Color Perception and Language

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/babies-see-pure.html

actual scientific paper: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/105/9/3221

The indian culture I was talking about is actually African. They are a seminomadic, cattle-herding tribe in northern Namibia, a country on Africa's southwest coast, called the Himba.

I said in the video that after we learn a particular language, we no longer experience color directly but categorize it in the terms our culture has provided us with. I do think members of the Himba tribe, when pressed, would probably agree that green and blue are not exactly the same visually. So it's not that green and blue somehow become visually identical to them. But I think what is significant is that they probably wouldn't notice the difference unless they were specifically asked about it.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• color
• perception
• culture
• language

[CitizenWorm]

Interesting stuff.

Do remember in What the Bleep when they were talking about the ships approaching the "new world"? That's what this sort of reminds me of.

[0ThouArtThat0]

Yes. The movie may have been taking it a bit far, but the general idea seems valid.

[Lundbelievable1914]

THUMBS UP IF DR. JONES SENT YOU HERE.

[Contextcatcher]

Tyler Burge an American philosopher published recent a book called "Origins of Objectivity" it's about the relation between perception and language. He argued neuroscience about what "thinking" is: a brain proces or more a aspect of our surrounding, like cultural phenomenons. Software (our language) is also crucial for the function of our hardware. I didn't read T Burge but a fine commend.

A talented and experienced observer, like some painters, is looking at colors still more like a child.

[The85thkid]

Interesting ps i sampled your voice.



[criollokid80]

Fantastic.

I was just arguing with two friends from Lebanon that color and perception are not universal, that they are cultural and that the skin "colors" (really, hues of one color, brown) are therefore cultural, based on perception, history etc, which is why super fair people with blue eyes and blond hair can (and do) see themselves as Black in the U.S. when they look in the mirror.

No such thing as "black culture" I argue, I call it U.S. culture, elements of which are shared by most of us.

[modemusicman]

You sure do expect a lot of yourself. Why did you pick the Himba to express this concept? I'm hoping that maybe you'll look back at this and challenge the idea that you're more then just the consumer of someone else's crap concepts. Challenge yourself to something more then just you, made in youtube's image. I don't exactly know how I would perceive myself, seeing myself over and over with fixed concepts. Do you ever feel like you're being locked into your own concepts? Take your time, slow down