著者

小馬 徹

出版者

国立民族学博物館

雑誌

国立民族学博物館研究報告 (ISSN:0385180X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.1, pp.p117-165, 1989

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The Kipsigis of Kenya have been using, as a tradition, decimalnotation. However, they hate and try to avoid countingnot only their members but also domestic animals, just like manyother east African pastoral peoples. This could be the reasonwhy they seem to have had, at first, the notion of numbersimply consisting of just the most basic numbers from one to ten.This plain notion of number is closely linked with the verb'saspect system of the Kipsigis language, and their views of timeand space.In counting 1-5 on fingers, a Kipsigis uses the left handfolding the fingers one by one. The little finger represents 1;the third finger 2; the middle finger 3; the forefinger 4; thethumb 5. In counting 6-10, he adds the fingers of the righthand to the left fist, one at a time. Now, the little fingerrepresents 6; the third finger 7; the middle finger 8; the forefinger9; the thumb 10.According to old Kipsigis men, the most basic numbers of1-10, at the same time, imply something more than the notionof number. 1-5, which are shown by the thumb and fingers ofthe left hand, symbolise oneself (1), oneself and the other, whichrepresents the community (2), conflictive situations existingbetween oneself and the community (3), harmonious situationsexisting between oneself and the community (4), and the completionof the cosmic harmony (5), respectively. In other words,the numbers represented by the thumb and fingers of the lefthand(1-5) symbolise the development of one's consciousness bysteps from self-orientated state to community-orientated state.On the other hand, each of 6-10, which are represented bythe thumb and fingers of right hand, just expresses linguisticallythat the indicated number is big and difficult to comprehend.Thus 10 (taman) literally means "It beats me" ( Taamenan).Above all, 5 (mut) and 10 (taman) linked themselves withthe notions of past, present, and future on which Kipsigis viewtime bases, as shown below. A transitive verb, mut, signifiesi) to encircle, and ii) to cut something into two. When a man`clenches a fist' (mumut) with the left hand , to connote 5, thisdivides the entire set of the basic numbers (1-10) into two, i.e.,the already counted 5 (1-5) and the uncounted 5 (6-10). InKipsigis amut, which can literally mean 'I cut it into two , is foryesterday. Mutai means morning in the Kipsigis language ingeneral, and yet it means to-morrow in the northern Kipsigisdialect, just as in some other Kalenjin languages, includingNandi and Terik. In addition, mutai can literally mean 'thefirst (tai) five (mut). Here making a fist for counting 5 is associatedwith a rotation of the sun, which causes day and night. Andtherefore closing both hands to count 10 is connected with thedoubled rotation of the sun, and, as the result, with yesterday(oin). Being the last number in the Kipsigis's basic numericalcounting system, 10 is also connected with the day after tomorrowand the day before yesterday, which are the terminals in theKipsigis's day-counting system.Taman (10) shares the common stem tam with a word tam,which means 'to become difficult' as an intransitive verb, and'every day' as an adverb . Then, koyoin (i.e., the day aftertomorrow) is closely associated with yoin or yoindet (i.e., the creator)which is usually referred as Asis. Asis is the Kipsigis's omnipotentGod that can be the sun as its emblem. On the other hand,oin (i.e., the day before yesterday) is closely associated withoindet, which means a dead ancestor.In Kipsigis view of time, the two-tiered mutai (tomorrow)/koyoin (the day after tomorrow) set faces its counterpart, theamut (yesterday) /oin (the day before yesterday) set, with ra orraini (i.e., today) between. The verb's time-aspect system ratherfaithfully reflects Kipsigis's view of time, for the two-tiered verb'sfuture-aspect set of tomorrow and the day after tomorrowconfronts the two-tiered past-aspect set of yesterday and the daybefore yesterday with a today-aspect between.In Kipsigis, the view of time is highly infiltrated by that ofspace. Adverbs of time are formed on the basis of local adverbs.Space is divided into three strata, i.e., over there (at a remoteplace), there (out of reach of the speaker), and here (within reachof the speaker), with the last one as the starting point. Thethree strata are indicated by the suffixes, -i, -on, and -in, respectively.Sets of pronouns also share a similar stratification.Moreover, the binary opposition of koyoin (the day aftertomorrow)/oin (the day before yesterday) has firm associationwith another binary opposition of east/west, through the intermediationof yoindet (the creator God sensed through the sun)/oindet (dead ancestor, who is in charge of death in its clan) binaryopposition. As the most important nucleus in the Kipsigis'ssymbolism, east represents the creator, the sun, sunrise, life, sky,future, and menfolk, whereas west represents ancestors, themoon, sunset, earth, past, and womenfolk.All in all, the Kipsigis system of counting on fingers isconsidered to be well-embeded in their symbolism as a whole.