From: Raleigh McLemore (raleighmclemore@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 14:32:09 PDT
Message-ID: <20020417213209.25299.qmail@web13007.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 14:32:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Raleigh McLemore <raleighmclemore@yahoo.com> Subject: re:pinhole nonWestern countries contributions to science
There are a many works that describe African-American
inventors and scientists. Ivan van Sertima's book
"Black Scientists and Inventors" is a good overview
but deserves a skeptical eye as some of his claims
(and his researchers, such as Hunter Adams) are not
well supported. It remains an interesting work and is
worth reading though and is very thought provoking.
"The Real McCoy" is a book with some of the historical
background of the kind of knowledge that slaves
brought with them to the US and is well supported and
fascinating. It includes a short section of the kind
of knowledge that the Africans brought from what
westerners called the "windward" or "rice" coast of
Africa. The knowledge that the African slaves had was
critical in establishing a rice crop in the Carolinas,
where europeans had failed to produce a decent crop.
"The Real McCoy" is published by the Portia Museum, a
part of the Smithsonian. There are other books that
are a "Who's Who" of Black Scientists. The
Exploratoruim has (had?) two excellent small teacher
guides one on multicultural science and the other on
mathematics. The experiments were excellent and using
these experiments is often an eye opener for students
who haven't been initiated to the idea that there are
other people on this planet and they learn and survive
quite well, thank you, in their own way.
The Explortorium book on navigation had some good
stuff on Polynesian navigation, and there are
(were?)other sources at the Lawrence Hall of Science,
and there are some excellent videos about it.
I haven't spent much time on Asian cultural
contributions to science, but I'm sure it is well
documented. I have a few things on the development of
gunpowder and rockets. When I was in high school I
wrote an essay about how the first documented attempt
to reach the heavens appeared to have been a wealthy
Chinese landlord who did not survive the experience of
lashing (hundreds?) of rockets to his sedan chair. He
apparently succeeded in reaching heaven in one
attempt.
There used to be a "Black Pathways" at the
Exploratorium, and Eric is working on the idea again.
I worked with many others on the first and while
setting up the displays ran into some Native Americans
at the museum and we had a great talk. I remember
asking them how their knowledge of science and the
environment would fit into a place like the
Exploratorium and they laughed..."Our science wouldn't
match up because there are a lot of "tools" and
mechanical things. This wasn't where our science
knowledge expressed itself. Maybe we did a good job
understanding relationships in nature, but don't see
where that fits in at this museum." I guess I add this
as a warning that as a western science person I tend
to equate fancy tools with fancy knowledge. If you
live in the middle of the dessert and you know how to
make a solar still from available materials you
express an incredible understanding of the nature
around you, even if you haven't made a super gizmotic
atomic distillery to do the same job.
Sorry about going on so long. If you would like I can
send you a bibliography of books and literature that I
have made, and is in no way complete.
With firm handshake,
Raleigh
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