Talk:History of science and technology in Africa/Archive 1

Fractal mathematics
I have removed this paragraph and instead suggest a mention of mathematical influence in art using the same citation (Eglash, Ron. African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 1999.). Nobody is ever seriously claiming that anybody understood anything of fractals in a mathematical sense until the late 19th century. Fractal-like forms are found in art of all cultures throughout history, which is why the mathematics are still used to formulate theories of aesthetics, but there is no mathematical knowledge behind this art. 99.135.144.233 (talk) 19:26, 22 May 2009 (UTC)


 * You obviously have not read the book or even viewed the video on Ted, which is a synopsis of his book. I did not use the word mathematics or fractal geometry, Ron Eglash did. I am just re-iterating what the book said. Your claim that it can only be used in art and aesthetics is original research. You are expressing an opinion. If you can document your statement feel free to include it in the section. I will also refer you to the Ted video. The most complex implementation of fractal mathematics or fractal geometry is in African divination system which is not art or aesthetics as you would put it. Where I have erred is using words such as post modern, which is a term not used by the scholar. I will re-word to make it NPOV. I am assuming the portion of the intro you deleted fixed the following issue:


 * 1.tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia
 * 2.written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup


 * If not point out inadequacies and correct. Kacembepower (talk) 07:57, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Start at cleanup
While a lot of this material is well researched, the language tends towards proving a point about the greatness of african science (which it is of course), and the whole article may qualify as Original research or Synthesis. having said that, i thought id take a (achulean) stab at clarifying and restructuring. i removed a lot of material in the "see also" section, as not directly related to the subject of this article. that helps tone down the synthesis issues a bit. remember, the articles on WP can help people who are doing research across disciplines, but we dont do the research ourselves. if someone wants to link numerous aspects of african, egyptian, islamic, african inspired art, architecture, music, physics, math, dance, literature, etc, they are welcome to use WP for material. do NOT, however, publish it here as one big article, which as i said this may end up being. and if someone publishes a definitive book linking all these subject areas, and that book is covered by reliable sources, then we COULD do an article on that book, and arguably on that broad subject. until someone else does it, though, we must wear blinders when writing articles to the subtle connections between things. ok, enough of this rant, back to boring editing... Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:39, 15 November 2009 (UTC)


 * No sir, you are seeing it as such. The article merely states all technological/scientific attainments from north to south of the continent, from the begining of man to the present in multiple areas. If the technological attainment is in itself great that is the trait of the technological/scientific attainment. It shows skills and know hows in multiple areas "architecture", "communication systems" not literature(the medium- script, drums, griots ), no music,no dance, the technical approach to art that has influenced others. What you see as Egyptian and Islamic are the passage of time. You can synthesize art, ideological philosophy, religion, and other abstracts. Science is about facts and can be sacrosanct, immutable until the facts don't add up. The article merely answers the question what did africa do and how did she do it in the various areas, such as mathematica, astronomy, warfare, art(technical approaches), commerce etc. It would be original research and synthesis if it was put together from multiple facts and not documented. If I said that the timbuktu manuscript might have information about african divination system that spread to the Maghreb and then to Europe that is original research and synthesis. That was not done. That is why I am in agreement in removing the comment about the Nubian script, that is original research.


 * Instead of removing the links to the African scientist, inventors, you could have created a list of African scientist, begin that process. I realize you see wikipedia as just an encyclopedia. I will argue within her encyclopedic rules, but wikipedia has transcended that. She is not just an encyclopedia. She has become a World Wide Web entity, like youtube, or dictionary.com a force that organizes, defines the forest of information on the web. Wikipedia has not realized that, an entity that could only be built by volunteers, amateur, enthusiasts, and professionals. No article should be deleted. Those that don't meet encyclopedic standard should or is too esoteric maybe placed in something called apochryphedia.Kacembepower (talk) 21:21, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

resource
Vast and Fertile Ground in Africa for Science to Take Root

141.218.36.43 (talk) 21:45, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

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Problem with first sentence
"Science and technology in Africa has unfolded since the dawn of human history" seems just wrong. Science is not the same thing as technology and there are zero sources backing this claim. Doug Weller (talk) 20:11, 20 December 2015 (UTC)


 * I just took a stab at fixing this, but feel free to adjust. Ninafundisha (talk) 20:20, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks, that's much better. Doug Weller  talk 20:29, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

created Social science section
I have created a new section about social science in regards of Education history of Africa so it was not need to be removed entirely Ahendra (talk) 19:57, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Metalurgy
What about mentioning the early invention of blast furnaces in Tanzania, also mentioned on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous_metallurgy#Africa_south_of_the_Sahara ? Helenuh (talk) 19:45, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

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