Article: The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic.(Review)

URTON, GARY; with the collaboration of Primitivo Nine Llanos. xvi, 267 pp., illus., tables, bibliogr. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1997. $35.00 (cloth), $17.95 (paper)

Mathematics is not a Platonic description of timeless objective realities, as Frege argued. Numeracy is a cultural discourse, a biological capacity and a social and historical practice. 'Pure' mathematics is a fetish. These are some of the propositions of this pioneering and most readable book, which necessarily combines ethnography with interdisciplinary dialogue. Following Crump, Ascher and Mimica, Urton argues for an anthropological contribution to current debate on the epistemological status ...

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