“Where is the mathematics in this drawing, teacher?”

December 1, 2023 11:45 AM

An Ancient Art Form Topples Assumptions about Mathematics: The sand drawings of Vanuatu follow principles from a branch of mathematics known as graph theory (archive, original in French)
posted by ShooBoo (16 comments total)

Some of the math stuff was beyond me but was interesting nonetheless.

I lived in Vanuatu for about 5 months in 2019/20 and it's my favorite place.
posted by dobbs at 12:23 PM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

Amazing. Thank you for posting.
posted by signal at 12:37 PM on December 1, 2023

This is incredibly fascinating! I got totally lost in looking at videos of sand drawing online. This one is my favorite. It features Edgar, and the subject of the drawing, which he tells the story of, is the enslavement of Pacific islanders by the British in the 19th century.
posted by Kattullus at 1:02 PM on December 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Very interesting, thanks for posting! The sand drawings are beautiful, and it's very impressive that the artists trace the figures in one continuous line.

I love this type of interlacing or knotwork art, which is probably best known in the West from Celtic manuscripts and carvings. It's thought that the Celtic artists also started by drawing a grid which eventually was erased, and there was Christian symbolism in using a continuous line to form the figures, but it never occurred to me that the Celtic artists might have conceived the whole figure in one go. The final figure had to be done in stages since they took great care with the over/under interlacings, but maybe the rough draft was one exuberant swoosh? (What a great party trick for an Irish monk.)

From a quick googling, it doesn't seem like sand drawing "knotwork" shows up in other traditional Vanuatu arts, which seems significant somehow. Such pretty motifs might be expected to show up on textiles or wood carvings, for example, but they don't, apparently. The sand drawings are swept away as soon as they're finished, so maybe this art is supposed to be ephemeral?
posted by Quietgal at 1:21 PM on December 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed the article because it was both an introduction to the sand drawings as well as an introduction to graph theory for many people and the author was able to make them both pretty interesting. Maybe the doctoral student mentioned at the end of the article will be successful and sand drawing will make its way into the math curriculum.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:33 PM on December 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

As I was reading the article, I was having an imaginary conversation with one of those guys who freaks out about "woke math". Maybe you've encountered the type. They're convinced that everything about math is value-neutral because it expresses universal truths.

My imaginary conversation went something like this:

"Maybe we should replace our math curriculum with Vanuatu sand drawings."

"What woke gibberish is this??"

"Well, it's math, and it'll get kids thinking mathematically."

"But how will it help us build bridges that don't fall down??" [They always talk about bridges falling down.]

"Oh, you're a fan of engineering, not math."

"Engineering is based on math! It's because math is universally true that bridges don't fall down!"

"If you knew the dirty things that engineers do with math, you wouldn't say that. These sand drawings contain a lot more universal mathematical truth than the sin(x)=x abominations that engineers get up to."

"This is ridiculous. How are you going to build planes and cars and tanks and skyscrapers with fucking sand drawings??"

"You like the kind of math that helps you dominate other people and nature. That's not value-neutral. That is a morally laden choice. We could make different choices."

And then my imaginary conversation trailed off.
posted by clawsoon at 1:59 PM on December 1, 2023 [9 favorites]

This is amazing ShooBoo, thanks for posting. A friend is a tohunga (Maori tradional healer) and at one point explained some of Maori carving to me and now I do see it as simply another way of representation, of conveying and transferring knowledge.

The Western view (especially now) is so blinkered in writing off societies as 'having non written language' when writing is just one symbolic form.
posted by unearthed at 3:47 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Well, I got my iPad out because I was going to work on a proof regarding the structure of quantum entanglement as represented by a set of Eulerian graphs decomposable into cycles. And then I thought, nah, it’s Friday, maybe I will read some metafilter instead.

Well, yeah, still thinking about graphs and cycles. Thanks :)
posted by nat at 4:39 PM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

"You like the kind of math that helps you dominate other people and nature. That's not value-neutral. That is a morally laden choice. We could make different choices."

This is a great comment. There exist efforts in the direction of promoting a different, I dunno, telos for math and a certain amount of hope is warranted but it's all still pretty marginalised.
posted by busted_crayons at 5:32 PM on December 1, 2023

There exist efforts in the direction of promoting a different, I dunno, telos for math and a certain amount of hope is warranted but it's all still pretty marginalised.

Yeah, I don't think my imaginary conversation changed any minds even in my imagination, lol...
posted by clawsoon at 6:31 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Graph theory aside, one other thing Vanuatu is famous for besides sand painting is its kava kava. And I am quite inclined to think that there may be a connection between those two.

My understanding of kava is that it was considered a social inebriant across the Pacific Ocean -- with the exception of Vanuatu, where it was considered too strong to be used as anything except medicine.

Kava is one of those plants known as a cultivar -- Piper methysticum has been grown so long by humans that it no longer flowers or set seeds and is propagated strictly via root cuttings. My own experience is Kava is that it is an inebriant unlike alcohol in that you don't get stupid but like alcohol in that you don't want to be operating machinery heavy or light under the influence. Which on the Vanuatu kava strength end includes attempting to ride a bicycle. Here is a list of Erowid Kava Experience Reports.

But boy, does it make you amiable. I ended up giggling with with a friend's 18 month old son while we rolled around on his living room carpet. This was 10 to 15 years ago when the only place I knew you could get it was by its Fijian name of Awa from under the counter at a gas station down on 99 in Renton. Which I found out about from an Indian lady living at Seattle Housing's Holly Court who had grown up on Fiji. Things have so changed since -- you can get Vanuatu kava via Amazon these days.

But be forewarned: avoid driving, riding motorcycles or bicycles or even walking any distance under its influence. YMMV, of course but still...
posted by y2karl at 6:40 PM on December 1, 2023 [5 favorites]

I lived in Vanuatu for about 5 months

How did that happen?
posted by pracowity at 11:57 PM on December 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Had a hard time deciding whether to bookmark this in my "math" folder or my "mathematics" folder.
posted by neuron at 12:53 PM on December 2, 2023

Make a new folder, call it "maths".
posted by clawsoon at 1:29 PM on December 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

How did that happen?

I was hired to look after a dog and 2 chickens and it turned into that plus managing three beach properties and 23 guests on Paradise Cove. I was offered another 5 months down the beach but it was March, 2020 and headed home not knowing what Covid would bring. Should have stayed.
posted by dobbs at 10:24 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

Perhaps start scriptwriting asap -- it sounds like you may have a movie to pitch
posted by y2karl at 12:36 PM on December 4, 2023