Sona (mathematics)

Sona diagram that illustrates the creation of the world

Sona , also tusona (in some central-south Bantu languages , singular lusona , also kasona ) are traditional geometric patterns of some Bantu peoples such as the Chokwe in an area of Angola and Zambia in southern Africa .

Men draw sona with their fingers in the smoothed sand or decorate house walls with it while they tell a story. A closed line is drawn without lifting your finger. The line crosses several times, but leads around points of a predetermined pattern. Some patterns represent very specific stories and fables . They are thus geometric visualizations of narratives.

See also

• Kolam (South Indian floor paintings with partly mathematical patterns)

literature

• Paulus Gerdes : Ethnomathematics - illustrated using the example of Sona geometry. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 3-8274-0201-8 .
• Paulus Gerdes: On Mathematical Elements in the Tchokwe “Sona” tradition. In: For the Learning of Mathematics, Vol. 10, No. 1, February 1990, pp. 31-34
• Gerhard Kubik : African Space / Time Concepts and the Tusona Ideographs in Luchazi Culture. In: Journal of International Library of African Music, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1987, pp. 53-89
• Hans Wußing : 6000 years of mathematics. A cultural and historical journey through time. Volume 1: From the beginning to Leibniz and Newton. Springer, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-77189-0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Henning Krause: Ethnomathematik - illustrated using the example of Sona geometry. Spectrum of Science 1998, Issue 9, p. 118 ( online at Spektrum.de).