overview of ethnomathematics?
>
>
> Paul sent a cool article. If I give the elevator speech, I say
> ethnomathematics is about modern mathematicians building links between their
> theories and traditional arts and crafts.
>

I'd say it's about communicating somewhat alien results to ethnicities
in a multi-dimensional phase space -- a translation service in a way
(everyone needs their own ethnographers, to explain it to *them*).

The Chinese Peace Corps demo project, where they bring some of their
own disaster / relief management skills for sharing, in places like
Detroit, will mean more Liping Ma types in the 'hood, talking to local
math teachers. This is ethnomath as a two way street, which it always
has been. North Americans have a lot to learn, certainly (just look
at this place, what a mess).

> Here is my explanation, from the NASA magnet suite we designed last year -
> the unit I called "Cheer for ethnomathematics!" was about making the Mars
> settlement beautiful.
>

Yes, I was doing Martian Math as a unit for a Reed College based pilot
last year as well. I wrote the curriculum because of anyone in
Portland I'm uniquely qualified, having the moniker "the martian" in
high school, as narrated here:

http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2008/11/smiley-guy.html

Here's the kind of stuff I was teaching:

http://wikieducator.org/Martian_Math (first paragraph links to the
course web site)

Photostream record:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/sets/72157622961425831/

> "Spending hours every day drawing the "Mona Lisa" may not be realistic for
> first settlers. On the other hand, you can count on the know-how of past
> cultures for quick and easy designs that are also strikingly beautiful. If
> you are covering your shelter in bricks anyway, why not lay them in patterns
> based on tribal embroidery from South America? When roofing the dome, take
> color and layout hints from basketry patterns from Africa or the Pacific
> Islands. As you insulate the tubes, program your robot to borrow frieze
> formulas from Roman buildings or Middle Eastern rugs. Traditional folk
> designs have been honed over the centuries to be pleasing to the eye. They
> are easily made by anyone in the village - or by your brick-laying bot,
> programmed with the formula."
>

Sure, have a lava lamp screen saver too, remember the 60s woo hoo.

> Ron Eglash is the person who gave me the idea - he's always connecting
> ethnomath with computer math with interactive applets: http://csdt.rpi.edu/
>
> MariaD
>

Hah, Ron English is the artist I follow, a mnemonic anyway. He's a
sort of cartoonist, like Shepard Fairey, our chief of propaganda in
some dimensions.

Kirby Urner

"a STEM teacher in 97214"