摘要：
法国和美国的研究人员在最新一期的《科学》杂志上发表文章称，在亚马孙河丛林深处有一个部落群，即便他们没有用来表达几何学概念的语言也极具几何学天赋。这一结论对"语言决定思维"的观点发出了挑战。
An isolated tribe that lives deep in the Amazonian jungle has a basic understanding of geometry, even though its members lack the language to express these concepts.

法国和美国的研究人员在最新一期的《科学》杂志上发表文章称，在亚马孙河丛林深处有一个部落群，即便他们没有用来表达几何学概念的语言也极具几何学天赋。这一结论对"语言决定思维"的观点发出了挑战。

据《每日电讯报》1月20日报道，来自法国法兰西学院和美国哈佛大学的研究人员对生活在巴西库鲁鲁河沿岸偏僻地区的蒙杜卢库部落人经过研究后发现，蒙杜卢库人就像古希腊人那样对几何学很有天赋。他们很轻易就能掌握几何学中的基本概念，如"点"、"线"、"平行线"、"正方形"和"长方形"等，但他们却没有用来表达这些概念的语言。

研究人员就此指出，研究结果就像众多数学家一直认为的那样，人脑中复杂的空间、时间和数字等数学基本概念是独立于人类的语言的，即思维不由语言决定。

报道说，针对蒙杜卢库人的最新研究结果再次引发了语言学上一个长期存在争议的问题--语言能决定思维吗？两年前，一份针对亚马逊河毗拉哈部落的研究报告称，这个部落的成年人认知数字的能力不如普通人群中的婴儿甚至一些动物。研究指出，由于没有具体表达数字的词汇，所以毗拉哈部落人的数字认知能力缺失，即语言能决定思维。

然而，对蒙杜卢库部落进行研究的研究人员称，此前针对毗拉哈部落的研究报告"完全低估"了那些没有掌握相关语言的人们所拥有的数学基本知识。

（国际在线独家资讯 蒋黎黎）

本稿件为国际在线专稿，媒体转载请注明稿件来源和译者姓名。

An isolated tribe that lives deep in the Amazonian jungle has a basic understanding of geometry, even though its members lack the language to express these concepts.

The study of the Mundurukú, who were once warriors, suggests people have an innate mathematical ability and marks the latest twist in a long-running dispute among psychologists and philosophers alike: how does language influence thought?

Two years ago a study of another Amazonian tribe, the Piraha, reported that the ability of tribal adults to conceptualise numbers is no better than that of infants or even some animals.

The research suggested that without words for specific numbers, a number sense cannot develop.

But this finding is challenged today in the journal Science by a study of the Mundurukú, who live in remote areas along the Cururu river in Brazil. As many mathematicians have claimed, the new study shows that the most basic concepts of maths - space, time and number - are hard wired in the human brain and independent of language.

Researchers in France and at Harvard University found that the Mundurukú readily grasp basic concepts of geometry that would have been familiar to the ancient Greeks, such as 'point', 'line', 'parallel' and 'square' versus 'rectangle', said co-author Prof Stanislas Dehaene of the Collège de France in Paris.

He added that the earlier study of the Piraha "totally underestimated" the amount of "proto-mathematical" knowledge that is shared by people who lack the language to express these ideas.

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