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Re: [xmca] FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: african fractals

That is really a wonderful presentation of the development of complex
mathemtical ideas in non-literate cultures in Africa, Peter. Many thought
provoking ideas including the fact that this is an AFRICAN phenomenon
that is not present, for example, in "new world" cultures at a similar level
of technological sophistication.

It is very thought provoking in several contexts, but one which happens to
be on my mind at the moment is how to understand the form of knowlege
representation in terms of the mode of cultural transmission -- some create
fractal representations because "that is the way we do it" while others can
explicate the alogrithms (all from the same culture).

Might one want to relate this to ideas of everyday and scientific knowledge
in
Vygotsky, and if so, how do differences in morphology of the cultural
transmission activities map onto the distinction?

A real keeper!! Gotta post that somewhere at lchc.
mike


On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 6:45 AM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu> wrote:

> I thought this forward might be of interest to some:
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
>
> >my  wife put me on to this extraordinary youtube clip by ron eglash
> >in which he demonstrates how fractals are manifest in multitudinous
> >ways in african culture. i think many will find this fascinating
>
> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html
>
> ken
>
>
> Kenneth W. Harrow
> Professor of English
> Michigan State University
> harrow@msu.edu
> 517 353-7243
> fax 353 3755
>
>
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