Who counts? : the mathematics of death and life after genocide
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Who counts? : the mathematics of death and life after genocide
Duke University Press, 2015
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-296) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In Who Counts? Diane M. Nelson explores the social life of numbers, teasing out the myriad roles math plays in Guatemalan state violence, economic exploitation, and disenfranchisement, as well as in Mayan revitalization and grassroots environmental struggles. In the aftermath of thirty-six years of civil war, to count-both numerically and in the sense of having value-is a contested and qualitative practice of complex calculations encompassing war losses, migration, debt, and competing understandings of progress. Nelson makes broad connections among seemingly divergent phenomena, such as debates over reparations for genocide victims, Ponzi schemes, and antimining movements. Challenging the presumed objectivity of Western mathematics, Nelson shows how it flattens social complexity and becomes a raced, classed, and gendered skill that colonial powers considered beyond the grasp of indigenous peoples. Yet the Classic Maya are famous for the precision of their mathematics, including conceptualizing zero long before Europeans. Nelson shows how Guatemala's indigenous population is increasingly returning to Mayan numeracy to critique systemic inequalities with the goal of being counted-in every sense of the word.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
-1. Chapter Minus One 1
Part I. When You Count You Begin with 1, 2, 3
0. Bookkeeping 7
1. Before and After-Math 37
Part II. Bonesetting
2. The Algebra of Genocide 63
3. Reunion of Broken Parts 93
Part III. Mayan Pyramids
4. 100% Omnilife 121
5. Mayan Pyramid (Scheme) 157
Part IV. Yes to Life = NO to Mining
6. A Life's Worth 189
7. Beyond Adequacy 227
Notes 265
References 281
Index 297
by "Nielsen BookData"