Abstract
Anthropology used to be the study of exotic, or at the least non-western cultures. Although its range has been expanded over the decades to include the study of western subjects and that of intercultural interaction and communication (be it in the West or elsewhere), mathematics and mathematics education is still rarely connected to anthropology. So what can anthropology offer to the mathematics teachers? In my opinion, insights from at least four different foci of anthropological research are relevant for the mathematics teacher in general, whichever cultural group she is teaching: types of learning; cognitive contents; language structure and institutional aspects of teaching. Some of these may be closely interrelated in a particular perspective (e.g., language structure and cognitive contents for the linguistic relativist — see below), but analytically each can be distinguished from the next one. Each one of these imply both theoretical and practical knowledge. However, before I start on this journey, I have to state my position in the debate on the nature of the subject matter of teaching, that is on the nature of mathematics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
D’Ambrosio, U.: 1985, Socio-cultural Bases for Mathematics Education, Brasil: Unicamp.
D’Ambrosio, U.: 1987, Etnomatematica, Brasil: Campinas.
Bishop, A.J.: 1988a, Mathematical Enculturation, Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Bishop, A.J.: 1988b, ’The Interactions of Mathematics Education with Culture’, Cultural Dynamics, I (2), 145–157.
Carroll, J.B. (Ed.): 1956, Language, Thought and Reality. Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf Cambridge Mass.: M.I.T. Press.
Closs, M.P. (Ed.): 1986, Native American Mathematics, Austin: University of Texas Press.
Cole, M., Gay, J., Glick, J. and Sharp, D.: 1971, The Cultural Context of Learning. An exploration in experimental anthropology London: Methuen.
Cole, M. and Cole, S.: 1989, Children and Development, New York: Freeman.
Crump, T.: 1990, The Anthropology of Numbers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davis, P.J.: 1989, Applied Mathematics as Social Contract In Mathematics, Education and Society, Unesco STE Document 35, 24–27.
Davis, P. J. & Hersh, R.: 1981, The Mathematical Experience, Boston: Birkhäuser.
Davis, P. J. & Hersh, R.: 1986, Descartes’ dream: The world according to mathematics San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Dawe, L.: 1988, ‘The Impact of Culture in the Mathematics Classrooms of Multicultural Australia’, Cultural Dynamics, I (2), 196–209.
Ernest, P.: 1991, The Philosophy of Mathematics Education, London: Falmer Press.
Frankenstein, M.: 1989, Relearning Mathematics. A different third R-Radical Maths, London: Free Association Books.
Ifrah, G.: 1985, From One to Zero. A universal history of numbers Harmonsworth: Penguin.
Kearney, M.: 1983, World View, Novato Cal.: Chandler & Sharp Publishers Inc.
Keitel, C., Damerow, P. and Bishop, A. J. (Eds.): 1989, Mathematics, Education and Society, STE Unesco Document 35, Unesco, Paris.
Lancy, D.: 1983, Cross-cultural Studies in Cognition and Mathematics, New York: Academic Press.
Lave, J.: 1988, Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics, and Culture in Everyday Life Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, D.: 1972, We, the Navigators, Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Needham, J.: 1965, Science and Civilization in China, Vol.II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osgood, C.E., May, W.H. and Miron, M.S.: 1975, Cross-cultural universals of objective meaning, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.
Pinxten, R. and Farrer, C.: 1990, ‘A Comparative View on Learning’, Cultural Dynamics, III (3): 215–228.
Pinxten, R., van Dooren, I. and Harvey, F.: 1983, Anthropology of Space. Explorations into the Natural Philosophy and Semantics of the Navajo, Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press.
Pinxten, R., Soberon, E. and van Dooren, I.: 1987, Towards a Navajo Geometry, Gent: KKI Publishers.
Pinxten, R., mimeo, R., mimeo ’ Wiskunde voor migranten? Een voorstel over wiskundeonderwijs en kultuur’, paper for the Psycho-Medical Centers of Belgium, 1991.
Scribner, S. and Cole, M.: 1981, The Psychology of Literacy, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Tyler, S.: 1978, The Said and the Unsaid: Mind, Meaning and Culture, New York: Academic Press.
Witherspoon, G.: 1977 Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, A n n Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Zaslaysky, C.: 1973, Africa Counts, Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pinxten, R. (1994). Anthropology in the Mathematics Classroom?. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Cultural Perspectives on the Mathematics Classroom. Mathematics Education Library, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1199-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1199-9_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4424-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1199-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive