What if Esquimaux Had No Words For Blue? An Illustrated Lecture
by Professor Zed Adams What if Esquimaux Had No Words For Blue?
The Historical and Philosophical Significance of 19th Century
Color Vocabulary Studies An Illustrated Lecture by Professor Zed
Adams In the mid-19th century, William Gladstone, a prominent
British statesman and dedicated reformer of prostitutes, argued
that an analysis of Homer's color vocabulary in the Iliad
revealed that the ancient Greeks were color-blind. This claim
set off a virtual landslide of color vocabulary studies, in
which a wide variety of both amateur and professional scholars
struggled to refute or reinforce Gladstone's provocative claim.
Children, animals, missionaries, colonial administrators,
ophthalmologists and even Charles Darwin himself were consulted.
Professor Adams surveys the previously untold history of these
color vocabulary studies, revealing the pioneering work that
they inspired in philology, psychology, anthropology, and
linguistics. He also draws a ph