Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and mathematics education was clearly brought up by Guarani Mbyá teachers:
“Mathematics is important for the autonomy of Indigenous Peoples.”
This chapter thus conveys the collective intellectual and emotional process that
paved the way to the production of the
Book of Maps of São Paulo
, illustrated
by landscape drawings, cartographic images, historical narratives, and personal
trajectories - some of which are reproduced here. The idea that mathematics is a
human creation, rather than a universal achievement used as a measure of sheer
brilliance - some “get it” while others usually don't - was key in bringing workshop
participants together in an open and respectful environment.
The ideas and images here portrayed lead to the key realization informing our
work from a Freirian perspective: mathematics, history and socio-cultural identity are
intrinsically bound together, part of one and the same critical process of knowledge
construction. Mathematics is the product of human creation, that is,
all
Peoples
fashion their own mathematical knowledges and practices, which help inform their
own cosmologies, and thus their unique positions in the universe. Combining a cross-
cultural research program with a mathematics schooling practice is what gives meaning
to the field of
ethnomathematics
, as proposed by our guru Ubiratan D'Ambrosio
(1999).
Mathema
denotes knowledge, understanding, and explanation, while
tic
comes
from
techne
, the same root of art or technique. In this respect, ethnomathematics is the
art or technique of explaining, knowing, or understanding in various cultural contexts.
Ethnomathematics can thus be conceived as a theory of knowledge that privileges our
feelings, thoughts, actions, embodied skills, and taxonomies (Barth 1995), as well as
a theory of cognition that allows for the interplay between culture and mathematical
cognition (Bishop 2004; D'Ambrosio 1990, 2001; Ferreira 1997; Zaslavsky 1998).
First Week - Space, Time, and the Body: Who are we today and where are we
located?
Área Indígena Guarani do Krukutu
Guarani Krukutu Indigenous Area
The Krukutu Village has 25.88 hectares. It is located on the border of the
city of São Paulo. The area is demarcated. There are 23 families and the total
population is 68 individuals, mostly children. The school house was built by the
community. The roof is made of bamboo and wood. The Krukutu School has 20
students. There are 6 students who study at the Barragem School nearby.
Here in Krukutu there is also a dispensary built by the community. There is
corn growing which also belongs to us. There is an artesian well built by the
National Health Foundation in 1988. There are water pumps that take water to
the houses.
Marcio Werá Mirim Rodrigues, Guarani teacher at the Krukutu Village.
