Sunday, August 22, 2004
Piraha
This article about innumeracy among the Piraha is incredible.
I remember a story about counting crows. In order to rid a field of crows, a farmer walked into the field with his gun but the crows flew away. The stayed away until they saw him leave. Then the farmer had a friend accompany him into the field and when they reached the middle, where the crops were high and they were hidden, the friend walked back alone leaving the farmer hidden in the field with his gun. The crows still kept their distance until the farmer lost patience and returned home. He tried again with two friends, three friends and so on until finally the farmer gathered together seven friends. They all made their way to the middle of the field and after a short while they all returned leaving the farmer alone with his gun. This time the crows returned to feast on the crops and the farmer let loose with his shotgun.
The story sounds apocryphal. What farmer would go to so much trouble to get rid of a few pests? I seached the net for confirmation and I found this page which has several interesting anecdotes of bird intelligence. The parrots mentioned here outstrip the Piraha in numeracy.
