Maria Ascher's Elsewhere Analysis

Maria Ascher's *Mathematics Elsewhere,* identifies mathematical ideas that are present all over the world, and is "intended as another step toward a global and humanistic history of mathematics." (Ascher IV) This important volume clarifies how many universal mathematical concepts, both simple and complex, are used and understood by countless cultures worldwide, regardless of differences in geography, language, and era. By studying and widening the scope of the history and breadth of mathematical thought, Ascher argues that "we are supplying complexity and texture... [and] in short, enlarging our understanding of the variety of human expressions and human usages associated with the same basic ideas." (2)

To study underlying mathematical principles in various cultures, it is important to recognize that in many cultures, mathematics usually arises as a secondary technique in order to satisfy another problem. As Ascher's book focuses on "traditional, small-scale cultures," most of the mathematical techniques
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This view of divination, as a system of thinking and reasoning, is closely related to the rules that govern a mathematicians work. As author Douglas Hofstadter writes "proofs are demonstrations within fixed systems of propositions," similarly, divination sessions result in conclusions stemming from a series of codified techniques. (Hofstadter 26) Altering any of these standardized methods in either situation would cause different outcomes would occur. Hence, by drawing parallels to the underlying backbone of the what divination really is, in turn, the definition of mathematics is also enlarged and