[Linganth] Stephen Chrisomalis on numbers

[Ilana Gershon]

Dear Colleagues,
Grace East interviews Stephen Chrisomalis on the blog today, they discuss
his book,
 *Reckonings*.

https://campanthropology.org

Best,
Ilana

Press blurb:

Over the past 5,000 years, more than 100 methods of numerical
notation—distinct ways of writing numbers—have been developed and used by
specific communities. Most of these are barely known today; where they are
known, they are often derided as cognitively cumbersome and outdated. In
*Reckonings*, Stephen Chrisomalis considers how humans past and present
have used numerals, reinterpreting historical and archaeological
representations of numerical notation and exploring the implications of why
we write numbers with figures rather than words.

Chrisomalis shows that numeration is a social practice. He argues that
written numerals are conceptual tools that are transformed to fit the
perceived needs of their users, and that the sorts of cognitive processes
that affect decision-making around numerical activity are complex and
involve social factors. Drawing on the triple meaning of *reckon*—to think,
to calculate, and to judge—as a framing device, Chrisomalis argues that the
history of numeral systems is best considered as a cognitive history of
language, writing, mathematics, and technology.

Chrisomalis offers seven interlinked essays that are both macro-historical
and cross-cultural, with a particular focus, throughout, on Roman numerals.
Countering the common narrative that Roman numerals are archaic and clumsy,
Chrisomalis presents examples of Roman numeral use in classical, medieval,
and early modern contexts. Readers will think more deeply about written
numbers as a cognitive technology that each of us uses every single day,
and will question the assumption that whatever happened historically was
destined to have happened, leading inevitably to the present.
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