Many years ago, reading “The Savage Mind” by Claude Levi-Strauss, I came across what to me at the time was a remarkable passage describing the work of Harold Conklin:

“When he began his study of the classification of colours among the Hanunoo of the Philippines, Conklin was at first baffled by the apparent confusions and inconsistencies.  These however disappeared when the informants were asked to relate and contrast specimens instead of being asked to define isolated ones…  They distinguish colour into relatively light and relatively dark, and into those usual in fresh or succulent plants and those usual in dry or desiccated plants.  Thus the natives treat the shiny brown colour of newly cut bamboo as relatively green while we would regard it as nearer red if we had to classify it in terms of the simple opposition of red and green which is found in Hanunoo.”

Clearly we perceive the world very differently from the Hanunoo, in a sense their perceptual category of color cuts across several of our perceptual categories, including color, freshness, wetness.

However, we can understand how they perceive reality and organize their experience if we spend time with them, following them in their daily practices.