Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Cultures

Claudia Zaslavsky 

Chicago Review Press | 1999 - 3ª edição | 369 páginas | rar - pdf | 10 Mb

link (password: matav)

This fascinating study of mathematical thinking among sub-Saharan African peoples covers counting in words and in gestures; measuring time, distance, weight, and other quantities; manipulating money and keeping accounts; number systems; patterns in music, poetry, art, and architecture; and number magic and taboos. African games such as mankala and elaborate versions of tic-tac-toe show how complex this thinking can be. An invaluable resource for students, teachers, and others interested in African cultures and multiculturalism, this third edition is updated with an introduction covering two decades of new research in the ethnomathematics of Africa.

CONTENTS
SECTION 1 THE BACKGROUND
1 African Mathematics? 6
2 Historical Background 17
SECTION 2 NUMBERS-WORDS, GESTURES, SIGNIFICANCE 29
3 Construction of Numeration Systems 32
4 How Africans Count 39
5 Taboos and Mysticism 52
SECTION 3 NUMBERS IN DAILY LlEE 59
6 The African Concept of Time 62
7 Numbers and Money 67
8 Those Familiar Weights and Measures! 84
9 Record-Keeping: Sticks and Strings 93
SECTION 4 MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS 99
10 Games to Grow On 102
11 The Game Played by Kings and Cowherds—and Presidents, Too! 116
12 Magic Squares 137
SECTION 5
13 Geometric Form in Architecture 155
14 Part I: Geometric Form and Pattern in Art 172
15 Part II: Geometric Symmetries in African Art, By D. W. Crowe, with Original Drawings 190
SECTION 6 REGIONAL STUDY: SOUTHWEST NIGERIA
15 History of the Yoruba States and Benin 200
16 Systems of Numeration 204
17 Significant Numbers 213
18 Time-Reckoning 221
19 Markets and Currency 224
SECTION 7 REGIONAL STUDY: EAST AFRICA 231
20 History of East Africa 234
21 Spoken and Gesture Counting 238
22 Number Superstitions 255
23 East African Time 259
24 Wealth Means Cattle—and Other Livestock 266
SECTION 8 PAST AND FUTURE 271
25 Pure Mathematics in Africa 273
26 Update: Twenty-Five Years Later 280