[lit-ideas] Re: Twitter
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:29:18 -0700
Here's the offending reference to 'Appalachian inbreeding.'
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004422.html
I [Mark Liberman] missed something in reading John Colapinto's New
Yorker piece on Dan Everett and the Pirahã, and apparently the
magazine's editors missed
it too. Here's the passage in question, which deals with the
background of Peter Gordon's research on counting in Amazonia:
'During a two-month stay with the Pirahã in 1992, Gordon ran
several experiments with tribe members. In one, he sat across from a
Pirahã subject and placed in front of himself an array of object[s]?nuts,
AA batteries?and had the Pirahã match the array. The Pirahã could
perform the task accurately when the array consisted of two or three
items, but their performance with larger groupings was, Gordon later
wrote, ?remarkably poor.? Gordon also showed subjects nuts, placed
them in a can, and withdrew them one at a time. Each time he removed a
nut, he asked the subject whether there were any left in the can. The
Pirahã answered correctly only with quantities of three or fewer.
Through these and other tests, Gordon concluded that Everett was
right: the people could not perform tasks involving quantities greater
than three. Gordon ruled out mass retardation. Though the Pirahã do
not allow marriage outside their tribe, they have long kept their gene
pool refreshed by permitting women to sleep with outsiders. ?Besides,?
Gordon said, ?if there was some kind of Appalachian inbreeding or
retardation going on, you?d see it in hairlines, facial features,
motor ability. It bleeds over. They don?t show any of that."'
Here's the letter Gordon sent to The New Yorker, after Colapinto's
piece came out.
'In a conversation with Colapinto, quoted in his article, I attempted
to address
whether the Paraha might be collectively mentally retarded because of
inbreeding in their small, isolated communities. I wanted to emphasize
that any clinical physical or behavioral signs of such were markedly
absent. Unfortunately, in trying to make this point, I referred to a
kind of "Appalachian inbreeding" situation--attempting to make a
colorful analogy to the movie "Deliverance." However, the implication
that there is any widespread mental retardation in the Appalachian
community [sic] has been extremely offensive and deeply hurtful. To
the extent that my remarks have added to these negative and untrue
stereotypes, I am deeply sorry, and I extend my apologies to the
people of Appalachia.'
Peter Gordon
Columbia University
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Robert Paul
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