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Does research teach them to count?
October 11, 2007 by Anonymous, 2 years 4 weeks ago
Comment id: 25397
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This report (http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096036544) seems to indicate that the Piraha indeed have words for "one", "two" and for "many", although they can't make comparisons between them.
Anyway, I was just wondering, whether the research that Peter Gordon and others are performing will eventually result in the Piraha's interest in numbers (which is clearly important to these strangers) and the development of numbers and other numerical facilities in their language and culture?
I think something similar happened with the Sioux nation whereby they have developed their alphabet after encountering English settlers. Not sure whether this is a valid comparison though...