Lecture: "Outnumbered: A Sociocultural Analysis of the Decline and Fall of Numeral Systems" October 2005 University of Toronto, Dept. of Anthropology Colloquium Series
	Numeral systems - both linguistic systems of numeral words and graphic systems of number symbols - are extremely stable domains of culture, but are also prone to replacement in situations of political or cultural hegemony. A comparative analysis of such episodes of replacement, using archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data, shows that social factors are far more important than functional considerations of mathematical efficiency. In ancient societies, numeral systems went extinct with the integration of societies into regional economic networks. Starting with the development of the capitalist world-system between 1450 and 1650, the Hindu-Arabic numerals replaced the previously stable number symbols of both core and periphery. Local numeral words changed in predictable ways, but are rarely replaced, under pressure from languages of imperialist societies. Both number words and number symbols need to be understood as social phenomena rather than purely technological or linguistic ones.
Stephen Chrisomalis, Ph.D. Copyright 2006