On the positive side, he did good academic work with the material he
limited himself to. With this in mind, we can all learn from his example.
Of course, his scope was limited. Certainly China and India weren't
discovered in the last decade. There is much from this part of the world,
far more than I could even hope to list. In fact, Chinese colleagues and
I have discussed their ancient mathematics, and there is quite a bit there,
much untranslated into Western languages. Similarly for the material of
India.
The barrier is language. Once I remarked to a friend about how hard his
(Chinese) characters were. He agreed, but also replied that once, English
was chicken scratch to him.
Actually, Neugebauer is among the more enlightened. I have read material
which was absolutely derogatory of mathematics from Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia. And of the Americas... ?
Al Barron
Metuchen, NJ