Looking at mathematics from an anthropological perspective
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Abstract
Mathematical language (concepts, syntax an logical connections) don”t come down of any abstract heaven, but it sprouts out of vernacular languages and take roots into the same imageries that myths and legends, songs and arts do. Mathematics is a part of folklore, it forms part of popular knowledge. Trough several elementary examples we propose an anthropological approach to mathematics by means of an analysis of the symbolic device that models its concepts and procedures, especially by means of metaphors that usually underlie a lot of its concepts. Students and scholars who focus this perspective may have a broad understanding of concepts and problems involved and, inversely, of the cultures that have created them. Particularly, the specific culture of the european tribe, that created what we know today as mathematics.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es).
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