Ethnomathematics studies cultural practices with mathematical ingredients. Image: Steven Bradlow

Mathematics is not only written with numbers or equations. It is also traced in the sand, tied in ropes, or drawn on the walls of a house. With the aim of highlighting and studying these forms of mathematics, ICMAT is launching an international working group dedicated to ethnomathematics, a discipline that unites mathematics, anthropology, arts, and other areas of the humanities. Its first activity will be held on June 19 and includes three lectures on some of these cultural manifestations: Inca quipus, house decoration in South Africa, Chokwe Sona drawings from Angola, or geometric ornamentation in Islamic art.

Ágata Timón (ICMAT-CSIC)

In the academic world, a vision of mathematics as universal knowledge, independent of time, place, or culture, predominates. However, there is another way to approach the study of mathematics, which recognizes that the ideas and practices of this discipline are profoundly influenced by their context. This is a field, bridging anthropology and mathematics, called ethnomathematics. “Ethnomathematics emphasizes the idea that mathematics not only appears immersed in a culture, but cannot be dissociated from it,” says Oscar García-Prada, research professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT) and organizer of the conference “An Invitation to Ethnomathematics“, which will be held at ICMAT on June 19, from 10:00 to 13:00.

The activity, which marks the starting point of a new international working group on ethnomathematics, with its epicenter at ICMAT, will present some of the topics addressed in this area. This is the case of the sona – “sand designs made by the Chokwe people of northeastern Angola,” explains García-Prada – the quipu – “sets of ropes and knots of various colors, originally used by the Incas as a system of signs and calculation” – or the decoration of house walls made by women in Lesotho and neighboring areas of South Africa – “with geometric designs in which, as in many other cases, the concept of symmetry is central,” clarifies the mathematician.

For this, three lectures have been scheduled: “Mathematics and art in Africa”, given by Steven Bradlow, Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA); “Symmetry as a bridge between mathematics and culture”, by Antonio Costa, Professor at the National University of Distance Education; and “Quipus, a numbering system?”, by Manuel de León, research professor at the CSIC in ICMAT. The activity will take place in the Orange Classroom of the ICMAT, will be held in English, and is open to anyone interested in the topic.

Ethnomathematics, a discipline unknown even to the mathematical community

The term ethnomathematics was coined in the late 1970s by the Brazilian mathematician Ubiratan D’Ambrosio. “He used it to refer to a discipline whose interest is to understand mathematical practices in relation to culture, often associated with cultures without written expression,” describes García-Prada. In the words of American mathematician Marcia Ascher, it is the “study of the mathematical ideas of traditional peoples.”

“By being interested in human groups, ethnomathematics is linked to disciplines such as anthropology, history, linguistics, or art in its various manifestations,” says García-Prada. Perhaps because of its multidisciplinary nature, ethnomathematics remains little known, even within the mathematical community itself. “With this new working group that we are promoting from ICMAT, we want to contribute to changing this situation. The objective is to generate spaces for exchange through diverse activities. Among them, educational workshops are planned that will use this cultural richness to bring mathematical concepts closer to students of different levels,” he states.