Sand Drawing Database Project
This database has been initiated as part of the project "Sand Drawings of Vanuatu – An Interdisciplinary Approach (Anthropology, Ethnomathematics, Linguistics)"Sand Drawing practice involves drawing a continuous line directly on the ground, based on a pre-drawn “grid” (a lattice of lines or a network of points). The line is most often traced with the fingertip on sand or on the compacted earth of village grounds, sometimes lightly dusted with ash to enhance the design’s contrast (see Figure 1). Typically, the line is drawn without retracing any previously drawn section and ends where it began.
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To further the comparative treatment of the data collected, this database will bring together videos, sound recordings, written descriptions and comments relating to the sand drawings known in different (micro-)societies from Central Vanuatu.
Developed with original tools (digital coding of the procedures written in symbolic writing), this database will aim to show more particularly the internal structure of each corpus.
This database is published through an open-source and interoperable software framework (Omeka), and designed to provide educational resources and guidelines for teaching mathematics – as ingrained in a traditional cultural practice – initially to indigenous students in the societies considered in the research project.