On his book Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures
Cover Interview of June 20, 2017
Lastly
I hope the book gives readers a better appreciation of how
so many central aspects of their own lives are dependent on the invention of
the cognitive tools we call numbers. The story of numbers is also illustrative
a larger theme: what makes humans so special is not simply our innately given
intelligence, but the cognitive tools we acquire from each other—often across
generations—and then subsequently refine.
An interrelated pragmatic goal of the book is to bring
heightened awareness to the crucial role that anthropological linguistics can
play in elucidating the human narrative, helping us to better understand how we
got where we are now as a species. Anthropological linguistics sits at the
nexus of the study of language, human cognition, and culture, and relies on
findings from other diverse fields like neuroscience and archaeology. The
claims in the book are based on findings from all these diverse fields, but rest
most heavily on the study of diverse languages around the world.
I also hope that the book gives readers a better sense of
the insights diverse cultures can give us, even those cultures that do not
wield numerical technologies like ours. There is a temptation to exoticize
small groups of indigenes, and to see their reduced reliance on numbers as less
natural or, simply, weird. In fact, they represent more faithfully the bulk of
our species’ history, since most numerical technologies are a relatively recent
innovation. They offer an important window through which we can look and
discover more about ourselves.
Finally, I hope one of the consequences of the book is that
readers will reflect on the fact that so many of the “essential” numerical
features of their lives, from time-telling to the measurement of their net
worth, are not shared by all people.
[M]odern art still commonly refers to a rather narrow range of meaning and scope. It basically focuses on developments in Paris (Impressionism etc.) in the nineteenth century, and to selected Euro-American movements in the twentieth century (Cubism, Abstract Expressionism etc). But if we understand modernity as a socially transformative condition that was in force across much of the world from the nineteenth century on, how are we to understand artistic practices that were associated with these momentous changes?Iftikhar Dadi, Interview of March 26, 2012
The two world wars of the twentieth century were a product of the dislocations brought about of modernization in an environment where great power competition and the drive for hegemony were conducted primarily by violent means. Now that this era has passed in Europe and is receding in much of the Pacific rim, and hegemony achieved by force is no longer considered a legitimate ambition, the security requirements and fears of great powers should decline.Richard Ned Lebow, Interview of October 4, 2010
Lastly
I hope the book gives readers a better appreciation of how so many central aspects of their own lives are dependent on the invention of the cognitive tools we call numbers. The story of numbers is also illustrative a larger theme: what makes humans so special is not simply our innately given intelligence, but the cognitive tools we acquire from each other—often across generations—and then subsequently refine.
An interrelated pragmatic goal of the book is to bring heightened awareness to the crucial role that anthropological linguistics can play in elucidating the human narrative, helping us to better understand how we got where we are now as a species. Anthropological linguistics sits at the nexus of the study of language, human cognition, and culture, and relies on findings from other diverse fields like neuroscience and archaeology. The claims in the book are based on findings from all these diverse fields, but rest most heavily on the study of diverse languages around the world.
I also hope that the book gives readers a better sense of the insights diverse cultures can give us, even those cultures that do not wield numerical technologies like ours. There is a temptation to exoticize small groups of indigenes, and to see their reduced reliance on numbers as less natural or, simply, weird. In fact, they represent more faithfully the bulk of our species’ history, since most numerical technologies are a relatively recent innovation. They offer an important window through which we can look and discover more about ourselves.
Finally, I hope one of the consequences of the book is that readers will reflect on the fact that so many of the “essential” numerical features of their lives, from time-telling to the measurement of their net worth, are not shared by all people.