Ethiopian Me'en people unable to "read" 2-dimensional pictures of people and animals
"In a famous experiment, the Me'en people of Ethiopia were presented for the first time with photographs of people and and animals, but were unable to "read" the two dimensional image. "They felt the paper, sniffed it, crumpled it, and listened to the crackling noise it made; they nipped off little bits and chewed them to taste it." " From: Rosamund Zander and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility, (New York: Penguin, 2000), 11 This part of the quote: "They felt the paper, sniffed it, crumpled it, and listened to the crackling noise it made; they nipped off little bits and chewed them to taste it." comes from: J.B. Dregowski, "Real Space and Represented Space:Cross-Cultural Perspectives," The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1989), 57
J.B. Dregowski, "Real Space and Represented Space:Cross-Cultural Perspectives," The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1989), 57 available here: http://wexler.free.fr/library/files/deregowski%20(1989)%20real%20space%20and%20represented%20space.%20cross-cultural%20perspectives.pdf [verified 4/17/14]