El Rakin, conteo mapuche, un conocimiento con valor de uso

Abstract

This study is based on the numbering system and way of counting of the Mapuche people. The need to quantify made these people create their own Rakin (count), making the path to a perfect decimal numbering system that has been passed down orally from generation to generation. In this way, this system has no symbols to represent numbers. The Rakin, as social practice, finds its value in its use thereof; it is a product of situated knowledge, based on a social construction of a people in a specific context. In this decimal system it is enough to count until ten in order to continue counting. To do this, the system uses repetitive or multiplicative summative principles. The interest of this study is to visualize knowledge of social origin as an epistemological alternative that allows us to validate other knowledge beyond scientific knowledge, and to cooperate to generate an epistemological diversity that recognizes different kinds of knowledge of human beings organized into societies. The methodology used is qualitative and ethnographic. Interviews were conducted to access the information.