Units of Measurement in Social Practices: An Ethnomathematic Study

Abstract

The present text aims to present results of the research carried out in the rural territories of Sergipe. The mapping of the units of measurement was done as: palm, tarefa, yard, fathom, celamim, present in the social practices of production of the peasant population and its linkage with the school curriculum. The practices were studied, with the support of the ethnomathematical and curriculum theorizing. To understand them, we used the methodological procedures: interview, direct observation and field diary. The research showed: the existence of a set of measurement units different from those used in the standard metric system; that the reference in the definition of units of measurement is the human body; that such knowledge only entered the curriculum indirectly and eventually.