Book contents
- The Materiality of Numbers
- The Materiality of Numbers
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 Numbers in a Nutshell
- 2 Converging Perspectives on Numbers
- 3 The Brain in Numbers
- 4 Bodies and Behaviors
- 5 Language in Numbers
- 6 Global and Regional Patterns
- 7 Materiality in Numbers
- 8 Materiality in Cognition
- 9 Making Quantity Tangible and Manipulable
- 10 Tallies and Other Devices That Accumulate
- 11 Interpreting Prehistoric Artifacts
- 12 Devices That Accumulate and Group
- 13 Handwritten Notations
- 14 The Materiality of Numbers
- References
- Index
10 - Tallies and Other Devices That Accumulate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023
- The Materiality of Numbers
- The Materiality of Numbers
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 Numbers in a Nutshell
- 2 Converging Perspectives on Numbers
- 3 The Brain in Numbers
- 4 Bodies and Behaviors
- 5 Language in Numbers
- 6 Global and Regional Patterns
- 7 Materiality in Numbers
- 8 Materiality in Cognition
- 9 Making Quantity Tangible and Manipulable
- 10 Tallies and Other Devices That Accumulate
- 11 Interpreting Prehistoric Artifacts
- 12 Devices That Accumulate and Group
- 13 Handwritten Notations
- 14 The Materiality of Numbers
- References
- Index
Summary
Consider the humble tally. Whether it is made of notched wood, knotted string, a torn leaf, strung beads, loose pebbles, marks painted on the body or inscribed on the ground, the fingers, the fingers and toes, or the fingers plus other body parts, a tally is a simple device, as material forms go, one that requires few resources to learn or invent from scratch. But because it is a material form that is not a part of the body, the tally represents an extremely powerful mechanism – the ability of the material form to accumulate and distribute cognitive effort – that for numbers begins with the tally and continues today with calculators and computers. If the tally is easy for a novice to understand, use, make, and invent, a device like the computer is not, even for an expert. This is because at some point, the amount of cognitive effort needed exceeds what a single individual, or even an entire generation of people, can manage on its own. Material devices also have a capacity for manipulability and morphological change that far exceeds what bodies and behaviors are capable of; they are also public and shareable in ways that bodies and behaviors are not. The tally thus represents a significant step in harnessing the agency of material forms toward numerical purposes.
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- The Materiality of NumbersEmergence and Elaboration from Prehistory to Present, pp. 220 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023