Keine Evolution vom Einfachen zum Komplexen

Sind Gesellschaften, die keine komplexe Zahlsysteme besitzen “weniger entwickelt"? Nein. Wo kein Bedarf für das Zählen und große Zahlen besteht, werden auch keine komplexe Zahlsysteme entwickelt. Menschliche Kognitionen – und Zahlsysteme sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil davon – entwickeln sich vielmehr in Reaktion auf kulturelle Anforderungen. Das schreiben der Psychologe Sieghard Beller und die Ethnologin Andrea Bender im Blatt Science infolge einer Medieninformation der Uni Freiburg (Brsg).

Mit ihrer Analyse von Sprachen im pazifischem Raum konnten die beiden Forscher nicht nur gängige Annahmen zur Evolution von Zahlsystemen widerlegen, sondern auch zeigen, dass Zahlsysteme, die bisher als primitiv galten, in Wirklichkeit sehr effizient und vorteilhaft waren.

>> weiter in der Pressemitteilung

Aus der Zusammenfassung des Science-Artikels:

To sum up, the linguistic analysis reveals that the specific counting systems in Mangareva did not precede an abstract system but were rather derived from it, despite their nonabstract nature. And the cognitive analysis suggests that this was done deliberately and for rational purposes. This justifies the conclusion that a feature of apparently little efficiency, once taken as indicator for an earlier evolutionary step in numerical cognition, can be used to overcome another such feature.

Not all cultures value numbers in the same way, even if they are concerned with mathematical topics. In some cultures in Papua New Guinea, for instance, large power numerals were given up together with decimal systems and replaced by quinary or body-counting sequences. In other cultures, the reverse of this took place: Not satisfied with the restrictions posed by their inherited numeration system, many Polynesian cultures not only extended its limits of counting but also designed efficient strategies to cope with the cognitive difficulties of mental arithmetic. Both lines of development started from the same regularly decimal and abstract numeration system inherited from Proto-Oceanic and therefore speak against a linear evolution of numerical cognition. Numeration systems do not always evolve from simple to more complex and from specific to abstract systems.

There may be no other domain in the field of cognitive sciences where it is so obvious that language (i.e., the verbal numeration system) affects cognition (i.e., mental arithmetic). One of the two core systems of number hinges on language. If one’s language does not contain numerals beyond 1 and 2, calculating larger amounts is difficult, if not impossible. However, people are also very creative in adapting their cognitive and linguistic tools to cultural needs, and cases like those presented here add to our knowledge of how they achieve this.

SIEHE AUCH:

1, 2, viele: Die Pirahã in Brasilien kennen keine größeren Zahlwörter