Observations on the Senses of the Todas

Abstract

Visual illusions : the illusion of compared horizontal and vertical lines ; the Muller-Lyer illusion. Tactile discrimination ; Aristotle's illusion and its modiJcations. Sensibility to pain. O@ctory acuity. Taste names. Hearing. Conclusions. of the Gunning Fund of the Royal Society f o r the years 1901-2.1 l'he purt played by irgerence in the determinution of a threshold. No dejinite racial diferences in the acuity of the senses. Injluence of age o n acuity. &elation between colour-nomenclature and colour-sense. Frequency of colour-blindness in tJLe Todas. Some illusions experienced more stronyly by the savage than by the civilised subject, and others less strongly. Variability in psychological tests und the factors by which the measures of variubility are injluenced. Correlatiort between the simple mental operations tested and general intellectual development. ' 8W Reports, pp. 20-23. * By this it is not meant that the recognition of distant objects in ordinary life is not This is a much more complex process than that involved in influenced by illumination. the experimental determination of visual acuity.

Evolved navigation theory and the descent illusion

“…ENT also suggests cross-cultural VHI prevalence, because vertical surfaces pose falling costs to all humans. Consistent with ENT, all human populations yet studied display the VHI; this includes populations in environments with minimal receding horizontals, such as the Todas of southern India and the Papuans of New Guinea at the turn of the 20th century (Rivers, 1905), as well as jungle-dwelling Peruvians (Bolton, Michelson, Wilde, & Bolton, 1975). ENT predicts VHI existence across humans as a species, but ENT also predicts VHI differences within and between human populations, resulting from variable falling experience and exposure to fall-inducing environments.…”

Evolved navigation theory and the environmental vertical illusion

“…Contrary to this theory, overestimation of retinally vertical extents reliably develops in all human populations yet studied, including those with minimal receding horizontals, such as the Todas of southern India and Papuans of New Guinea at the turn of the 20 th century (Rivers, 1905), as well as jungle-dwelling Peruvians (Bolton, Michelson, Wilde, & Bolton, 1975). Vertical overestimation even occurs in non-humans (chicks, see Winslow, 1933), including non-humans with extensively vertical environments (monkeys, see Dominguez, 1954).…”

polygynie sororale et le sororat dans la Chine féodale

“…Chez les Todas, le mariage normal consiste en une polyandrie fraternelle : mais il n'est pas rare que celle -ci se double de polygynie sororale ; un groupe de frères forme avec un groupe de soeurs un ensemble matrimonial dans lequel les rapports d'ensemble n'excluent point les relations particulières de couples conjugaux. Les deux groupes ainsi réunis en un ensemble matrimonial sont composés d'enfants de frères et de soeurs (matchuni) (136).…”