Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas

Geoffrey Saxe's Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas website provides video and visual supports for a forthcoming book, the Cultural development of mathematical ideas: Papua New Guinea studies (publication date: June, 2012, Cambridge University Press.) The book presents insights into relations between culture and cognition using the Oksapmin world as an illustrative case. On the pages of the Geoffrey's website, you will find clips that show people’s displays of the Oksapmin 27-body part count system, and their use of the system to solve arithmetic problems and to communicate about currency values. Also posted are photographs and video of daily life. The material was collected while Geoffrey was visiting Oksapmin communities in 1978, 1980, and 2001.

Visit the website at http://www.culturecognition.com/.