Ethnomathematics in the Pacific

Dr Nancy Lane (please remove '.nospam' from address), director, Ethnomathematics Digital Library

Have you ever admired the handiwork of indigenous basket weaving, beadwork or tattooing? Next time, look closely and you will see geometry in the patterns. Indigenous counting and measurement systems have existed for thousands of years but have only lately been made the subject of Western research. The term 'Ethnomathematics' was coined in the mid-1980s by a Brazilian mathematician named Ubiratan D'Ambrósio to describe the concept of indigenous mathematics. D'Ambrósio also believed that mathematics can be better learned if it draws on a culture with which students are familiar.

The Ethnomathematics Digital Library (EDL) was developed to support ethnomathematics research and provide access to lesson plans and other curriculum-building activities so that indigenous groups could learn about their 'own' mathematics. The EDL currently holds information about 55 geographical areas and 65 cultural groups throughout the world. The focus will now turn toward the Pacific region as print information about topics such as Marshall Islanders' navigation and Micronesian astronomy is scanned into the library and catalogued for worldwide use on the Internet.

The EDL is a component of the National Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NDSL) at http://www.nsdl.org, which is funded by the US National Science Foundation. In addition, the Australian Academy of Science's website, NOVA: Science in the News, has an excellent introductory article about ethnomathematics with relevant links.

Please visit the EDL and give it a try. Your feedback is always appreciated.

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