The main characteristic of a mature science consists in being governed by a paradigm. Stages of early development of a science which have not yet found an established paradigm are called by Kuhn (1962) pre-paradigm periods, and during these periods the pre-paradigm scientists develop their research independently.

Within the context of the development of ethnomathematics as a valid scientific theory, Gerdes (1997) had already acknowledged Ewald Fettweis (1881-1967) to be one of forerunners of ethnomathematics.

Fettweis presented a true surprise in our historiographical research. At first, our study attempted to describe the actually innovating fact that he had pursued ethnomathematical research much earlier than 1985, the year of the emergence of ethnomathematics (Rohrer, 2010). But it eventually proved more than this, that he was the first researcher to develop and establish not only the term ethnomathematics, but even to practice it in his lectures, bringing it into a disciplinary level.