Embodied and materialized cosmological principles: a graph-theoretic approach to cycles and layers in North Pentecost Sia Raga sand drawing
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article proposes an ethnomathematical analysis of the sand drawings of the Sia Raga people of North Pentecost (Vanuatu). Drawing on fieldwork carried out in 2019, a graph-theoretic model formalizes the oral rules and gestures observed among most practitioners in the making of bwatuli. The application of a major theorem from graph theory reveals that these drawings decompose into cycles and layers—concepts that also structure multiple domains of Sia Raga life, including agricultural cycles, spatial organization, and kinship relations. This convergence suggests that certain cosmological principles, in particular processes of growth and progressive transformation, are both embodied in practitioners’ gestures and materialized in certain drawings, such as the bebe ure, the butterfly that carries the creation of the world. From a methodological standpoint, this article seeks to demonstrate that ethnomathematical approaches offer new purchase on questions already opened up in anthropology, notably the place of the cycle in cosmologies, or the local categories of creativity and complexity.
DOI: 10.4000/16uzw
Author: Alban Da Silva
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214955385