YUPNO NUMBER SYSTEM AND COUNTING

The starting point of this study is the apparent contradiction between the existence in Yupno (Papua New Guinea) culture of an elaborate num ber system and the lack of importance attributed to counting in everyd ay life. The study is designed to answer two questions: To what extent is the model described by the socially most prestigious expert shared by other Yupno men? How can the system be used to solve new, unfamili ar problems? Indeed, the variability found in the description and use of the number system is very important, to the extent where almost eac h subject uses it in a slightly different, idiosyncratic way. Without the help of a psychological perspective, this astounding variability m ay have gone unnoticed. However, to the anthropologist, it is too earl y to speak of a ''requiem for the omniscient informant'' because the i deal model ''fits'' with the rest of the culture-for example, the symb olic separation between the left and right parts of the body. Arithmet ic computations can be performed by the older Yupno men using the trad itional Yupno system and by children using school algorithms but not b y those young men who are in between two cultures.