Ask a member of the Pirahã tribe to count a cluster of pebbles, and even the brightest member of this isolated Amazonian tribe will probably respond with a blank stare. This is because the Pirahã do not have words for precise quantities or the action of counting--instead they quantify objects approximately, using words analogous to our "few" and "many." Even their word for one, "hói," might be more accurately translated as "about one," says Peter Gordon, PhD, a psychology professor at Columbia University Teachers College, who studies the tribe.

For example, when Gordon placed nine objects on a table and asked seven Pirahã adults to make a group out of an equal number of nuts, not one of them used exactly nine nuts, according to research by Gordon published in the Oct. 15 special issue of Science (Vol. 306, No. 5695), focused on cognition and behavior.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 10:34 AM  |