http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-yin-and-yang-of-numbers-across-cultures-tp523046p523050.html
learned " Roy G. Biv", a name silly enough that you weren't likely to
> My apologies, and I seem to be pushing the evelope of original intent
> for the FRIAM list, but I find this sort of "anthropology of numbers"
> topic an interesting problem that converges on interesting questions
> in how we design, say, databases or UIs that are applicable anywhere,
> anytime.
>
> So for what it's worth....
>
> -tj
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: STRATE at fordham.edu < STRATE at fordham.edu>
> Date: Nov 30, 2006 5:55 PM
> Subject: [MEA] Fwd:The yin and yang of numbers across cultures
> To: MEA at lists.ibiblio.org
>
> >From the Chronicle of Higher Ed's Magazine and Journal Reader.
> Thursday, November 30, 2006
>
> A glance at the current issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology &
> Society: The yin and yang of numbers across cultures
>
>
> ??????In Japanese culture, a rainbow is considered to consist of seven
> colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple. A
> rainbow has
> one less color in the West, as Americans and Europeans tend not to
> count
> indigo. However, because a rainbow is actually a continuous spectrum,
> both
> perceptions are wrong, notes Yutaka Nishiyama, a professor at Osaka
> University of Economics, in Japan. He says those distinct viewpoints
> reflect a Japanese preference for odd numbers and Western favoritism
> toward
> even numbers.
> Mr. Nishiyama provides numerous other examples to suggest an East-West
> difference in the preference for odd or even numbers. According to a
> Japanese proverb, for example, three heads are better than two,
> "whereas in
> English, two are better than one." In a study of number-related words
> in
> English and Japanese, he found additional evidence. "It appears," he
> writes, "that the Japanese language has a cultural setting that favors
> the
> odd numbers 3 and 5, whereas English has a cultural setting that
> favors the
> even numbers 2, 4, and 6."
>
> The author looks at historical clues in attempting to explain why
> different
> cultures may have a preference for one form of numbers over the other.
> The
> ancient Greeks, he says, regarded odd numbers as good. So did the
> ancient
> Chinese. The latter utilized yin-yang thought, which is based on the
> idea
> of alternating opposites. For instance, yang is generally considered
> to be
> masculine, and yin to be feminine. He emphasizes, however, that the
> concept
> is meant to be interpreted as a system of opposites and of "infinite
> change," not as "a case of one being superior or inferior to the
> other." So
> a man is yang in relation to a woman, but yin in relation to his
> parents.
> Only in modern times, he says, has yang come to be understood as "good
> and
> superior" in relation to yin.
>
> He concludes that the ancient preference for odd numbers probably
> faded in
> the West with the arrival of modern mathematics, "as represented by
> Newton." As he explains it, modern mathematics values rationality, and
> "seems to have abandoned the ideas of ancient Chinese yin-yang thought
> and
> ancient Greek philosophy, in which odd numbers were male and even
> numbers
> female. When counting numbers, odd numbers were incomplete, in-between
> numbers, whereas even numbers were certainly more rational." Thus, "in
> contrast to the East, where odd numbers are positive and good, in the
> West,
> odd numbers are incomplete and superfluous."
>
> The article, "A Study of Odd- and Even-Number Cultures," is
> temporarily
> available free through Sage Publications.
>
>
http://bst.sagepub.com/cgi /content/abstract/26/6/479
>
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> --
> ==========================================
> J. T. Johnson
> Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
> www.analyticjournalism.com
> 505.577.6482(c)???????????????????????????????? 505.473.9646(h)
>
http://www.jtjohnson.com???????????????? tom at jtjohnson.us
>
> "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
> To change something, build a new model that makes the
> existing model obsolete."
> ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? -- Buckminster
> Fuller
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