Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas

by Geoffrey B. Saxe

Book Overview

Drawing upon field studies conducted in 1978, 1980, and 2001 with the Oksapmin, a remote Papua New Guinea group, Geoffrey B. Saxe traces the emergence of new forms of numerical representations and ideas in the social history of the community. In traditional life, the Oksapmin used a counting system that makes use of twenty-seven parts of the body; there is no evidence that the group used arithmetic in prehistory. As practices of economic exchange...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521761662
• ISBN13: 9780521761666
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 393 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.0"