“Mathematics has been gatekept by the West and defined to exclude entire cultures" declares Professor Rowena Ball of the Australian National University, who wants mathematics to be "decolonised".
As someone of indigenous extraction myself, I have plenty to say about this current "fad". I find it ridiculous and insulting.
And it violates one of the core tenets of woke ideology. This is basically an example of "cultural appropriation". Rowena Ball has no business, according to the supposedly inviolable rules of the belief system she apparently subscribes to, of describing or promoting or celebrating Aboriginal "science" and knowledge. It is not "hers", by definition, so she should "butt out". The penalties for cultural appropriation that critical social justice warriors have proposed are severe indeed.
There are lots of interesting things we can learn from paleocultures that might be relevant to real science. I have been composing a list of autochthonous mythology and legends and observations that might have something to teach us. For example, the Ishango bone from the Congo is quite intriguing. However, the idea that we need to reject mainstream STEM, which has been compiled by the collective efforts of all humanity, in favor of these scattered primitive tidbits is clearly nonsensical. It is white saviorism and virtue signaling and grandstanding of the most offensive sort.
One of my colleagues is a retired computer science professor in a region that is home to a lot of indigenous peoples. He recounted a story about some young aboriginal students who were taking classes in his department. So he asked them, would they be interested in these kinds of classes and studies in traditional knowledge?
The native kids said, "Hell no, we aren't interested in that crap. We want to get jobs."
And there you have it; profound wisdom out of the mouths of the youth. We should pay attention.
I don't think it's overstating things to say that it's a fetish for dark-skinned people. I'm of Indian extraction, and I think the mostly European study of mathematics is a miracle! We should be on our knees in gratitude rather than wallowing in this nonsense
However, it is obvious why she is doing this. There is a bandwagon of virtue signaling, and like hundreds or thousands of others, she wants to get on board. There is no original thought here. She is only parroting what others have spewed out over the last decade or more.
This is just a crazy fad. And hopefully, it is now starting to fade. However, we will have to see how things shake out. I hope the more negative feedback there is about this nonsense, the quicker its demise will come.
I am tempted to describe Prof Ball as something of a lunartic.
The linked article you provide is astonishing. In it, Prof Ball, describes Aboriginals as exploiting chirality when using smoke signals. This, she further claims, constitutes an "understanding" of vortices that could, if it had only been "nurtured", led to a better understanding of the role of vortices in weather dynamics.
Early civilizations noted that when rocks are dropped from city walls on to the heads of invaders they do some damage. What better understanding of gravity could we have had if only this knowledge had been nurtured, eh?
So, Norman Nugganuts of the Fair Dinkum tribe discovered zero a thousand years before anyone else? Good for him. What did he do with it? I'm all for ascribing credit where it's due - but it changes not a single thing about our understanding and practice of maths.
Credit is a nice historical thing that is of literally no consequence in the current practice and development of maths.
To describe maths as *anywhere* centric is an idiocy.
How would 'maths' have looked any different had someone else (other than oppressive whitey) done it? Not at all, I would suggest.
(1) It appears that the Mayans had something like a 'zero' as well, which they developed independently of the Eurasians. It apparently did not have all the same properties as the Indo-Arabic zero, however.
(2) Walter Isaacson, in his biography of Benjamin Franklin, describes Franklin's computational prediction of a solar eclipse during an Atlantic crossing back from Europe. Isaacson's account is sort of dismissive of this feat. However, as anyone who has studied celestial mechanics knows, this is a nontrivial accomplishment, particularly without tables or much in the way of computing devices. In addition, Franklin only had a minimal formal background and education in these sorts of areas. So this was pretty impressive. It has always struck me that Isaacson, being a nontechnical person, could not really appreciate what Franklin was able to do, for his own amusement and diversion.
(3) In addition, many of those in favor of "decolonizing" science or mathematics or STEM are selectively picking and choosing what practices and information from other cultures they want to adopt or incorporate into Western culture or mainstream STEM standards. There are over 5000 human languages in current use, and many more human cultures that exist than this. Some of these are primitive, indigenous cultures with deep roots centuries or millennia old. They all have their own ways of organizing themselves. There are different roles for different elements of society, such as the sexes. These roles are often not particularly flexible and frequently are in strict opposition to their counterparts in modern Western culture.
However, woke ideology is also beset with a sort of judgmental attitude, where even slightly different cultural views and standards from a few years or decades ago are now stridently rejected. Some have branded this tendency as "recentism". In recentism, everything that came before has to be torn down, rewritten, destroyed, obliterated, ignored, deconstructed, re-interpreted, and so on. History has to be rewritten according to modern standards. Statues are removed if they are thought or imagined to be tainted somehow with supposedly abhorrent views. Even the historic fight for desegregation is now rejected as "racist". Martin Luther King Jr. is now often decried as a "colorblind racist", and the principles he promulgated and advanced sneered at.
Therefore, this exposes another odd contradiction of woke ideology and its efforts to replace conventional STEM with primitive beliefs. It is in conflict with "recentism", which is applied in a haphazard fashion, apparently. And the other components of these traditional cultures are rejected with extreme prejudice. Only some of the information and deportment of these societies are celebrated and accepted and promoted. Others are summarily discarded, in a sort of arbitrary and capricious manner.
So this is another reason to not put much stock or invest much respect in these efforts to "decolonize" STEM.
Of course, many ancient cultures paid special attention to what happened in the sky - their survival depended on that. Proto-languages had similar names for important celestial bodies - RA is Sun even on Rapanui/Easter Island (was it forced on them by seafaring Egyptians or appropriated by the remote islanders learning Egyptology?… RA is related to Sun in most Slavic languages too)…
In 1900, there seem to have been also a total eclipse in North America (likely calculated and predicted by the natives here) and a couple lunar eclipses.
So, for Australian aborigines, the “austral annular solar eclipse” must have had a special meaning. There have to be carvings and petroglyphs commemorating it… and that would be the best proof that from now on we must teach mathematics in a fundamentally different way. There are also carvings of kangaroos, so the kinesiology of marsupials must be “decolonized” for science and society to move forward. Petroglyphs of men and women surrounded by offspring were probably used by the most primitive aborigines before they formulated the first principles of DEI.
I am curious, can you give an example of a Slavic language word for “sun” that sounds like RA? The words I know are related to “sol” (e.g., Russian солнце).
As someone of indigenous extraction myself, I have plenty to say about this current "fad". I find it ridiculous and insulting.
And it violates one of the core tenets of woke ideology. This is basically an example of "cultural appropriation". Rowena Ball has no business, according to the supposedly inviolable rules of the belief system she apparently subscribes to, of describing or promoting or celebrating Aboriginal "science" and knowledge. It is not "hers", by definition, so she should "butt out". The penalties for cultural appropriation that critical social justice warriors have proposed are severe indeed.
There are lots of interesting things we can learn from paleocultures that might be relevant to real science. I have been composing a list of autochthonous mythology and legends and observations that might have something to teach us. For example, the Ishango bone from the Congo is quite intriguing. However, the idea that we need to reject mainstream STEM, which has been compiled by the collective efforts of all humanity, in favor of these scattered primitive tidbits is clearly nonsensical. It is white saviorism and virtue signaling and grandstanding of the most offensive sort.
One of my colleagues is a retired computer science professor in a region that is home to a lot of indigenous peoples. He recounted a story about some young aboriginal students who were taking classes in his department. So he asked them, would they be interested in these kinds of classes and studies in traditional knowledge?
The native kids said, "Hell no, we aren't interested in that crap. We want to get jobs."
And there you have it; profound wisdom out of the mouths of the youth. We should pay attention.
I love that last anecdote! Those kids have their heads on straight.
I don't think it's overstating things to say that it's a fetish for dark-skinned people. I'm of Indian extraction, and I think the mostly European study of mathematics is a miracle! We should be on our knees in gratitude rather than wallowing in this nonsense
Madness! You lay the insanity out very well and the smug superiority, arrogance of these people.
How can you be a Professor and actively undermining education. I am embarrassed on their behalf...
This is true.
However, it is obvious why she is doing this. There is a bandwagon of virtue signaling, and like hundreds or thousands of others, she wants to get on board. There is no original thought here. She is only parroting what others have spewed out over the last decade or more.
This is just a crazy fad. And hopefully, it is now starting to fade. However, we will have to see how things shake out. I hope the more negative feedback there is about this nonsense, the quicker its demise will come.
I am tempted to describe Prof Ball as something of a lunartic.
The linked article you provide is astonishing. In it, Prof Ball, describes Aboriginals as exploiting chirality when using smoke signals. This, she further claims, constitutes an "understanding" of vortices that could, if it had only been "nurtured", led to a better understanding of the role of vortices in weather dynamics.
Early civilizations noted that when rocks are dropped from city walls on to the heads of invaders they do some damage. What better understanding of gravity could we have had if only this knowledge had been nurtured, eh?
So, Norman Nugganuts of the Fair Dinkum tribe discovered zero a thousand years before anyone else? Good for him. What did he do with it? I'm all for ascribing credit where it's due - but it changes not a single thing about our understanding and practice of maths.
Credit is a nice historical thing that is of literally no consequence in the current practice and development of maths.
To describe maths as *anywhere* centric is an idiocy.
How would 'maths' have looked any different had someone else (other than oppressive whitey) done it? Not at all, I would suggest.
Is it possible Prof. Ball’s article is an exercise in satire along the lines of “A Modest Proposal“? Either way, it’s worth a good laugh.
I might make another couple of comments.
(1) It appears that the Mayans had something like a 'zero' as well, which they developed independently of the Eurasians. It apparently did not have all the same properties as the Indo-Arabic zero, however.
(2) Walter Isaacson, in his biography of Benjamin Franklin, describes Franklin's computational prediction of a solar eclipse during an Atlantic crossing back from Europe. Isaacson's account is sort of dismissive of this feat. However, as anyone who has studied celestial mechanics knows, this is a nontrivial accomplishment, particularly without tables or much in the way of computing devices. In addition, Franklin only had a minimal formal background and education in these sorts of areas. So this was pretty impressive. It has always struck me that Isaacson, being a nontechnical person, could not really appreciate what Franklin was able to do, for his own amusement and diversion.
(3) In addition, many of those in favor of "decolonizing" science or mathematics or STEM are selectively picking and choosing what practices and information from other cultures they want to adopt or incorporate into Western culture or mainstream STEM standards. There are over 5000 human languages in current use, and many more human cultures that exist than this. Some of these are primitive, indigenous cultures with deep roots centuries or millennia old. They all have their own ways of organizing themselves. There are different roles for different elements of society, such as the sexes. These roles are often not particularly flexible and frequently are in strict opposition to their counterparts in modern Western culture.
However, woke ideology is also beset with a sort of judgmental attitude, where even slightly different cultural views and standards from a few years or decades ago are now stridently rejected. Some have branded this tendency as "recentism". In recentism, everything that came before has to be torn down, rewritten, destroyed, obliterated, ignored, deconstructed, re-interpreted, and so on. History has to be rewritten according to modern standards. Statues are removed if they are thought or imagined to be tainted somehow with supposedly abhorrent views. Even the historic fight for desegregation is now rejected as "racist". Martin Luther King Jr. is now often decried as a "colorblind racist", and the principles he promulgated and advanced sneered at.
Therefore, this exposes another odd contradiction of woke ideology and its efforts to replace conventional STEM with primitive beliefs. It is in conflict with "recentism", which is applied in a haphazard fashion, apparently. And the other components of these traditional cultures are rejected with extreme prejudice. Only some of the information and deportment of these societies are celebrated and accepted and promoted. Others are summarily discarded, in a sort of arbitrary and capricious manner.
So this is another reason to not put much stock or invest much respect in these efforts to "decolonize" STEM.
The race card is maxed out.
Of course, many ancient cultures paid special attention to what happened in the sky - their survival depended on that. Proto-languages had similar names for important celestial bodies - RA is Sun even on Rapanui/Easter Island (was it forced on them by seafaring Egyptians or appropriated by the remote islanders learning Egyptology?… RA is related to Sun in most Slavic languages too)…
In 1900, there seem to have been also a total eclipse in North America (likely calculated and predicted by the natives here) and a couple lunar eclipses.
So, for Australian aborigines, the “austral annular solar eclipse” must have had a special meaning. There have to be carvings and petroglyphs commemorating it… and that would be the best proof that from now on we must teach mathematics in a fundamentally different way. There are also carvings of kangaroos, so the kinesiology of marsupials must be “decolonized” for science and society to move forward. Petroglyphs of men and women surrounded by offspring were probably used by the most primitive aborigines before they formulated the first principles of DEI.
I am curious, can you give an example of a Slavic language word for “sun” that sounds like RA? The words I know are related to “sol” (e.g., Russian солнце).
РАссвет, РАно, поРА, жаРА, РАдуга…
Maybe, in English… RAdiant, RAdio (EM waves), RAys, etc… maybe a stretch for many, but there had to be a proto-language that began with syllables.
I'm not versed in this, seems unlikely doesn't it, are you sure on the facts here?
That wasn't what I was after, your certitude as a random internet person does not move my needle. Extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence please.
Weak response.