Language not only reflects the way we think; it may shape it.
“Children familiar with the rainbow of colors in the Crayola 64-pack, actually can tell ‘rust’ from ‘brick’ and ‘moss’ from ‘sage,’ while children who grow up speaking languages with fewer color names lump such hues together.” (Hues and Views, APA). I came across the assertion, based on research that’s several years old, in blogs about an episode on BBC’s Horizon called “Do You See What I See?”.
Across cultures, children acquire color terms the same way: they gradually move from an uncategorized organization of color to structured categories that varied across languages and cultures.
What Himba (members of a nomadic tribe in Nigeria) speakers categorize as “serandu” would be categorized in English as red, orange or pink. Himba children use one word, “zoozu,” to embrace a variety of dark colors that English speakers would call dark blue, dark green, dark brown, dark purple, dark red or black.
Once the language is acquired, it apparently affects the speaker’s perception of colors. In a test, Himba were able to very quickly point out the standout color below:
(Its the one just down and left from the top pair.) In another exercise, the Himba had a much harder time pointing out a square that English speakers would categorize as a shade of blue.
So to what extent does this kind of connection fuel other differences in perception? Is our ability to consider different kinds of art and music colored by our exposure, or lack of it, to the range of possibilities? To what extent does it affect our appreciation of different worship environments and experiences?
As we’ve participated in discussions about design, we’ve sometimes been frustrated by the inability of some to perceive subtle distinctions between different aesthetic categories. It’s not unusual to see every every option labeled only as either “traditional” or “contemporary.” Folks are unaccustomed to language that designers take for granted. To get past it, we’ve experimented with a kind of eye test: ”Which is more traditional/contemporary/etc. – the image on the left or the one on the right?” I imagine that more field trips and conversation could help committees make better and more nuanced decisions.
Several years ago, I brought my high-school-age daughter to work, hoping she’d take up the mantle. She spent a couple of afternoons working in the interiors department, filing samples. After two days I asked her what she thought. “They spent 45 minutes debating which gray was grayer. I could never do that!”
I suppose it’s my fault. We should talk.
