1. Read the complete book concept proposal requested from Bill Atweh <b.atweh@qut.edu.au>
* 2. Discuss an idea of the chapter with your colleagues, or preferably, your international collaborators.
* 3. Submit a proposal between 400 and 800 words or a 1-2 single-space page proposal identifying (a) the working title of the chapter, (b) proposed authors, their position and institution, (c) a short abstract about the content and type of chapter proposed, and (d) a short biography of each of the authors with their email contact details.
* 4. Submit all entries to b.atweh@qut.edu.au by May 1, 2004.
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a) Working title of the chapter:
Pop: An Application of Ethnomathematics to the Study of Sacred Mayan Mat Patterns
b) Proposed co-authors:
Milton Rosa
Math Teacher , Encina High School in Sacramento, California, USA.
Daniel Clark Orey
Professor of Mathematics and Multicultural Education at California State University, Sacramento, California, USA.
c) Abstract
One of the important concepts of ethnomathematics is the consideration of associations between mathematics and distinct cultural historical forms of mathematics, in which this holistic context looks to study, reflect, understand and comprehend the relations between the components of distinct cultural groups through the constant analysis of each individual’s cultural surroundings.
The overall purposes of this chapter are to discuss data from our study related to the connections made between mathematical practices and Mayan daily life in Central America. The Mayans of Guatemala represent a vibrant modern culture with roots to an ancient Native American civilization that grew to be one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas. The people known as the ancient Maya lived in the region that is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. After 900 AD, the Maya mysteriously disappeared from the southern lowlands of Guatemala. They later reappeared in the north on the Yucatán Peninsula and in the highlands of Southern México and Guatemala; where they continued to dominate the area until the Spanish conquest. Modern descendants of the Maya form a very large and vibrant part of the population of the region today. Although many have acquired Spanish ways, a significant number of modern Maya peoples maintain ancient ethnic customs and language.
A secondary, but less important purpose of this chapter will be to analyze aspects of the Mayan culture in accordance from the perspective of ethnomathematics. The Mayan peoples constructive elaborate and complex city-states, which included massive stone pyramids, temples, and sculpture and accomplished complex achievements in mathematics and astronomy, which were recorded in hieroglyphs. The Mayans utilized sacred geometric patterns called Pop or mats. These patterns were sculpted in stone, jewels and woven in cloth and are in evidence today in handicrafts and other forms of cultural artifacts made by modern Mayan decedents of the region. Many of the objects found in Mexico and Central America demonstrated that Mayan priests made decisions based on mathematics, and may have used some form of sacred mat patterns, which may have contained significances based on the sacred or final values of each pattern. This chapter will explore the Mayan Story of Creation and its connections with mathematics. This story begins with zero and its numbered verses from one to nine, but each of the numbers were connected to particular Mayan gods. The divine force is hidden in each number, from one to nine; therefore, numbers were selected not only for a desired purpose of disciplining the collective population as a whole, but for the salvation of the people themselves. The relationship between the Mayan tree of life and the Mayan fascination of the diamond shape are also analyzed from an ethnomathematical perspective by the authors.
d) Biographies
Daniel Clark Orey is Professor of Multicultural and Mathematics Education in the College of Education and an instructor in the Department of Learning Skills at California State University Sacramento. He earned his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction in Multicultural Education from the University of New Mexico in 1988. Professor Orey lived in Guatemala from 1980-1982 as a teacher of English and Mathematics in two schools. His Mellon-Tinker funded field research allowed him to return in 1983 to Highland Maya Guatemala and Puebla, Mexico where he integrated the use of Logo programming language in four schools in the region. In 1998, he was a J. William Fulbright Scholar to the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas in Brazil. Dr. Orey has written several books and articles in both Portuguese and English.
Milton Rosa is a distinguished visiting Brazilian Mathematics Teacher at Encina High School, in Sacramento, California, sponsored through a unique collaboration between the State of California and the San Juan Unified School District in Carmichael California since September 1999. Mr. Rosa has been teaching mathematics and sciences in public middle, high schools and technical-high schools in Brazil, since 1988. In 1998, he was invited to come to California to participate in the international mathematics visiting teacher exchange program. Mr. Rosa earned his masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from California State University, Sacramento, California in 2000. Mr. Rosa has written several articles in both Portuguese and English languages. Milton Rosa is the author of numerous mathematics books in Brazil.
