How high can you count on your fingers? Ten, right? Maybe you’ll get creative, tap your fingers twice, and make it to twenty. But what about twenty-seven? How would you communicate that number, right now, using only your body? For most of us, the answer is a shrug. Our numbering system lives in our heads, an abstract sequence of sounds and symbols. But what if your numbering system was your body?
Journey with us to the highlands of New Guinea, a region of staggering linguistic diversity, where hundreds of languages are spoken in an area smaller than Texas. Here, amidst lush valleys and isolated communities, we find one of the most fascinating concepts in human cognition: body-part tally systems.
Beyond Base-10: The Logic of the Body
Most of the world operates on a base-10 (decimal) system. We have ten unique digits (0-9), and then we start combining them. Why ten? The answer is almost certainly staring you in the face: we have ten fingers. Our hands are our first abacus, a natural tool that shaped the mathematical language of entire civilizations.
Body-part tally systems take this logic and run with it—literally, all over the body. Instead of a repeating base, these systems are sequential. They map numbers onto a specific, ordered path of body parts. A number isn’t an abstract concept; it’s a location. To say the number is to point to, or name, the corresponding body part. It’s a system you are born with and carry with you your entire life.
While these systems exist elsewhere, New Guinea is the undisputed heartland. The sheer variety and complexity of body-counting here provides a stunning window into how culture and language can shape our perception of something as fundamental as numbers.
A Walkthrough of a Body-Part System: The Oksapmin
Perhaps the most famous and well-documented example comes from the Oksapmin people of Papua New Guinea. Their traditional system uses 27 points on the upper body. The count is not random; it follows a precise, symmetrical path. Let’s take the journey:
The count begins on one hand, typically the right:
- 1. Thumb
- 2. Index finger
- 3. Middle finger
- 4. Ring finger
- 5. Little finger
From the hand, the count travels up the arm:
- 6. Wrist
- 7. Forearm
- 8. Elbow
- 9. Upper arm
- 10. Shoulder
Then, it moves across the upper torso and head:
- 11. Side of the neck
- 12. Ear
- 13. Eye
- 14. Nose (the apex of the count)
Having reached the center, the count proceeds down the other side of the body in a mirror image:
- 15. The other eye
- 16. The other ear
- 17. The other side of the neck
- 18. The other shoulder
- 19. The other upper arm
- 20. The other elbow
- 21. The other forearm
- 22. The other wrist
Finally, it concludes on the fingers of the other hand:
- 23. The other little finger
- 24. The other ring finger
- 25. The other middle finger
- 26. The other index finger
- 27. The other thumb
In this system, the number ’27’ has a name and a place: it’s the “other-side thumb” (or depending on which side you start, the “other-side little finger” might be 23, but the concept stands). The word for ’14’ is the word for ‘nose’. The number and the body part are one and the same. To perform addition, an Oksapmin speaker might count up to the first number (say, 8, the elbow), and then continue counting forward from there by the second number.
Not Just One System: Diversity in Counting
The Oksapmin method is just one brushstroke in a much larger masterpiece. The Telefol people, for instance, use a similar 27-point system, but with slight variations. The Yupno people of the Finisterre Range have a system that includes the sternum and navel, reaching 34 points. Other systems might incorporate ribs, hips, or even toes, creating “bases” of 40 or more.
This diversity is a direct reflection of the region’s cultural landscape. For millennia, communities developed in relative isolation, leading to unique solutions for shared human problems—like the need to count yams, pigs, or days. Each system is a self-contained universe of logic, perfectly suited to the needs of the culture that created it.
What Does It Mean to “Think” in Body Parts?
This raises a fascinating question: does counting on your body change how you think about numbers? Research suggests it might. For speakers of these languages, numbers can be less abstract and more concrete, tied to a physical, tangible reality. The number ’10’ isn’t just a symbol; it’s the feeling of touching your shoulder. This has profound implications for how arithmetic is learned and performed.
Of course, these systems are not static relics. The world has come to New Guinea, bringing with it global trade, currency, and Western-style education. The introduction of money (like the Papua New Guinean Kina) and abstract, base-10 mathematics has had a huge impact. In many Oksapmin communities today, you see a fascinating hybrid system. The 27 body parts are still used, but they are now often used to count in base-10. For example, a speaker might count up to their ‘shoulder’ (10), and then start a new cycle for the tens unit, touching their shoulder again to signify ’20’.
This demonstrates the incredible adaptability of human language and cognition. The body-part system wasn’t simply discarded; it was repurposed to interface with a new numerical reality.
Your Body, The First Calculator
The ways we count feel so natural, so self-evident, that we rarely stop to question them. But the body-part tallies of New Guinea serve as a powerful reminder that our way is just one of many. They reveal a logic that is both deeply intuitive and brilliantly complex, rooted not in abstract symbols but in the very form we all inhabit.
So the next time you count on your fingers, take a moment. Imagine the count continuing—up your arm, across your face, and down the other side. You’re tapping into an ancient and profound idea: that the human body was, and for some still is, the world’s first calculator.