Language and Perception: Color Names among the Nyangatom of South-West Ethiopia

• Published in: Homme Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 66 - 94
• Main Author: Tornay, Serge
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01-10-1973
• Subjects: Color/Colored; Language/Languages; Perception/Perceptions/Perceptual/ Perceptivity/ Perceive/ Perceived; Society, The, of
• ISSN: 0439-4216

In exploring the relation between color-names & perception, the importance of the color samples' saturation level--roughly the intensity of the color--has long been overlooked. Nyangatom people (an object of study fairly free from external contamination) were asked to identify by color a series of paper patches. The tabulated results were compared to a graph indicating not only the wave-lengths of visible light, but also linking, by means of geodesic lines, points having the same dominant wave-length, & by means of geodesic circles, the areas of the spectrum having the same level of saturation. The saturation level was particularly important because of its r with "ambiguous" colors--those that required a composite Nyangatom name for their identification. The higher the saturation level, the less likely was a composite name to be needed. The same is true when Nyangatom perception is compared with cultural codes, as in the case of naming domesticated animals or human cosmetics. In the former case, for example, only where a color is not intense will the Nyangatom have recourse to the shape of the patches ("splotched," "striped"), or to the location of a particular patch in order to identify & name an animal. As for the cosmetics, they are described in the same terms as in the experimental situation; down to the fact that both blue-grey volcanic cinders & yellow-green cow stomach extract fall under the same term for blue-green. A Statistical Annex. Modified HA.