ABSTRACT
This chapter interprets the numerical series in its authentic constitution as an abstract configuration objectified through the interplay of concrete usages of language and gestures. It aims to elucidate the meaning-structure of the seriation form of the Iqwaye fingers as a numerical series. Within the framework of counting, the part-whole identity relation is the condition of the cyclical structure of the numerical series. The pictorial analysis illustrates the striking characteristic of Iqwaye numeration whereby the number 400 is expressed in reference to one person and, consequently, is oneness and has within the numerical series a value of one. The identification of human fingers with a whole person is a crucial aspect of the Iqwaye system of sociocentric classification, evidenced by the structure of personal names. For the Iqwaye, fingers are both male and female, since humans are of both sexes. But this sexual dichotomy is further articulated in reference to the left and right hands.
