![]() It is guided by the conversion of sensory-experiential information, such as quantities of objects, into inner images of the objects by the imagination, which are then converted by the brain into sign behavior, such as finger-counting or etching tallies onto some stick or bone. The connective capacity was called semiosis by logician Charles Peirce (1931–1958). Finger-counting is still an instinctive behavior-no doubt a residue from our evolutionary history (Neugebauer 1952) and reflecting an innate ability to connect something tangible or visible (fingers) with something that is purely conceptual (number). In effect, the fingers were used as proto-numerals, as were other kinds of counting signs and artifacts found in prehistoric cultures-pebbles, knots, marks, tallies, etc. Based on anthropological data pertaining to over 30 hunter-gatherer societies, archeologist Karenleigh Overmann (2013) was able to establish that prehistoric people counted with their fingers around 40,000 years ago, even before they (likely) had developed words for them.
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