Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T07:24:47.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Colors and culture change in Southwest Iran1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Erika Friedl
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University

Abstract

An examination of recent changes in the color terminology of a Lurispeaking pepole in Iran shows a strong cultural basis of perception, categorization, and manipulation of colors. Compared to the familiar evolutionary model of the development of color categories, this case constitutes a slight deviation in the position of the colors brown and purple and suggests a qualification of the respective evolutionary stages as well as an expansion of the model's predictive hypotheses. (Color terms, evolutionary universals in linguistic change, Lur language, Iran.)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Berlin, B. & Berlin, E. A. (1975). Aguaruna color categories. American Ethnologist, 2 (1). 6188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, B. & Kay, P. (1969). Basic color terms. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H. (1975). The influence of visual perception on culture. American Anthropologist 77. 774–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harkness, S. (1973). Universal aspects of learning color codes: A study in two cultures. Ethos I. 175200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, P. (1975). Synchronic variability and diachronic change in basic color terms. LinS 4. 257–70.Google Scholar
Kay, P. & McDaniel, C. K.Color categories as fuzzy sets. Working Paper No. 44. Language Behavior Research Laboratory. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Witkowski, S. & Brown, C. H. (1977). An explanation of color nomenclature universals. American Anthropologist 79. 50–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar