4

Cultures That Place An Emphasis On Scent Actually Develop Stronger Senses Of Smell

khfalk/Pixabay

Even when it comes to identifying everyday scents, such as peanut butter, coffee, chocolate, or buttholes, humans only get it right about half the time. Yep, your sense of smell just plain sucks ... if you're an English speaker.

A team of Dutch anthropologists and psychologists, led by Asifa Majid and Stephen C. Levinson, traveled to remote corners of the world to submit the natives to a scratch-and-sniff test. And they discovered that, much like color, sense is only limited by language. For example, the Malayan Jahai were "about as good at naming what they smelled as what they saw." Did you know that bat shit and ginger root share a common, basal scent? The Jahai do. Remind us to never accept cookies from the Jahai.

Malaysia Star

3

American Babies Cry Way More Than Other Babies

anne de Haas/iStock

Babies cry. It's what they do. It's estimated that the average child will log a whopping 4,000 crying sessions before they turn two. Try telling that to a Sioux mother, however, and she'll gesture to her perfectly calm, serene little baby. As if to rub it in your face. Sioux women vocally criticize the American hospital practice of immediately separating a baby from its mother, because it makes them "cry like a white baby." Hear that, white mothers? You had a racial stereotype all along, and you didn't even know it! Congrats!

Heyn Photo

2

Your Environment Dictates Your Depth Perception

George Clerk/iStock

Back in the early '60s, anthropologist Colin Turnbull went out to study the Mbuti pygmies of the Congo's Ituri Rainforest. Presumably disappointed that they weren't hilariously tiny, as cartoons had led us all to believe, Turnbull luckily discovered something else: That depth perception, much like bigotry and enjoying the taste of olives, is a learned trait.

Randy Olson

1

Kissing Is Not Universally Sexy

AntonioGuillem/iStock

Why do we kiss? Theories range from it boosting our immunity, to it being a leftover behavior from when our mothers passed us pre-chewed food from mouth to mouth (hot), to "well, we gotta do something with our lips." But not every culture regards it as a sexy practice, and to some, it's downright disgusting.

Daniel Zgombic/iStock

A recent ethnographic analysis found that, of 168 cultures studied, less than half of them practiced romantic kissing. And in spite of what Mentos commercials may have led you to believe, North America is not the world's kiss capital (well, Detroit notwithstanding). That distinction belongs to the Middle East, where a full 100 percent of cultures are practitioners of first base shenanigans. Asia comes in second at 73 percent, North America (despite our ample make-out points and roomy back seats) slips into third at 55 percent, and tailing the list with a big fat zero is Central America.

Lorraine Boogich/iStock

And not all kissing is the same: The Oceanic kiss, for example, involves moving open mouths near one another without actually touching, like they're all saying "I'm not touching you; you can't get mad." Still other cultures, from the Tsonga in southern Africa, to the Melanesian Trobriand Islanders, to the Brazilian Tapirape, simply don't kiss at all. They regard it as a puzzling -- even silly -- behavior, and when they first witnessed European kissing they were appalled, wondering why people would want to "suck each other," and "eat each other's saliva and dirt."

Nobody tell them about the internet.

For more things that get lost in translation, check out 5 Innocent Gestures That Make You Look Like A Dick Overseas and 7 Innocent Gestures That Can Get You Killed Overseas.

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