To investigate whether nature or nurture is to blame for our olfactory muteness, linguists in the Netherlands conducted a study involving English speakers and members of the Jahai, a Malaysian hunter-gatherer tribe that has a rich lexicon for scents. The participants were asked to identify a set of scratch-’n’-sniff odors. The tribespeople, who grow up learning to discuss smells the way most Americans do colors, labeled the aromas quickly, easily, and consistently. The Jahai needed around two seconds to name each odor. The English speakers each fumbled for an average of thirteen seconds, and
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