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Author: Ville-Matias Heikkila <viznut@low.fi>
Date: Sat Aug 13 11:42:46 +0300
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+**Ethnomathematics** is the study of the relationships of mathematics and
+culture, with a specific focus on the mathematical thinking of indigenous or
+"non-literate" peoples. **Ethnocomputing** is an offshoot of
+ethnomathematics that does the same thing with computing. In practice, both
+ethnomathematics and ethnocomputing are most often connected with education,
+with the belief that using familiar concepts from one's own cultural
+background will lead to better learning results.
+
+Ethnocomputing and ethnomathematics are relevant to permacomputing
+particularly from the point of view of [[technological diversity]]. How we
+currently conceptualize computing is a result of specific historical and
+cultural conditions, and the cultural basis is actually getting narrower due
+to [[siliconization]]. Ethnomathematics and ethnocomputing can be used to
+reveal this narrowness as well as to help imagine a greater diversity of
+options. They may also help envision deeper [[historical|history]] roots to
+algorithmic, computational and mathematical thinking – they're much older
+and much more universal than commonly thought in the eurocentric
+techno-progressivist narrative.
+
+NOTE: While cultural appropriation is usually not a big concern in
+theoretical computer science topics, it is possible to use ethnocomputing in
+problematic ways that make it a concern. One should be careful and
+respectful when using and representing computational or mathematical
+concepts from different cultures.
+
+Some interesting examples:
+
+* Many traditional divination systems (I Ching, Geomancy, Ifá) use binary combinatorics, i.e. give meanings to 3-, 4-, 6- and 8-bit binary sequences.
+* The quipu/khipu recording system of Andean peoples, based on strings and knots, has been studied as an example of a complex indigenous data structure.
+* Fractal-like recursion and self-similarity are very prominent in African arts. This is a central theme in Ron Eglash's seminal ethnomathematics book "African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design".
