Mathematics and accounting in the andes before and after the Spanish conquest

Gary Urton

pp. 17-32

in: Swapna Mukhopadhyay, Wolff-Michael Roth (eds), Alternative forms of knowing (in) mathematics, Rotterdam, SensePublishers, 2012

Abstract

In an article entitled "Western mathematics: The secret weapon of cultural imperialism," the author argues that Western European colonizing societies of the 15th to 19th centuries were especially effective in imposing on subordinate populations the values of rationalism and "objectivism" – defined as a way of conceiving of the world as composed of discrete objects that could be abstracted from their contexts – primarily through "mathematico-technological cultural force" embedded in institutions relating to accounting, trade, administration, and education (Bishop, 1990).