Numbers and the Making of Us : Counting and the Course of Human Cultures / Caleb Everett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Everett, Caleb, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Numeration--Cross-cultural studies.

Numeration.

Counting--Cross-cultural studies.

Counting.

Number concept.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (308 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Numbers and the Making of Us examines the origins and effects of numbers--words and other symbols for quantities. It focuses on the influence that numbers have had on human thought. As a result of this influence, the book claims, numbers transformed the human narrative. This transformation is supported by data from many disciplines: archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and primatology. The book surveys the types of number systems that have been innovated independently in languages around the world, most of which (like our own decimal system) owe themselves in one way or another to the shape of our hands. Furthermore, the book examines evidence from anumeric humans, such as those the author has conducted research with in Amazonia, as it advances the following claim: Numbers served as a pivotal cognitive invention, an underappreciated tool whose usage ultimately resulted in the societies most of us now live in. In short, the book suggests that verbal and written numbers served as a cognitive foundation of sorts, helping to establish the ground floor of all sorts of distinctly human behaviors. These include elaborate agriculture, writing, the telling of time, and many other aspects of the human experience that are all ultimately dependent on the simple invention of numbers.-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue: On the Success of Our Species

PART 1: Numbers Pervade the Human Experience

1. Numbers Woven into Our Present

2. Numbers Carved into Our Past

3. A Numerical Journey around the World Today

4. Beyond Number Words: Other Kinds of Numeric Language

PART 2: Worlds without Numbers

5. Anumeric People Today

6. Quantities in the Minds of Young Children

7. Quantities in the Minds of Animals

PART 3: Numbers and the Shaping of Our Lives

8. Inventing Numbers and Arithmetic

9. Numbers and Culture: Subsistence and Symbolism

10. Transformative Tools

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Sep 2018)

ISBN:

9780674979147

0674979141

9780674979185

0674979184

OCLC:

979560400