History of Numerals and Counting: Bibliography

Date: 11/18/96 at 13:13:51
From: Chicago City Day School
Subject: Swahili System of Measurement

Dear Dr. Math,

I am trying to do a project on different systems of measurements.  I 
cannot find a copy of the book _Africa Counts_ by Claudia Zaslavsky.  
Is there any site on the net where I can get this information?  I have
tried using Altavista, Metawebcrawler and Yahoo.

Thank you,

Ellen Harding, Mrs. Beadles, and Mrs. Silverman

Date: 11/19/96 at 14:30:41
From: Doctor Jodi
Subject: Re: Swahili System of Measurement

Hi there! This is really a great topic and I hope you're able to find 
more information about it. Have you tried asking your local librarian 
about an inter-library loan?  Given a few weeks, they can borrow 
almost any book that ANY library owns.

My searches didn't turn up any information on the Internet, but I did 
find a bibliograhy (which follows) at: 

    http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/mathhist/numerals.html    

Perhaps you can find one of the books listed.  A lot of newer popular 
math books also discuss how we think counting began, so if you don't 
need too much information, maybe that would be a good place to start.

Here are some other books which might help.  A lot of these are geared 
toward adults and some may assume some math background. One I've 
looked at and liked is called _From One to Zero: A Universal History 
of Numbers_, by Georges Ifrah. 

Here's the rest of the list:
-------------------------------
History of Numerals and Counting

Bibliography

Blohm, Hans, Stafford Beer, and David Suzuki. _Pebbles to Computers: 
the Thread_. Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1986. 

Cajori, Florian (1859-1930). _A History of Mathematical Notations_. 
Two volumes. Chelsea, New York, 1928. 

Clawson, Calvin C. _The Mathematical Traveler: Exploring the Grand 
History of Numbers_. Plenum Press, New York, 1994. 

Closs, Michael F. (editor). _Native American Mathematics_. University 
of Texas Press, Austin, 1986. 

Conant, Levi Leonard. _The Number Concept, its Origin and 
Development_.  Macmillan, New York, 1896, 1923. 

Crump, Thomas. _The Anthropology of Numbers_. Cambridge University 
Press, Cambridge, 1990. 

Dantzig, Tobias (1884-1956). _Number: The Language of Science_. 
Macmillan, New York, 1930. 

De Villiers, Melius.  _The Numeral-Words, Their Origin, Meaning, 
History and Lesson_.  Witherby, London, 1923. 

Flegg, Graham, editor. _Numbers Through the Ages_.  Macmillan, 1989. 

Glaser, Anton. _History of Binary and Other Nondecimal Numeration_ 
Tomash, Los Angeles, 1981. 

Gvozdanovic, Jadranka, editor. _Indo-European Numerals_. de Gruyter, 
Berlin-New York, 1992. Reveiw: Historia Mathematica 20 (1993), 99-103. 

Head, B. V. _Historia Numorum_. 

Hill, George Francis (1867-1948).  _The Development of Arabic Numerals 
in Europe_.  Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1915. 

Hurford, J. R.  _The Linguistic Theory of Numerals_.  Cambridge 
University Press, Cambridge, 1975. 

_Language and Number_. Blackwell, Oxford, 1987. 

Ifrah, Georges. _From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers_. 
Translated by Lowell Bair. Viking, New York, 1985. 

Leechamn, J. D. and M. R. Harrington. _String Records of the 
Northwest_. Indian Notes and Monographs, 1921. 

Locke, L. Leland. _The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record_. 
American Museum of Natural History, 1923. 

Loffler, Eugen. _Ziffern und Ziffernsysteme_. Leipzig, 1919. 

McLeish, John. _The Story of Numbers_. Fawcett Columbine, New York, 
1991. 

Menninger, Karl. Zahlwort und Ziffer. _Eine Kulturgeschichte der 
Zahl_.  Two volumes.  Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gottingen, 1957. 
Translated as _Number Words and Number Symbols: A Cultural History of 
Numbers_. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969. 

Schmandt-Besseart, Denise. _Before Writing_. Two Volumes. Univ. Texas 
Press, Austin, 1992. 

Scriba, Christoph J.  _The Concept of Number_. Bibliographisches 
Institut, Mannheim-Zurich, 1968. 

Sethe, Kurt. _Von Zahlen und Zahlworten beiden alten Aegypten_. 
Strassburg, 1916. 

Smeltzer, Donald. _Man and Number_. Emerson Books, New York, 1959. 

Smith, David Eugene and Jekuthiel Ginsberg. _Numbers and Numerals_. 
Columbia University, New York, 1937. 

Smith, David Eugene and L. C. Karpinski. _The Hindu-Arabic Numerals_. 
Ginn, Boston, 1911. 

Tod, Marcus Niebuhr. _Ancient Greek Numerical Systems_. Ares 
Publishers, Chicago, 1979. 

Zaslavsky, C. _Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Culture_. 
Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, Boston, 1973. 

You also might be interested in looking at the abacus web site at:
 
http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/   

Best luck with your project and let us know if you need more help.


-Doctor Jodi,  The Math Forum
 Check out our web site!  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/