To refine search, see subtopic Papua New Guinea. To expand search, see Oceania. Laterally related topics: Indo-Malay Archipelago, The Philippines, New Zealand, The Malekula of Vanuatu, The Hawaiians, New Ireland, The Marshall Islands, Kiribati (The Gilbert Islands), The Caroline Islands, Australia, The New Hebrides, and Polynesia.
The Mathematics and the Liberal Arts pages are intended to be a resource for student research projects and for teachers interested in using the history of mathematics in their courses. Many pages focus on ethnomathematics and in the connections between mathematics and other disciplines. The notes in these pages are intended as much to evoke ideas as to indicate what the books and articles are about. They are not intended as reviews. However, some items have been reviewed in Mathematical Reviews, published by The American Mathematical Society. When the mathematical review (MR) number and reviewer are known to the author of these pages, they are given as part of the bibliographic citation. Subscribing institutions can access the more recent MR reviews online through MathSciNet.
Swetz, Frank J. Bodily Mathematics. In Swetz, Frank J. From Five Fingers to Infinity. A Journey through the History of Mathematics. Open Court, Chicago, 1994. . P. 52.
Many people have used parts of the body to represent numbers. "Hand" is a common source of the word for "five" [consider the English words "five" and "fist"]. An extreme example is in the Kewa people of Papua New Guinea, who count from 1 to 68 on different parts of the body. An illustration is given. The body is often used to represent lengths and volumes. Closely related topics: The Kewa People, Number Systems, and Measurement.