How Do Cultural Numerical Concepts Build Upon an Evolved Number Sense?

Several authors (e.g. Dehaene, 1997) have proposed that mathematical concepts build upon an evolved innate number sense, which we share with many other species. However, they have left unspecified how these mathematical concepts can come into existence and how they are transmitted. Models of content biased cultural transmission (e.g. Boyer, 2001) predict that cultural traits that bear a close fit to or a strong violation of intuitions provided by evolved cognitive mechanisms (modules) will be more widespread than others. Here, I adopt a similar approach to explain the emergence and spread of two mathematical concepts: positive integers, which have emerged independently in many cultures, and zero, which has evolved only once as a true numerical concept, but has successfully spread to other cultures. I will argue that these patterns of emergence and transmission lie in their fit with or their violation of intuitions provided by our evolved number sense