November 19, 2002
Another great moment in mathematics
The University of Hawaii has now managed to reach a new low in PC. They have now introduced the concept of ethnomathematics. You heard that right, ethnomathematics:
Advanced classes would include rainforest restoration, volcano studies and "ethnomathematics," which would look at the math of Hawaiian navigation, symmetries in Hawaiian textiles, and spatial relationships in fish nets and knots, for example.
What is amazing about this is that this occurred aftera professor of the hard sciences once scammed the PC crowd by writing a paper for some multi-culti journal about how multiculturalism has affected science, and how such things as Newton's law were simply a construct of the white man.
What is crazy is that even after the multi-culti crowd was successfully shown to be full of bovine scatology, that the University of Hawaii would actually attempt to do the exact same thing! Here is a clue for all the multi-culti types out there:
This statement
5 nn=1 | = | 15 |
The title ``ethnomathematics'' is (ahem) unfortunate, but the content looks interesting. Navigation, symmetries, knots - that's real math, with a hook to appeal to people who might not take a math class.
Posted by: Anton Sherwood on November 22, 2002 03:51 AMThe problem is that it is just "feel good" math, attempting to impart to polynesians a level of mathematical knowledge that they just plain didn't have.
Posted by: John Bono on November 25, 2002 10:09 PM
