Does language determine thought? Are there concepts in some languages that can't be understood in others because that language doesn't have the word for it?
It seems like a reasonable question. But selection has equipped us all with the same tools, regardless of where we grow up. The Dani people of Indonesia don't have words for colors, but that doesn't mean they can't understand the concept of color. Humans have special cells in the retina that are tuned to light at the wavelengths corresponding to red, green and blue.
What about more abstract concepts? For many years, the Hopi in North America were thought by some academics to have no words in their language for time, past or future. This idea was put about by Benjamin Lee Whorf, a fire-prevention officer and linguist, who trained at Yale University in the 1930s. Once it had taken hold, the idea quickly followed that the Hopi had no concept of time, or at least not the concept that most of us have.