Etnomatemática: uso de medidas não convencionais e convencionais utilizada pelos indígenas potiguara na agricultura

Abstract

This work had as main objective to investigate the use of conventional and unconventional measures of the indigenous culture of the Potiguara people of Paraíba, which are used in agriculture, through interviews with “Troncos Velhos”, indigenous elders. In order to pass on, carrying out a cultural rescue, through a didactic sequence, to a 6th grade class from an indigenous school located in the São Francisco village, in the municipality of Baía da Traição / PB, using Ethnomathematics. Since ancient times, man has always needed measurements, so he created his own standard units of measurement, so it was no different for indigenous people who use the body as measured to divide and measure the planting area, such as: the hands , feet, inches and steps, whose lengths became the first units of measurement. The methodology used in this research in relation to the objectives was characterized as exploratory and descriptive, as for the technical procedures, the research case study and survey was used, as for the approach to the problem the research was qualitative. A diagnostic questionnaire containing open and closed questions was used, whose subjects were 20 students from a class of the 6th year of elementary school. After the study, it was possible to verify that although the students belong to an indigenous school and all belong to the Potiguara ethnic group, they did not have this knowledge of the measurement practice used by their own indigenous parents. In this way, this work provided a great experience for both educational and personal training of the participating subjects. During the application of the didactic sequence, students realized the importance of Ethnomathematics in the classroom.