John, that Pirahã language is amazingly different!
Here is a quote from your NY mag link:
Unrelated to any other extant tongue, and
based on just eight consonants and three vowels, Pirahã has one of the simplest
sound systems known. Yet it possesses such a complex array of tones, stresses,
and syllable lengths that its speakers can dispense with their vowels and
consonants altogether and sing, hum, or whistle conversations.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT
com
9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
-----Original Message-----
From:
ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F.
Sowa
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 6:52 AM
To:
ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Cultural
variation in cognitive machinery
Dan, Pat, and Ali,
I agree to some extent with all of you, but I'd just
like to make
a few points:
1. An extremely important foundation for all our
thinking and
reasoning is laid in the first
two or three years of life.
Cultural differences among
societies have some effect on the
emotional responses, but not
much on the early intellect.
2. During those years, very few children learn to
read and those
who learn a little aren't yet
strongly affected by it.
3. Also during those years, chimpanzee and bonobo
infants compete
quite effectively with human
infants. During the third year,
the language skills by human
children enable them to progress
much more rapidly than the
apes.
These points would support Pat's
position:
AH>> The invention of writing changed our sense
ratios, from one
>> focused on hearing, to one focused on
visualizing, which very
>> probably led to the adoption of this
inference rule.
PH> This seems like complete fantasy. Can you cite
any historical
> evidence for this claimed shift in human
nature?
All the primates have extremely well developed visual
systems.
Hand-eye coordination is essential for swinging through
trees, and
I would cite athletes, gymnasts, and fighter pilots for
evidence
that we still have those
genes.
Furthermore, look at all the artwork by preliterate
societies,
such as the Cro-Magnon wall paintings. Look at the
artwork in
medieval churches. Most people in those days were
illiterate, and
the clergy used the walls as visual supplements to their
sermons.
I also agree with the material that Dan cites.
Note the subtitle
of the book by Nisbett: How culture colors the way
the mind works.
The word 'color' suggests a modification, but not a
fundamental
revolution in the ways of thinking. But in some
cases, that
coloring can be extreme. For further evidence, I
recommend the
following article about the Pirahã tribe in the Amazon
jungle:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto
There is an enormous cultural (and linguistic) gap
between that
tribe and the rest of the world. Even professional
linguists have
required years to learn their language without being
willing to
say that they have mastered
it.
Furthermore, the Pirahã adults have never been able to
learn more
than a few words of any other language. They were
eager to learn
how to count in Portuguese, since it was important for
trade, but
they just couldn't do it. They learned a few
number words, but
they could not use them
correctly.
For research articles that go beyond the _New Yorker_,
type
"Everett Piraha" to Google Scholar.
Chomskyan linguists are
especially upset. Everett started his career as both a
born-
again Christian and a born-again Chomskyan -- and the
Pirahã
caused him to lose his faith in
both.
John
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