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2 July 2001
17:41 Hours Zulu Time
Jonathon Blake
For Is and Is-not though with Rule and Line
And Up-and-Down without, I could define,
I yet in all only cared to know,
Was never deep in anything --- Wine.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Quatrain XLI
The hypothesis, which we shall call the 2 to the power of Six rule is then, that Irrespective of race, culture or evolutionary level, culturally institutionalized folk taxonomies will not contain six or more orthogonally related binary dimensions, for the definitions of all the terms.
... In the area of cultural semantics, we are suggesting that a somewhat similar principle apples...the evolution of cultural complexity is limited, in so far as folk taxonomies are concerned, by the two-to-the-power-of-six-rule....What is limited is the complexity of the taxonomies which are components of the various cultural sub-systems.
Anthony F. C. Wallace
Quoted in McKenna & McKenna (1975)
What is coming at you
Is coming from you.
Source: unknown
I cast a shadow on my path
as I carry a lamp
That I have not yet lit.
Source: Unknown
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