# Understanding cultural colour perception **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164 "2013-07-10T19:31:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/21 "2013-07-11T07:43:54Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > The article linked in the OP uses some questionable logic to “confirm” that other cultures actually saw the word differently. > > My opinion is that it is purely a linguistic artifact, and non-colourblind humans all see the same spectrum\*. And by “see” I mean the full gamut of perception including qualia. You don’t get people moving from a culture with fewer colour words claiming the world now looks more colourful now they have words for pink and indigo. > > - Some women might be able to distinguish more reds because of having two pigments for red, but that’s still merely a possibility, the evidence isn’t particularly compelling yet. I agree, but it does seem to confirm that they perceived them differently - what I mean is, even if they saw the same colours (which I believe they did), the way their mind dealt with them was different. The boundaries we put on categories of things may be arbitrary, but they can influence our thinking all the same. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/22 "2013-07-11T08:23:03Z")
I don’t buy into any theory that says there’s very little blue in nature. Sure, if you _never_ look up (or live in the forest, I guess) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/23 "2013-07-11T12:02:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I don’t buy into any theory that says there’s very little blue in nature. Sure, if you _never_ look up (or live in the forest, I guess) I recall hearing a radio program on the subject in which the reporter was visiting a tribe whose language did not have the color blue, and he pointed up at the sky and asked “What color is that?” And the answer was something along the lines of “What are you talking about? You mean the sun? The clouds? What do you mean between them? There’s nothing there.” ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/24 "2013-07-11T12:14:14Z")
This is less about color perception than about color vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/25 "2013-07-11T12:40:45Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > This is less about color perception than about color vocabulary. Newspeak - in living **COLOR** ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/26 "2013-07-11T12:45:36Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I recall hearing a radio program on the subject in which the reporter was visiting a tribe whose language did not have the color blue, and he pointed up at the sky and asked “What color is that?” And the answer was something along the lines of “What are you talking about? You mean the sun? The clouds? What do you mean between them? There’s nothing there.” This sounds dangerously like the story about the Americans who supposedly could not see the Conquistador’s ships because they hadn’t conceived of them before. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/27 "2013-07-11T12:46:32Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Newspeak - in living **COLOR** It is already in effect. Slap a “Red State” or “Blue State” label on, and no nuanced consideration of the ideas of the citizens is needed. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/28 "2013-07-11T13:00:55Z")
Interesting. Back when I was in college the professor, who was a world-class expert on Classical Civs but had no neuroscience background, explained the wine-dark sea by saying that ancient Greeks didn’t group colors by “color” but by saturation. A deep dark red, and a deep dark blue and a deep dark green were the same “color”, and a wispy pink, a wispy blue and a wispy green were the same color. It sounds like that theory isn’t widely supported. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/29 "2013-07-11T14:05:00Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Of course, before crayons and tropical fruits were widely available, for example how badly did people need to distinguish orange? It doesn’t occur widely in nature, except maybe during fall leaves season mixed in with brown yellow and red. And in people with … ahem … “red” hair. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Puce - the color of a flea. It literally means “flea” in French. Think semi-transparent insect, full of blood. Brown-purple. A disturbing indication in itself as to how common fleas were back then. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/30 "2013-07-11T14:12:32Z")
Better link to [this column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/449/could-early-man-only-see-three-colors) before Cecil comes in and gives us hell. Post 30. Sheesh.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/31 "2013-07-11T14:35:51Z")
_When Blue Meant Yellow: How Colors Got Their Names_, by Jeanne Heifetz, is a kid’s book on this topic which is fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/32 "2013-07-11T14:58:54Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > This sounds dangerously like the story about the Americans who supposedly could not see the Conquistador’s ships because they hadn’t conceived of them before. Except that this was a first person account. And it’s more plausible in the sense that the sky isn’t actually a tangible object. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/33 "2013-07-11T15:18:09Z")
> [@](#): > > This suggests the possibility that not only did Homer lack a word for what we know as “blue”—he might never have perceived the color itself. To him, the sky really was bronze, and the sea really was the same color as wine. And because he lacked the concept “blue”—therefore its perception—to him it was invisible, nonexistent. - See more at: [The Wine-Dark Sea: Color and Perception in the Ancient World by Erin Hoffman : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy](http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/#sthash.fePfWbeu.dpuf) That is complete BS. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/34 "2013-07-11T15:56:10Z")
> [@](#): > > This suggests the possibility that not only did Homer lack a word for what we know as “blue”—he might never have perceived the color itself. I thought Homer was supposed to have been blind. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/35 "2013-07-11T16:01:10Z")
I think that’s romantic speculation, based on interpretations of the meaning of “homeros.” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/36 "2013-07-11T16:18:10Z")
Orange is a loan word in European languages, from the fruit of the same colour. Still, Norwegian had a word for that colour before oranges arrived, “branngul” literally fire-yellow. Carrot in Norwegian? Gulerot - lit. yellow-root. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/37 "2013-07-11T17:27:32Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > And in people with … ahem … “red” hair. > [@Mangetout](#): > > In English, not much. Britain has two species of orange flowers commonly considered native (one is called the _ **Scarlet** _ Pimpernel and the other, Hawkweed, may not actually be native), and zero edible orange native fruits or vegetables (carrots were white, yellow or purple - by the time orange carrots arrived, we already had the word ‘orange’) Interesting - is “orange” named after “oranges”? That was my theory. Thus redheads are demonstrating that before the tropical fruit trade, orange was called “red” in England? (Forgot about carrots. Good points there…) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/38 "2013-07-11T18:03:41Z")
It’s really a safety thing. If carmakers didn’t come up with names like “deep impact blue” or “ingot silver” for their paint schemes, the roads would be full of accidents from people running into cars that were effectively invisible because their brains couldn’t process the colors. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/39 "2013-07-11T18:18:11Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > You’ve got a brilliant son who’s not afraid to stand up to the group-think! > > Can you tell I’ve been fighting that particular battle from just about the same age? 😃 Since around that age I’ve been accustomed to calling that color “orange” and often getting confused responses. Sometimes, I’ll call it amber as a (for some weird reason) less controversial compromise. But I refuse to call it yellow, since IT’S NOT FUCKING YELLOW! > > /rant I’ve been closely looking at traffic lights today, and, to me, it’s clearly closer to yellow than orange. It’s a saturated orange-ish yellow, but I’d say more yellow than orange. It’s yellower than what we call “school bus yellow” (which I do think is more orange than yellow.) ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164/40 "2013-07-11T19:01:45Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > [Completely obligatory link](http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/). The first image is a joke, i.e. not from a survey, but fits pretty well will intra-culture differences. I find it funny that from the real results “salmon” is the only male-only colour. I imagine that it is out of a necessity to find a way for some dress shirts to be “not pink”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/understanding-cultural-colour-perception/663164.md?page=3)