Adds a mathematics component to an introductory anthropology course through a comparison of Melanesian and Western mathematics. Students acquire a new appreciation of mathematics and its significance in their culture by studying elements of the mathematical system used by Iqwaye people of Papua New Guinea: their different counting system and different concepts of number, notation, and infinity. For the Iqwaye, counting and numbers are associated with their bodies so the link between human form and mathematical thinking is close and distinctive.

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