Re: Ethnomathematics
-- On 25 Feb 2003 at 23:58, Sarad AV wrote: Ethnomathematics is the study of mathematics which takes into consideration the culture in which mathematics arises. Mathematics is often associated with the study of universals. When we speak of universals, however, it is important to recognize that often something we think of as universal is merely universal to those who share our cultural and historical perspectives. Doubtless among Margaret Mead's happy fun loving socialist free love practicing Samoans, three plus three equalled four. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG v+NaePzhJvBgWFvKEiBLJz6Xkkcnk4Si7pg+h+Gd 4dztWvm+OzZ43IaSm6G69uaLLisWXr4ltulX/X5tE
Re: Ethnomathematics
John Bethencourt [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 10:02:05PM +1300, Peter Gutmann wrote: Well, I made a start a few years ago with Network Security: A Feminist Perspective (done when people ask me to do security talks for them without bothering to specify which aspect of security they want me to talk about) about halfway down my home page. The direct link to the slides is http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/fhealth.pdf. Hilarious! I loved it, but it was so short. You should do an extended, in depth treatment of this subject in the spirit of Sokal. I could never maintain that for more than a page or two (although I do have an upcoming X.509 RFC with a paragraph of two of Marxist philosophy taking the place of the usual rambling philosophising over why the RFC is needed). If someone else wants to take over from/extend the above work, they're welcome to. Peter.
Re: Ethnomathematics
Bill Stewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Actually doing a female-oriented physics or teaching curriculum is fine, if somebody can do a good job of it. Well, I made a start a few years ago with Network Security: A Feminist Perspective (done when people ask me to do security talks for them without bothering to specify which aspect of security they want me to talk about) about halfway down my home page. The direct link to the slides is http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/fhealth.pdf. Peter.
Re: Ethnomathematics
On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 10:02:05PM +1300, Peter Gutmann wrote: Well, I made a start a few years ago with Network Security: A Feminist Perspective (done when people ask me to do security talks for them without bothering to specify which aspect of security they want me to talk about) about halfway down my home page. The direct link to the slides is http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/fhealth.pdf. Peter. Hilarious! I loved it, but it was so short. You should do an extended, in depth treatment of this subject in the spirit of Sokal. John Bethencourt
Re: Ethnomathematics
At 5:41 PM -0800 on 2/24/03, Tim May wrote: Here's an image the censors are already trying to get removed: http://images.ogrish.com/2003/2212003/decap3.jpg Yuck. I can't wait to see where Tim got this one from. I expect he's trolling the universe with it, though... Cheers, RAH Who remembers a biker-dismemberment series here, from some court case or another. It's where they usually come from... -- - R. A. Hettinga mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/ 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA ... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience. -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Re: Ethnomathematics
At 05:41 PM 02/24/2003 -0800, Tim May wrote: Seriously, this flap is old news. I remember about a dozen years ago when some feminista professor was teaching female-oriented physics. Actually, she was _advocating_ the teaching of female-oriented physics. Was she an actual physics professor, talking about her own field, or some sort of literature/philosophy/sociology/politics professor? The latter type are definitely old news, but as long as they spend their time trying to convince female physics and mathematics professors to think about new ways to structure or teach their curriculum, that's fine. It's when they start dissing physics and math as hostile to women and thereby discouraging young women from going into the field that they really cause problems (as opposed to old boring sexist white male professors discouraging women from going into the field, which was the old problem.) Actually doing a female-oriented physics or teaching curriculum is fine, if somebody can do a good job of it. After all, most of these fields consist of real mathematics, exposure to real materials and their behaviour, sets of metaphors for understanding how the math and behaviour are related, and various levels of abstraction and concrete examples to interest students. The math is the math, and the materials either will or won't cooperate, but if feminist approaches can provide a set of metaphors or abstractions that help students (or at least female-culture-oriented students) understand how the math relates to the real world, then great! And if they can find a set of examples or problems that are less male-oriented than guns, rocketships, pushing pool cues into objects of various hardness and softness, or football and if this helps female students be more interested in the problems, or gives them examples that are more familiar to them, then great! There's certainly no shortage of boring textbooks out there, and if women who understand math and physics and communications can overcome Sturgeon's Law and the textbook publishers' mafia or teacher selection committees, then more power to them, and otherwise, well, the other 90% will be more gender-balanced.
RE: Ethnomathematics
-- From: Bill Stewart[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 2:52 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Ethnomathematics At 05:41 PM 02/24/2003 -0800, Tim May wrote: Seriously, this flap is old news. I remember about a dozen years ago when some feminista professor was teaching female-oriented physics. Actually, she was _advocating_ the teaching of female-oriented physics. Was she an actual physics professor, talking about her own field, or some sort of literature/philosophy/sociology/politics professor? The latter type are definitely old news, but as long as they spend their time trying to convince female physics and mathematics professors to think about new ways to structure or teach their curriculum, that's fine. It's when they start dissing physics and math as hostile to women and thereby discouraging young women from going into the field that they really cause problems (as opposed to old boring sexist white male professors discouraging women from going into the field, which was the old problem.) Actually doing a female-oriented physics or teaching curriculum is fine, if somebody can do a good job of it. After all, most of these fields consist of real mathematics, exposure to real materials and their behaviour, sets of metaphors for understanding how the math and behaviour are related, and various levels of abstraction and concrete examples to interest students. The math is the math, and the materials either will or won't cooperate, but if feminist approaches can provide a set of metaphors or abstractions that help students (or at least female-culture-oriented students) understand how the math relates to the real world, then great! And if they can find a set of examples or problems that are less male-oriented than guns, rocketships, pushing pool cues into objects of various hardness and softness, or football and if this helps female students be more interested in the problems, or gives them examples that are more familiar to them, then great! There's certainly no shortage of boring textbooks out there, and if women who understand math and physics and communications can overcome Sturgeon's Law and the textbook publishers' mafia or teacher selection committees, then more power to them, and otherwise, well, the other 90% will be more gender-balanced. I don't know if this is what Tim was refering to, but it's of interest: http://www.physics.iastate.edu/per/docs/ref5.pdf Shows how changing the examples used in physics exams changes the responses of male and female students. Peter
Re: Ethnomathematics
On Monday, February 24, 2003, at 04:43 PM, Kevin S. Van Horn wrote: Anonymous wrote: Ethnomathematics Good lord, this sounds like it was practically designed to sabotage the prospects for minorities to excel in mathematics, by encouraging them to waste their efforts on nonsense and useless trivia. Math be for whitey, Excel be for Microsoft whiteys and Chinks. Seriously, this flap is old news. I remember about a dozen years ago when some feminista professor was teaching female-oriented physics. Actually, she was _advocating_ the teaching of female-oriented physics. Her shtick was that classical physics is a male rape fantasy, complete with forces and the planets being pushed around in their orbits. (Showing, amongst other things, that she didn't know about geodesics and least action principles.) She advocating reframing physics in terms of envelopment (planets move as the Mother envelopes them) and nurturing (objects fall in order to be closer to the Mother) and vagino-centric principles. It was just this kind of postmodern, deconstructionist crap which made the Sokal hoax so timely (the one about the implications of Marxist ideology, blah blah, for string theory!). Frankly, if the inner city welfare mutants wish to study ebonomathematics, I'm all for it. The negro leaders in America are doing a very good job of putting the nigger back in the negro. Here's an image the censors are already trying to get removed: http://images.ogrish.com/2003/2212003/decap3.jpg --Tim The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. -- Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789
Re: Ethnomathematics
Anonymous wrote: Ethnomathematics Good lord, this sounds like it was practically designed to sabotage the prospects for minorities to excel in mathematics, by encouraging them to waste their efforts on nonsense and useless trivia.
Re: Ethnomathematics
Good lord, this sounds like it was practically designed to sabotage the prospects for minorities to excel in mathematics, by encouraging them to waste their efforts on nonsense and useless trivia. This was kind of the thrust of my recent posts on the black issue. There's almost the built-in assumption that they can't excel in math, so let's get them something that will at least keep them in the classroom. Fuck that. Black folks can do just fine in math, and believe me I know. But as long as you keep watering down the cirriculum, all you'll get is more lumpen prolitariat cranked out. Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to see the occasional history course in math and science pop up, and aware of Chinese and Arabic contributions to science and technology in particular. But let's not have another math-version of ebonics. -TD _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
