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They don't sleep for more than two hours at a time during the night or day.
There ya go. Problem solved.
In all seriousness, that is one of the most bizarre things I've ever read.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
I know, I had to double check google. I didn't think anything like that would even be possible.
Quote:
Even when food is available, they frequently starve themselves and their children, Prof. Everett reports.
"The tribe, which lives on a tributary river to the Amazon, has been in contact with other Brazilians for 200 years and regularly sells nuts to, and shares their women with, Brazilian traders who stop by."
Whoever trades for one of their women hopefully didn't get her for breeding. Otherwise, they got fleeced.
Whoever trades for one of their women hopefully didn't get her for breeding. Otherwise, they got fleeced.
So they're a tribe of retards. What's not to comprehend?
Apparently they're not, PJ. They understand other concepts just fine, and they get along in their world. Funny, one of our biggest tech companies urges people to "Think Different", but if people truly do, we think they're retarded.
I'm curious, though, how much is cultural and how much is mental. The article specifies that adults are unable to grasp mathematical concepts. If the researchers were allowed to try to teach the kids, I wonder how much they'd learn. Won't happen, of course - the tribe deliberately excludes that very thing.
Edited: because I spell like a tribeswoman.
Edited, Mon Apr 17 08:27:41 2006 by Samira
I'm curious, though, how much is cultural and how much is mental. The article specifies that adults are unable to grasp mathematical concepts. If the researchers were allowed to try to teach the kids, I wonder how much they'd learn. Won't happen, of course - the tribe deliberately excludes that very thing.
Edited: because I spell like a tribeswoman.
Edited, Mon Apr 17 08:27:41 2006 by Samira
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
The article did say that with a tribe size of only 200 and no tracking of kinship, that inbreeding was likely rampant...
I mean, look at the level of upper-class twitticism that Europe's royal breeding patterns have produced. And those are just the ones that they allow the public to see.
Well, the point I myself was wondering is, the article states something about the tribe selling nuts to traders and basically "lending out" their women"... how does one sell something when one does not (seem to) have an understanding of quantity beyond "oneish" and "twoish?"
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
Speedly wrote:
Well, the point I myself was wondering is, the article states something about the tribe selling nuts to traders and basically "lending out" their women"... how does one sell something when one does not (seem to) have an understanding of quantity beyond "oneish" and "twoish?"
Well it doesn't say they don't understand quantity, just not enumeration. So they can trade "a bushel" of nuts for "a handful" of berries. Or whatever. They just couldn't sit down and count them out.
Thanks Jophiel that was a good read.
Quote:
Well it doesn't say they don't understand quantity, just not enumeration. So they can trade "a bushel" of nuts for "a handful" of berries. Or whatever. They just couldn't sit down and count them out.
Ah. Good call. I didn't think of that. Thanks.
This is actually quite interesting i've often wondered myself how knowledge affects the way a person thinks.
Take for instance the fact that we all generally think in our native languages, well how does a person that has been deaf since birth think.
Also whil reading a book called engines of creation it mentioned something called "memes", a term I believe was coined by Richard Dawson, as behaving much the same way that genes do. Those that survive are passed on, and built upon by the next generation. And being that this culture isolates it's children and wont allow them to be taught by outsiders, this culture may have in fact halted mental evolution.
Take for instance the fact that we all generally think in our native languages, well how does a person that has been deaf since birth think.
Also whil reading a book called engines of creation it mentioned something called "memes", a term I believe was coined by Richard Dawson, as behaving much the same way that genes do. Those that survive are passed on, and built upon by the next generation. And being that this culture isolates it's children and wont allow them to be taught by outsiders, this culture may have in fact halted mental evolution.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
These tribes-people could learn alot from sensory deprivation? I'm applying for a grant, for the sake of knowledge.
Chomsky got a lot of stuff wrong, but he got some stuff right too. Specifically, I think he was on the right track when he stated that language directly influences thought processes. The problem, of course, is that language is part of culture and cannot be separated from the larger culture in order to study its effect in a vacuum.
Without words for abstract ideas as children, I wonder if the people of this tribe have the mental capacity to think abstractly as adults (as opposed to, say, internalized cultural taboos that they can't overcome based on their deliberate and rather strongly enforced isolation).
Edited for clarity. I need coffee.
Edited, Mon Apr 17 11:16:53 2006 by Samira
Without words for abstract ideas as children, I wonder if the people of this tribe have the mental capacity to think abstractly as adults (as opposed to, say, internalized cultural taboos that they can't overcome based on their deliberate and rather strongly enforced isolation).
Edited for clarity. I need coffee.
Edited, Mon Apr 17 11:16:53 2006 by Samira
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Quote:
More than 60 years ago, amateur linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf argued that learning a specific language determined the nature and content of how you think.
It's funny how, when I came to this country, my mother was upset at the brusequeness and brevity of English. In Spanish, embellishment is par for the course. I see a lot of language reflected in national character and behaviors, as Americans I have met are generally the type to value "to the point" speech, while Latinos and Europeans are more about the niceties and garnish that preclude getting down to business. In other words (after dancing around it all latin-style), I see his point.
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