Acknowledgements
Introduction: three reckonings
Note: On "Western numerals"
1 / I The limits of numerical cognition
2 / II Conspicuous computation
3 / III The decline and fall of the Roman numerals, I: Of screws
and hammers
4 / IV The decline and fall of the Roman numerals, II: Safety in
numbers
5 / V Number crunching
6 / VI How to choose a number
7 / VII To infinity and beyond?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Stephen Chrisomalis is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wayne State University.
“For a fresh account of the hows and whys of evolving number
systems over the past 5500 years and on into the future,
here’s a book by cognitive anthropologist Stephen Chrisomalis.
His threefold approach in Reckonings is to examine number with
respect to structure, purpose, and transience, and in doing
so, he cautiously avoids overgeneralizing, ever mindful that
the Latin maxim exceptio probat regulam ought to be translated as
'the exception probes the rule.' Thus, Chrisomalis
habitually inserts curious richness into his narrative.”
—The Mathematical Intelligencer
“Stephen Chrisomalis has written a compelling and thoroughly
entertaining account of how numbers came to be used and
represented. [. . . ] I strongly recommend this book for readers
interested in the broad sweep of human history from an
information lens. [. . . ] Reckonings serves as an enlightening
example of how the fundamentals of information cannot be
understood by a single discipline.”
—Information & Culture
“Reckonings is one of those oddities in academia. A highly
specialist, niche publication that somehow manages to be
entertaining and relevant for people who have little expertise or
interest in the central topic. [ . . . ] Like a good ethnographic
account, the headline is merely the starting point for an
interrogation of society. Chrisomalis uses numbering systems to
explore broader issues of cognition and culture. [ . . . ]
Reckonings takes its readers on an historical tour to understand
important changes in the use of number systems that is an exemplar
for how we might integrate diachronic and synchronic data and
methodologies to better understand change in any cultural
system.”
—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“Chrisomalis has written a compelling and thoroughly entertaining
account of how historically numbers came to be used and
represented. The book serves as an enlightening example of how the
fundamentals of knowledge cannot be understood by a single
discipline; they require the complementarity of several knowledge
fields such as philosophy, sociology, and education. We strongly
and enthusiastically recommend this book to all readers interested
in the broad understanding of human history, as well as the history
of human mathematics, from these informational lenses.”
—Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
“The book has the tone of public scholarship á la Steven
Pinker or Jared Diamond rather than a volume exclusively for
professional anthropologists, although its material may be
challenging for the average reader. For anthropologists, it
also achieves two other noteworthy things: it supports and
offers a method for cross-cultural and transhistorical
comparison (transcending the universalist/particularist
dichotomy), and it urges anthropology to take number systems more
seriously rather than consigning them to a distant second place
behind language.”
—Ethos
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