Sand Drawing versus String Figure Making: Geometric and Algorithmic Practices in Northern Ambrym, Vanuatu

Overview & Synopsis

This chapter aims to compare—through an ethnomathematical approach—two activities carried out by the Northern Ambrym Islanders (Vanuatu, South Pacific), and locally termed using the same vernacular verb tu (lit. “to write”). These practices consist in making a figure, either with a loop of string (“string-figure making”, using fingers and sometimes feet and mouth) or by drawing a continuous line in the sand with one finger (“sand drawing”). Initially, we examine the cultural and symbolic aspects of both practices, bringing to light that the making of string-figures and sand drawings are both means of recording and expressing knowledge relating to particular mythological entities, or environmental elements in Northern Ambrym society. Secondly, by focusing on concepts such as operation, procedure, sub-procedure, symmetry and iteration, we demonstrate that both practices share geometric and algorithmic properties. The chapter ends by giving an overview of a pedagogical experiment, aiming at bringing both string figure-making and sand drawing practices into local mathematics classroom. It thus contributes to the discussions that currently occur in Vanuatu, related to the development of a culturally based curricula.