I enjoyed this overview of the transmission of knowledge, though it was a bit difficult to process given my relatively poor understanding of history. That being said, a few things of note:
1. Although I was aware that some
(much?) of Greek mathematics originated in Mesopotamia and Egypt, I did not
know that this knowledge came from Greek mathematicians travelling to these
places and acquiring this knowledge first hand. This came as a surprise to me
because of my relatively ‘fuzzy’ understanding of when these civilizations
existed.
2. Figure 1.3 which illustrates mathematical
activity through the dark ages was extremely interesting – I had no idea that
height of mathematics in China and India corresponded so closely with this
period in European history. I suppose this felt ‘surprising’ to me because I was
wrongly thinking of the entire planet as being in a dark age, rather than just
Europe. I hope to learn more about the developments during this time – I feel that
knowledge of this period would be very helpful in my own process of
decolonization.
3. Somewhat disappointing is the lack
of inclusion of Amerindian mathematics, specifically of the indigenous people
who lived in what is colonially known as Canada and the USA. Landon (1993) states
that “Traditionally, our ancestors preferred to rely on the intimacy and
interactive characteristics of the oral tradition as a teaching and storage
medium for what they knew of numbers, order and pattern. When a great many elders died
prematurely during the epidemics and wars that were part of the conquest of the
Americas, we lost a significant portion of our mathematical traditions”.
This suggests that this omission is not for lack of desire, but rather
lack of available content.
Landon
(1993) – American Indian Mathematics - Traditions and Contributions
https://www.pps.net/cms/lib/OR01913224/Centricity/Domain/179/pdfs/be-ai-ma.pdf
Fantastic post, Jacob. I truly appreciate your honest reflection, and you made a great observation about the lack of recognition of Amerindian mathematics. With the growing push for culturally relevant pedagogy, hopefully more of us math educators will incorporate non-European history of mathematics into our classrooms and help students appreciate the incredible contributions made by different cultures throughout history. You also made an excellent point about our own process of decolonization. This struck a chord with me as I learned a lot since BC introduced the mandate of incorporating Indigenous content in our K-12 curriculum, and the learning continues.
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