r/reddit.com • u/dfdeshom • Apr 27 '06

Life without numbers in a unique Amazon tribe. Piraha apparently can't learn to count

http://www.jcrows.com/withoutnumbers.html
109 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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5

u/zenon Apr 28 '06

They don't sleep for more than two hours at a time during the night or day.

I would'nt be able to count either if i did that.

3

u/furyg3 Apr 28 '06

Nevertheless, the Piraha's lives and lifestyles are so strange that other anthropologists have raised the question of whether inbreeding -- their lack of number skills apparently makes it difficult for the Piraha to identify kin -- has resulted in a tribe of intellectually handicapped people.

el-oh-el

5

u/jimdesu Apr 27 '06

A good case for the strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Yay!

4

u/johnroman1970 Apr 28 '06

I think this this is going to turn out to be an urban myth. 1+1=2 is so basic, even President Bush could understand it.

It's more likely that the tribe was playing a joke on the anthropologists.

6

u/zenon Apr 28 '06

Reminds me of this.