Book Awards:
American Psychological Association
American Anthropological Association
Cognitive Development Society
2015 Eleanor E. Maccoby Book Award (Developmental Psychology). American Psychological Association
2014 Stirling Prize for Best Published Book in Psychological Anthropology. Society for Psychological Anthropology, American Anthropological Association
2013 Best Authored Book Award from the Cognitive Development Society
Available at Cambridge University Press and Amazon.com
Scope
Drawing upon field studies conducted in 1978, 1980, and 2001 with the Oksapmin, a remote Papua New Guinea group, I trace the emergence of new forms of numerical representations and ideas in the social history of the community. In traditional life, the Oksapmin used a counting system that makes use of twenty-seven parts of the body; there is no evidence that the group used arithmetic in prehistory. As practices of economic exchange and schooling have shifted, children and adults unwittingly reproduced and altered the system in order to solve new kinds of numerical and arithmetical problems, a process that has led to new forms of collective representations in the community. While my focus is on the fascinating case of Oksapmin communities, the insights and general framework I provide can be useful for understanding shifting representational forms and emerging cognitive functions in any human community.