Reconnecting with the mathematical thought of the Mesoamerican numbers in Ixil: an onto-epistemological dialogue

Abstract

Abstract Numbers and languages are present around the world. While mathematics is deemed as universal, communities around the world have developed mathematical practices that align with their specific context and needs. Rooted in an Indigenous epistemological framework, this manuscript presents a dialogue among four co-researchers and teachers retelling their experiences teaching and learning Mesoamerican numbers in both monolingual (Spanish) and bilingual (Ixil and Spanish) contexts. With a strong desire to learn about and reconnect with the forces of Indigenous mathematical thought and language that move within the teaching and learning of these numbers, the authors collectively reflected on their “tellings” of prior work. It is worthy of note that these reflections on teaching and learning processes of naming Mesoamerican numbers, their symbols, and numerical values help realize that these concepts are more fully animated when presented in contexts that are onto-epistemologically relevant.