[Haskell-cafe] Extending the idea of a general Num to other types?

I like the fact that Haskel treats numbers in a generic way, so you can lift them to any other datatype by instantiating Num. Can the same be done on other builtin constructs? For example, if I have [a], can this list be lifted to other types? I guess not, because no type class exists for the list type? Does this make sense? I'm still searching for correct terminology... Thanks, Peter