Study of obscure Amazon tribe sheds new light on how language affects perception (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

the deficit view, whether intentional or not, really does a deservice to
humanity in general as smaller minds grasp for understanding.

"Brazil Tribe Has Great Excuse for Poor Math Skills"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=6&u=/nm/20040819/sc_nm/science_counting_dc

phil
UofA

> ----- Message from mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US ---------
>     Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 08:02:33 -0600
>     From: Matthew Ward <mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US>
> Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology
<ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>  Subject: Re: Study of obscure Amazon tribe sheds new light on how
language affects perception (fwd)
>       To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>
> I particularly like this sentence:
>
> "What these experiments show, according to Gordon, is how having the
> right linguistic resources can carve out one's reality."
>
> The "right" lingustic resources, eh?  I suppose that this study is
> seen as evidence that some people just don't have the right
> stuff--gotta get those Portuguese-speakers in there to right the
> situation.
>
> I'm curious to see if, in 20 years, we are going to read an article
> showing that the claims made about this tribe are about as accurate
> as Whorf's claim that Hopi had no words for time...
>
>
>
> phil cash cash wrote:
>
> >Public release date: 19-Aug-2004
> >http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-08/tccu-soo081804.php
> >
> >Contact: Diane Dobry
> >dd173 at columbia.edu
> >212-678-3979
> >Teachers College, Columbia University
> >
> >Study of obscure Amazon tribe sheds new light on how language
> affects
> >perception
> >
> >Controversial linguistic hypothesis is supported by Teachers College
> >(Columbia University) professor's observation of tribe whose
> language
> >contains no words for numbers beyond 'one,' 'two' and 'many.'
> >During the late 1930s, amateur linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf posed the
> >theory that language can determine the nature and content of
> thought.
> >But are there concepts in one culture that people of another culture
> >simply cannot understand because their language has no words for it?
> >
> >No one has ever definitively answered that question, but new
> findings by
> >Dr. Peter Gordon, a bio-behavioral scientist at Teachers College,
> >Columbia University, strongly support a "yes" answer. Gordon has
> spent
> >the past several years studying the Pirahã, an isolated Amazon tribe
> of
> >fewer than 200 people, whose language contains no words for numbers
> >beyond "one," "two" and "many." Even the Piraha word for "one"
> appears
> >to refer to "roughly one" or a small quantity, as opposed to the
> exact
> >connotation of singleness in other languages.
> >
> >What these experiments show, according to Gordon, is how having the
> >right linguistic resources can carve out one's reality. "Whorf says
> >that language divides the world into different categories," Gordon
> >said. "Whether one language chooses to distinguish one thing versus
> >another affects how an individual perceives reality."
> >
> >When given numerical tasks by Gordon in which they were asked to
> match
> >small sets of objects in varying configurations, adult members of
> the
> >tribe responded accurately with up to two or three items, but their
> >performance declined when challenged with eight to 10 items, and
> >dropped to zero with larger sets of objects. The only exception to
> this
> >performance was with tasks involving unevenly spaced objects. Here,
> the
> >performance of participants deteriorated as the number of items
> >increased to 6 items. Yet for sets of 7 to 10 objects, performance
> was
> >near perfect. Though these tasks were designed to be more difficult,
> >Gordon hypothesizes that the uneven spacing allowed subjects to
> >perceive the items as smaller "chunks" of 2 or 3 items that they
> could
> >then match to corresponding groups.
> >
> >According to the study, performance by the Piraha was poor for set
> sizes
> >above 2 or 3, but it was not random. "Pirahã participants were
> actually
> >trying very hard to get the answers correct, and they clearly
> >understood the tasks," Gordon said. Participants showed evidence of
> >using methods of estimation and chunking to guess at quantities in
> >larger set sizes. On average, they performed about as well as
> college
> >students engaged in more complex numerical estimation tasks. 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.
> >
> >While the Pirahã words for "one" and "two" do not necessarily always
> >refer to those specific amounts, Gordon also found that members of
> the
> >tribe never used those words in combination to denote larger
> >quantities. In the study, they also used their fingers in addition
> to
> >their verbal statement of quantity, but this practice, too, was
> found
> >to be highly inaccurate even for small numbers less than five.
> >
> >The Pirahã language has no word for "number," and pronouns do not
> >designate number--"he" and "they" are the same word. Most standard
> >quantifiers like "more," "several," "all," and "each" do not exist.
> In
> >general, while containing a very complex verb structure common to
> many
> >Native American languages, the Pirahã language does not allow for
> >certain kinds of comparative constructions. For example, it was not
> >possible to ask participants whether one group of objects "has more
> >nuts than the other" because of the lack of that construction in the
> >Pirahã grammar. Yet, the word they use for "many," which in that
> >language was derived from a form ob the verb meaning "to bring
> >together," is distinct from a word that means something like "much."
> >
> >###
> >
> >
> >Details of the study will appear in the Thursday, August 19, issue
> of
> >the journal Science.
> >
> >Teachers College is the largest graduate school of education in the
> >nation. Teachers College is affiliated with Columbia University, but
> it
> >is legally and financially independent. The editors of U.S. News and
> >World Report have ranked Teachers College as one of the leading
> >graduate schools of education in the country. For more information,
> >please visit the college's Web site at www.tc.columbia.edu.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ----- End message from mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US -----