As his fluency grew, Everett began to realize something was missing. The Pitaha have no words for colors, no past or future tense. And incredibly, the Pitaha have no numbers. Research from MIT indicates the Pitaha may be the only culture on earth without any and numeracy.
The Piraha don't have numbers because they don't need them. They survive just fine without them. Somebody asked me once, you mean Piraha mothers don't know how many children they have?
Well, that's exactly what I mean. They don't know how many children they have, but they know all of their children's names and they know all of their children's faces. They don't need to know how many children they have to know who their children are and how they feel about them.