A contribution from ethnohistory to rarámuri (tarahumara) ethnomathematics

Abstract

From an ethnohistoric perspective, this article exposes the way in which the current Raramuri -Tarahumaras from Mexico- carry out the action of ‘counting’ in different cultural aspects such as games, sport, rituals and learning for live. The main theoretical assumption considered is that ‘counting’ is part of the human need to classify things to order life. Through an ethnography and review of historical documentation it is shown that, in addition to the decimal system used by Raramuri, there is a continuity of other ways of counting recorded in the 17th century and used by colonial Raramuri. Since the paper does not exhaust the subject it is necessary to continue observing other aspects of the social life at present, as well as to continue searching for historical data to broaden our knowledge about the processes that have institutionalized diverse knowledge such as the case of a Raramuri ethnomathematics.