The Ancestral Science Podcast was grateful to speak with PHILIP STEVENS, San Carlos Apache, Director of American Indian Studies at the University of Idaho, about (global/Western) mathematics being like pornography or taxidermy, non-Euclidian tessellations in mesquite wood stacking, patterns of the Land, Apache ontologies, academic camouflage, and focusing on how to take care of our own garden/sphere of influence to broaden mathematical perspectives.

Upon Philip’s request, honoraria was gifted to someone we know that is in need. They were grateful, thank you.

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Hand to Heart to Indigenous Screen Office and Bespoke Productions Hub.

As always, for all you educators out there, extensive shownotes are HERE

Here are some fast cool links from the episode:

“A Woodcutter’s Story: Perceptions and Uses of Mathematics on San Carlos Apache Reservation” (article) by Philip Stevens

“‘A space for you to be who you are’: an ethnographic portrait of reterritorializing Indigenous student identities” (article) by Vanessa Anthony-Stevens, Philip Stevens

-Math as...

...arithmetic

       -in school math was a place to count

       -it was about memorization and abstract ideas, disconnect from self, culture, land, spirit

  ...pornography

           -Philip mentioned that the processes he was required to go through to understand global/western mathematics made him feel like a pornographer, because it removed all emotion and love. 

      ...taxidermy

             -Learning global/western mathematics was like hunting then killing mathematics, taking its life, its spirit, its energy, then stuffing it with inanimate, unfamiliar, unrelated...materials. It is no longer a relative, no longer connected to culture, Land, ceremony, community, or spirit.

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