Cultural Colors

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Al Wang comments:
"Hmmm, I'm not positive about this, but I think that color categorization is
at least in part learned.  Different cultures have different "anchor points"
along the spectrum which they use as the base colors."


Yes.  It's clear that color has a real basis, but its semiotics is another 
matter.  See Umberto Eco's essay "How Culture Conditions the Colors We See"
in ON SIGNS, ed. Marshall Blonsky, for a discussion.

There's also the fact that colors are not physically the same for everyone,
either.  Some people have trouble distinguishing green from blue, for example.
Some have even suggested that the ability to distinguish the two is a 
relatively recent evolutionary development!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)