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Bamana Sand Divination: Recursion in Ethnomathematics

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Abstract

Ethnomathematics can consider recursion in two senses of the word. Mathematically, recursion consists of iterated functions, a kind of discrete feedback loop. Anthropologically, recursion is used in reflexive ethnographic description in which modern analytic methods become part of their own investigation. By comparing the recursive structure of Bamana divination techniques to recursion in modern mathematics, we can investigate some of the complex relations that bind technology and culture in both modern and traditional contexts.
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... The role of African divination systems is pivotal not only in understanding the epistemology of African Peoples and their cultures but also to unfold the extensive body of indigenous knowledge embedded in those practices (Chahine and Kinuthia, 2013). Eglash (1997) stick, in order to produce a chance number of dot traces or marks, which can then be scored as either odd or even. ...
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