Classificação dos modos como a (etno)matemática se expressa nos provérbios populares portugueses

Abstract

Portuguese popular proverbs are of great wealth and contain knowledge and know-how in multiple areas of popular experience that must be discovered and preserved. We have no knowledge of studies on the ethnomathematics existing in Portuguese popular proverbs. Given the richness of these and the potential for use in the teaching and learning of mathematics, we propose to present here an initiating approach to the subject. From a core of about 2000 proverbs, at a first level of analysis we proceed to the identification of existing mathematical concepts. In a second level of analysis we categorise the mode (ethno)mathematics appears in Portuguese popular proverbs. We established three categories: Explicit Mode, Implicit Mode and Subtle Mode. We illustrate each category and explain the ethnomathematics involved in order to make clear the possible use of proverbs in the classroom of mathematics at various levels of education.