What is Ethnomathematics?

 Hello Reader,


    Apologies for being absent. I will post 5 blogs (including this one) Regarding topics covered during specific weeks.


    What is Ethnomathematics? Ethnomathematics is by definition "the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture." It would not be surprising for the average reader to not know this, or for you to not think this an interesting topic. This of course would be a poor assumption on the readers part. Once you start looking at yourself and others through the ethnomathematics lens, it can become quite clear how interesting this topic is.


    I would invite the reader to participate in a small activity to demonstrate this point. Hold up 1 finger. Then hold up 2. You may see where I am going with this. 1 by 1 count up till 5 on your fingers. Look at how you did so. Did you start with your pointer finger and end with your thumb? Or did you start with your thumb and end with your pinky finger? This small but noticeable difference isn't just a matter of how you grew up. it is influenced by how your ancestors did it. By the way your culture is raised to do so.





    Once you notice these changes it becomes easier to notice more and more changes. If you ask your friends how they do math, many will answer similarly due to being, most likely, raised in a similar culture as you, but some may differ based on their own background. Ethnomathematics is in everything, from math itself (duh?) as well as the world around us. Any geometric pattern that you see, plaid for example, is operating off of a basis of ethnomathematics!


Once you see ethnomathematics once, you start seeing it everywhere!!!

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