The Virtual Bead Loom

Although mathematics is often taught to be and thought to be solely the product of European culture, nothing could be farther from the truth. It IS true that Western European culture is responsible for much of the symbolic and logical structure of modern mathematics, and being fluent in this often arcane tongue is what is sometimes as thought of as being GOOD at mathematics. But the beauty of mathematics is that it tends to deal with concepts that are UNIVERSAL to the human experience, such as our understanding of shapes, patterns and quantities.

As mentioned briefly in the post Induction from Patterns, when I was in Guatemala recently I discovered that geometric patterns were an important part of Mayan civilization. I later learned that Guatemalan women have actually passed down their understanding of geometry to their daughters through the act of weaving. The patterns below are a picture I took in a street market in the town of Santiago de Atitlan along the shores of Lago Atitlan.




There is an excellent resource here called Culturally Situated Design Tools from the work of Ron Eglash at RPI which provide interactive environments to explore the connection between mathematics and art in indigenous cultures. There is a great overview of these tools in his paper here. The persistent theme across cultures is the presence of repeating geometrical patterns with different types of symmetry and regularity. There are tools to explore cornrow patterns in African American culture, beadwork in Native American cultures, and pyramid design and adornment in Mayan culture. There is little information on how to incorporate more advanced mathematics, particularly high school concepts, to the use of these tools, however.