Cultural Anthropology for Missions

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY FOR MISSIONS
M.M.NINAN
2. Children in every society begins to learn their language at about
the same age. Children starts to learn to speak at are levels
between eighteen months and twenty four months. There are no
known societies where language acquisition begins earlier or later.
3. Children of all societies learn their languages at about the same
age. and at about the same rate.
These observations have led Noam Chomsky to postulate that
language ability is instinctive and it starts from the brain.
The
particular language one learns is decided by the society. But the
ability to learn and synthesize the language is innate.
It also implies that man everywhere at all ages had the same
intelligence the ability to reason and to analyze. The amount of
information, knowledge and data may have been less. In other
words the intelligence of Adam, Abraham or Noah were not in any
way less than those of Newton or Einstein or Billy Graham even
though they did not have the same information available for
analysis. The accumulated knowledge of man through the ages
enabled the latter group to achieve additional things. In fact there is
no evidence to show that there is any race that is superior to any
other in intelligence. The concept of races has no scientific basis,
though it can be used for convenience of classification based on
bodily characteristics like color and shape.
Our ability to communicate and even think may be constrained by
the language we use. You cannot think of blue unless there is a
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