Although lists and catalogues abound in Western literature and culture,
there is a remarkable lack of theory on them (1). They have always played an important
role in the anthropological and ethnographic acquisition and presentation of
knowledge about foreign cultures From antiquity to the present Western researchers
have compiled lists of strange customs (our focus here will be on Montaigne) (2). In
contrast to these lists, the ones contained in the so - called Pillow Book, written around
1000 A.D. by the Japanese court lady Sei Shonagon were compiled by a member ¯
of such a foreign culture itself The main part of the present essay analyses how
the French writer Georges Perec uses these lists as a model for an anthropology of
his own culture (3) In conclusion I argue for the study of enumerative practices as
›enumerative games taking my cue from Wittgenstein’s concept of languages
games

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