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SCIENCE AND AFRICA CHAPMAN north of the Mediterranean; and also these pluvial epochs are less precisely marked periods. Because of this age of various finds in Africa have had to be determined by methods of geological reconstruction that presents greater difficulties. the evolution of counting in Africa In view of the fact that scientists are still unearthing relics of great antiquity in Africa, it would not be brave but foolhardy for one to attempt to give a lucid argument on the antiquity of counting here. Undoubtedly the evolution of the number concept was a very tedious affair-this is commonly understood-and now it is probably that in order to ascertain some idea as to the origin and evolution of the number concept scholars must turn to the African past. Unfortunately, however, we must leave this line of inquiry to future students of knowledge. I shall confine myself here only to those truths which are ascertainable and fairly well attested. I am cognizant of the fact that a scientific thesis needs to be backed by a far wider collection of facts than those presented here, but due to the nature of present circumstances I cannot do otherwise. My attempts no doubt are meager, yet they are honest, and I do hope that they will at least encourage the reader to clean the windows of his soul in order that he may see the variety and beauty of truth in a more candid light. genesis From an evolutionary point of view primitive counting probably precedes angular measurement. The needs of primitive man were simple, consequently his meager life did not demand much in the way of counting. It was the urban revolution with its medium of exchange (money) which created a demand for arithmetic. It is contended by some authorities that primitive man could recognize that one of his cattle was missing without knowing how to count the herd. Many other animals exhibit this collective number sense. Perhaps nouns of multitude like lot, heap, crowd, flock, and so on, are residuals of this collective number sense. language and number Many scholars have been of the opinion that number and language develop at the same pace. Generally speaking this is quite true, but many writers have argued from this that so-called "backward" primitive languages are incapable of expressing complex ideas. The trans- 239