Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas: Papua New Guinea
Drawing upon field studies conducted in ,and with a remote Papua New Guinea group,the Oksapmin,Geoffrey 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 27-body-part counting system,and there is no evidence that Oksapmin used arithmetic in prehistory. With shifting practices of economic exchange and schooling,children and adults unwittingly reproduce and alter the system as they