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Early Counting

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The Mathematical Traveler

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Abstract

We will now investigate how long people have been counting. If counting is a recently acquired skill for human beings, then we might conclude that it is not, after all, intimately connected to our basic nature. If, on the other hand, we find that it is ancient, dating even as far back as our prehuman ancestors, we could conclude that counting is part of what it is to be human, just as language and tool-making are fundamental to our species.

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End Notes

  1. Roger Lewin, Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), p. 108.

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  2. David Lambert, The Field Guide to Early Man (New York: Facts on File, 1987), pp. 98–105.

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  3. Ibid., p. 106.

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  4. David Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics (New York: Dover Publications, 1951), p. 6.

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  5. ; Paul D. MacLean, The Triune Brain in Evolution (New York: Plenum Press, 1990), p. 555.

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  6. Richard E. Leakey, Origins (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977), p. 205.

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  7. Karl Menninger, Number Words and Number Symbols, p. 35.

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  8. Graham Flegg, Numbers Through the Ages (London: MacMillan Educations LTD, 1989), p. 7.

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  9. Graham Flegg, Numbers: Their History and Meaning (New York: Schocken Books, 1983), p. 19.

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  10. Flegg, Numbers Through the Ages, p. 9.

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  11. Flegg, Numbers: Their History and Meaning, p. 24.

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  12. Menninger, p. 11.

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  13. Flegg, Numbers: Their History and Meaning, p. 11.

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  14. Menninger, p. 32.

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  15. Leakey, p. 162.

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  16. Flegg, Numbers Through the Ages, p. 37.

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  17. Ibid., p. 11.

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Authors
  1. Calvin C. Clawson
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© 1994 Calvin C. Clawson

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Clawson, C.C. (1994). Early Counting. In: The Mathematical Traveler. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6014-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6014-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44645-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6014-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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