This project focuses on the ethnomathematics and the metaphorical associations and narrative uses of numbers among Quechua-speaking peoples of the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. Research will involve language study, linguistic research, and ethnographic fieldwork. The goal of the project is to produce a foundational study of Quechua ethnomathematics, the syntax of number words, and the grammatical structures of numerical expressions and arithmetical and mathematical concepts and operations. The purpose of the study is two-fold: first, to enlarge and enrich our understanding of number and logical and spatial configuration, and their organization into systems or structures, among one of the largest populations of speakers of a native language in the Americas; and second, to develop an understanding of mathematics and numerical sciences in of the khipu, the knotted-string records used as mnemonic devices by the Incas in pre-Columbian times for recording quantitative data and historical/mythical narratives.
