Exploring the Nostratic Hypothesis

A bioeconomic study of numeracy and economic calculation

“…In addition, as Sheets-Johnstone (1990, p. 308) points out, we are biologically predisposed to use our own bodies as a semantic template in communicating with others-which partly explains why in many languages of the world names for fingers and hands are linked to counting words. (For example, the English word 'five' is etymologically related to an ancient word for 'fist' in Proto-Indo-European or its linguistic ancestor, Nostratic (Winter 1992;Manaster Ramer et al 1998). ) Indeed, it has been suggested that the evolution of systematic number concepts is directly dependent upon specific features of human anatomy: 'The fact that Man has a set of extremely salient protuberances [i.e.…”