A TED talk by Ethno-Mathematician Ron Eglash regarding fractals (mathematical monsters) that can be found in indigenous African culture:

“Ethno-mathematician” Ron Eglash is the author of African Fractals, a book that examines the fractal patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa. By looking at aerial-view photos — and then following up with detailed research on the ground — Eglash discovered that many African villages are purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with self-similar shapes repeated in the rooms of the house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village, in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganized and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

Now I have to buy this book: African Fractals by Ron Eglash

Also check out his Culturally-Situated design tools to see the patterns from Africa and other continents in action