Abstract
Within the corpora of string figures, the concept of transformation is omnipresent and at work on different levels. First, a string figure is the result of the continuous transformation of a loop of string. Secondly, the sources give evidence that the practitioners worked out how to transform one figure into another. The heart-sequence analysis of certain transformations shows how the creators of these algorithms were able to partially unravel a completed figure X to join a connection point with another procedure to reach another figure Y. This provides a way of transforming figure X into figure Y. Finally, it is the final figure geometry that the practitioners transformed by working out possible combinations of “motifs”.
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- 1.
In New Caledonia, for instance, Compton found it under the same name “Stars” (Compton 1919, p. 217).
- 2.
See the procedure 44. Misima in the accompanying website (Kaninikula Corpus).
- 3.
See Sect. 3.2.2.1
- 4.
See Sect. 6.4.1 (The beginning of Na Tifai).
- 5.
See the procedure 59. Mwaya tomdawaya in the accompanying website.
- 6.
See Sect. 6.4.1.
- 7.
See Sect. 6.4.4.
- 8.
See also the procedure 54. Salibu in the accompanying website (Kaninikula Corpus).
- 9.
See the procedure 8. Kala tugebi navalulu in the accompanying website.
- 10.
See Sect. 6.4.4.
- 11.
See Sect. 6.4.2 (From \(Conf\left (\underline{O}.A\right )\) to Conf(A)).
- 12.
See Sect. 3.4.3
- 13.
- 14.
I carried out ethnographical fieldwork as part of the 4 year 2005–2009 ACI project (Aide Concertée Incitative) entitled “Anthropology of Mathematics”, coordinated by Agathe Keller, historian of mathematics, and myself. Financially, we were supported by the French Research Ministry.
References
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Vandendriessche, E. (2015). Understanding Transformations. In: String Figures as Mathematics?. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11994-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11994-6_7
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