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Tribes Without Names For Numbers Cannot Count
Nature ^
| 8-19-2004
| Helen Pearson
Posted on 08/21/2004 3:01:00 PM PDT by blam
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To: djf
And as an interesting aside, years ago I read a book by a fellow who had gone down and spent a few years with the Yanamamo tribe. He became very accepted by them, learned the language, and eventually married a native Yanamamo woman.
IIRC, he brought her back to the US, and she was totally disfunctional. Couldn't understand even simple concepts like WALK/DON'T WALK at street corners. So impaired, that she eventually had to return to the Amazon jungle.
21
posted on
08/21/2004 4:27:22 PM PDT
by
djf
To: blam
Maybe they picked the stupidest tribe members to do the "series of tasks".
22
posted on
08/21/2004 4:53:36 PM PDT
by
William Terrell
(Individuals can exist without government but government can't exist without individuals.)
To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; A.J.Armitage; abner; adam_az; ...
Thanks Blam.
I once read a story about a tribe somewhere in the world which based its numbering system on the dogs the people kept. They counted things by the number of legs on the dogs, using a base 4 system. I forget what the individual legs were called. Our number four was "doggy-one", eight was "doggy-two", twelve was "doggy-three", and sixteen was "one houndred".
[as 'Civ waits for the laughter, all he hears from the darkened auditorium are crickets]
Many thanks to Roger Wagner, an old-timer Apple II programmer extraordinaire, whose joke I just mangled. ;'D Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
23
posted on
08/21/2004 5:07:34 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
To: ValerieUSA
There is, of course a name (and a website) for this. :') I have had this book for years (bought it as a remainder) but have never read it.
24
posted on
08/21/2004 5:11:36 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
To: blam
Crows can count to six. My neighbors lost count at four. Remember Georg Gamov's book One, Two, Three, Infinity?
25
posted on
08/21/2004 5:12:41 PM PDT
by
RightWhale
(Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and establish property rights)
To: RightWhale
"Remember Georg Gamov's book One, Two, Three, Infinity?" Nope, sure don't.
26
posted on
08/21/2004 6:12:55 PM PDT
by
blam
To: blam
To: SunkenCiv
That is more than just a story. The neighboting tribe counted the tail as a leg, and used base-5.
They were continually quarelling, over territory, food, and women. This lead to an arms race, with disastrous consequences if it didn't end. Finally, during a truce, they agreed to a Strategic Spear Reduction Treaty.
The problem, was neither understood the other's numerical system, which led, first to acussation of cheating; then, to full scale warfare.
Sadly, both sides were were wiped out by mutually assured destruction.
Where they lived is now just a desert, with wind whistling through caves, playing an aeolian dirge for them.
28
posted on
08/21/2004 6:41:32 PM PDT
by
ApplegateRanch
(The world needs more horses, and fewer Jackasses!)
To: blam
Noam Chomsky, call your office...
29
posted on
08/21/2004 7:02:15 PM PDT
by
garbanzo
(Free people will set the course of history)
To: blam
The demonrats are working to amend the motor/voter law so that these people can vote for their tax plans.
30
posted on
08/21/2004 7:15:39 PM PDT
by
fella
To: blam
The Whorf hyphothesis:
"Perhaps today *is* a good day to die!"
Whoops, wrong Whorf...
31
posted on
08/21/2004 7:18:21 PM PDT
by
PLMerite
("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
To: avg_freeper
If I'm not mistaken, the Greeks also conceived of the past as before them and the future behind them, because you can see in front of you and can remember the past, but can't see behind you and can't predict the future. I can't imagine how such a reversal would change your ideas about ancestors, death, etc. We're clearly not walking toward the past. We're "walking backward", only seeing where we were, not where we're going.
32
posted on
08/21/2004 8:19:06 PM PDT
by
A.J.Armitage
(http://calvinist-libertarians.blogspot.com/)
To: ApplegateRanch
At the peace conference they ordered pizza, and couldn't decide how many pieces... uh, never mind. ;')
33
posted on
08/21/2004 8:50:26 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
To: RightWhale
Remember Georg Gamov's book One, Two, Three, Infinity?It takes a while to finish that last chapter though.
34
posted on
08/21/2004 9:59:13 PM PDT
by
Doctor Stochastic
(Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
To: blam; Dajjal; yonif; nuconvert; JohnBovenmyer
Maybe we have something else here as well. In this description of the research http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-08/tccu-soo081804.php it is stated
"Their skill levels were similar to those in pre-linguistic infants, monkeys, birds and rodents, and appeared to correlate to recent brain imaging studies indicating a different sort of numerical competence that seems to be immune to numerical language deprivation. Interestingly, Gordon noted, while Pirahã adults had difficulty learning larger numbers, Piraha children did not."
Benjamin Lee Whorf's theory is that language can determine the nature and content of thought. According to this there are concepts in one culture that people of another culture simply cannot understand because their language has no words for it.
Maybe this is the reason for the slow development of modernity and democracy in the Arab world?
35
posted on
08/21/2004 11:54:39 PM PDT
by
AdmSmith
To: AdmSmith
36
posted on
08/22/2004 12:08:34 AM PDT
by
AdmSmith
To: William Terrell
Maybe they picked the stupidest tribe members to do the "series of tasks".Hey... ease up on these guys. Obviously they know that 1 = Pee, and 2 = Poop ... thus everything else is totally insignificant !!! ;-))
.
37
posted on
08/22/2004 1:20:46 AM PDT
by
GeekDejure
( LOL = Liberals Obey Lucifer !!!)
To: AdmSmith; ShandaLear
And people blind from birth don't really know what 'green' is.
38
posted on
08/22/2004 5:23:15 AM PDT
by
nuconvert
(Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)
To: elli1; AdmSmith
LOL.
Maybe they never have more than 3 people at dinner.
39
posted on
08/22/2004 5:26:28 AM PDT
by
nuconvert
(Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)
To: elli1; AdmSmith
Or maybe they always have lots of leftovers
40
posted on
08/22/2004 5:32:13 AM PDT
by
nuconvert
(Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.)
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