PRIMITIVE NUMBERS 

By W J McGerr 

PLACE OF NUMBERS IN THE GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 
The gateway to knowledge of aboriginal character is found in 
aboriginal conduct; for among primitive folk, habits of action are 
more trenchant than systems of thought. Yet full knowledge of 
aboriginal character may be gained only through study of both the 
activital habits and the intellectual systems of the aborigines; for in 
every stage of human development, action and thought are concomi- 
tant and complementary. 
In dealing with aboriginal customs connected with numbers (simple 
counting, numeration, calendar systems, etc.), the working ethnolo- 
gist is confronted by the elusive yet ever-present fact that primitive 
folk commonly see in numbers qualities or potencies not customarily 
recognized by peoples of more advanced culture. Accordingly it 
seems especially desirable to trace the thoughts, as well as the customs, 
of primitive number-users, and this may be done with a fair degree of 
confidence in the light of homologies with the early stages of mathe- 
matics and related knowledge among peoples of advanced culture. 
Fairly close homologies with the numbers of primitive peoples are 
atforded by the early stages of chemistry and astronomy. Chemistry 
grew slowly out of alchemy as natural experience waxed and primeval 
mysticism waned; and in earlier time astronomy grew out of astrology 
in similar fashion. The growth of chemistry is fairly written, and 
that of astronomy less fully recorded in early literature; and in the 
history of both sciences the records are corroborated and the sequence 
established by vestigial features—for such features are no less useful 
in defining mental development than are vestigial organs and functions 
in outlining vital evolution. 
Now on scanning the long way over which modern knowledge came 
up, it becomes clear that the beginning of chemistry marked the third 
step in the development of science, and that the beginning of astron- 
omy marked an earlier step; and it also becomes clear that another 
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