Geometry skills are innate, Amazon tribe study suggests
The BBC Reports on the study Flexible intuitions of Euclidean geometry in an Amazonian indigene group
The study investigates perceptions of geometry amongst Mundurucu speakers. The Mundurucu Language is notable in that its vocabulary of numbers stops at 5, and that words for higher numbers are approximate.
The article notes that, the Mundurucu participants outperformed their US & French counterparts in the study, when dealing with lines on the surface of a sphere. This is attributed to the prejudices of those educated in Euclidean Geometry.
This appears to be a follow-up of a study published in 2006, Core Knowledge of Geometry in an Amazonian Indigene Group by most of the same team.
which was reported on by National Geographic in 2006 (Amazon Children "Spontaneously" Understand Geometry)
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