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Völkerkunde
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Historical SummaryIn this connection the early reports on the mathematical ability of savages, including statements that some tribes (Bushmen, Veddas) used no number beyond three or five, led to the conclusion, especially on the part of Herbert Spencer and Francis Galton, that the mind of the savage was radically deficient in this field. Now if you can count five you have the capacity to count any number whatever. It is only the first step that costs. Small groups living from hand to mouth, with no commerce and little to count, develop no large number systems. But when a savage has coconuts and sells them to the white man’s ship, he will learn to count in the thousands. He will develop his own mathematics, which may not be regular but which will be an instrument for the solving of his problems. Faris (in the paper cited above) put the following problem to an African boy:
"If nine pieces of cassava cost nine brass rods each, how much would they all cost?" After the inevitable argument that they did not cost
nine rods each, but could be bought anywhere at five rods each, he finally yielded the point and agreed for argument’s sake, and then set out to try to find the solution. He took nine sticks and placed them on the ground, breaking the last one into nine pieces. He then placed one of these pieces on each of the other sticks, and found that he had eight whole sticks and one piece left over, so he announced that the result was eighty-one.
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Chicago:
"Völkerkunde," Völkerkunde in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed July 5, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TABLANWXUYNFMFU.
MLA:
. "Völkerkunde." Völkerkunde, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 5 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TABLANWXUYNFMFU.
Harvard:
, 'Völkerkunde' in Völkerkunde. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 5 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=TABLANWXUYNFMFU.
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