WHEN MATH WORLDS COLLIDE - INTENTION AND INVENTION IN ETHNOMATHEMATICS

Ethnomathematics is a relatively new discipline that investigates math ematical knowledge in small-scale, indigenous cultures. This essay loc ates ethnomathematics as one of five distinct subfields within a gener al anthropology of mathematics and describes interactions between cult ural and epistemological features that have created these divisions. I t reviews the political and pedagogical issues in which ethnomathemati cs research and practice is immersed and examines the possibilities fo r both conflict and collaboration with the goals, theories, and method s of serial constructivism.