关于感觉是来自对象还是来自主体的争论在人类历史上有许多故事。例如关于光是来自物体还是来自眼睛都在光的研究早期存在非常有意思的争论。一般情况下，除非因为疾病原因，我们对物体色彩的判断都没有太大区别，但是人类的嗅觉和味觉就不同，不同的人对同一个对象的味觉和嗅觉可以完全不同。

例如如果你让一群人对白纸、云和牛奶的颜色进行描述，所有人都会说是白色。但是如果你让同一群人描述一下肉桂的味道，那么你可能会发现，答案从“香辣”“烟味”“甜味”等等。事实上，科学家也一直试图对味道进行精确的分类。甚至科学家一直认为，人类嗅觉的分辨能力十分有限。但最近一项研究发现，一个东南亚的半岛上的居民似乎具有分别味道的超常能力。能象其他人分别颜色那样分辨味道。

这个Jahai半岛位于泰国和马来西亚之间的国境线上，居住在高山雨林上的当地居民过着游牧生活。

味道往往和疾病、药物存在联系，例如许多古老文化都有描述味道的词汇，例如‘pa-oos’代表老坚果、过期食物和白菜。荷兰奈梅亨大学语言研究中心的心理学家Asifa Majid是研究这些问题的专家。她认为Jahai的居民具有分别味道的天赋。

为确定当地居民具有分别味道的特殊能力，Majid和同事让这里的居民和讲英语的外地人描述肉桂、松节油、柠檬、香烟、巧克力、玫瑰、油漆稀释液、香蕉、菠萝、汽油、肥皂和洋葱等12种不同的味道。结果发现，Jahai的居民能非常容易地区分上述不同的味道，但外地人不能。这一研究将发表在2月的Cognition《认知》杂志上。文章不仅对两类人对味道的描述差异进行了描述，而且分析了导致这种区别的原因。对这些问题有兴趣的人可以阅读更多材料。

For example, all Jahai speakers tested agreed that the smell of cinnamonshould be described as cŋəs,pronounced "cheng-us," the same word they use for the smells ofgarlic, onion, coffee, chocolate, or coconut. This suggests that Jahai are ableto identify common odor properties in all of these foods, suggesting a specialperception ability compared with other cultures.

In contrast, Majid says, “English descriptions for odors were five timeslonger and nearly every participant came up with a completely different name.There is little consensus on how to describe smells, and people often give manyconflicting and contradictory descriptions.” What’s more, she notes, whenEnglish speakers described smells, they often used the source of the smell intheir description; a lemon, for example, smelled “lemony.” The Jahai,meanwhile, had their own unique words for the smells.

The disparity may be due to importance of odors in the daily life of theJahai, says Douglas Medin, a psychologist at Northwestern University inEvanston, Illinois, and an expert in cognition and learning in indigenouscultures. In a dense rainforest, trunks can look the same, for example, so itis not always possible to identify a tree just by its looks, says Medin, whowas not involved in the work. In addition, after a heavy rain, smells becomemore evident and you can easily identify a pile of monkey scat, decomposingleaves, or flowers nearby, if you learn to identify the smells. Alternatively,having an agreed-upon way to describe a smell that could attract a tiger mightsave your life.

It’s also possible that the Jahai are built differently than the rest ofus. The genes that code for the olfactory receptors in our noses exhibit agreat deal of variation not only between different human populations but alsobetween people. So it may be that the Jahai have evolved more of thesereceptors or a greater diversity of them than everyone else, much like the Tsimanetribe from the Bolivian rainforest were shown to be more sensitive to smellsthan were Germans.

“We won't be able to answer these questions until comparable studies arecarried out on lots of other human cultures,” says Nicholas Evans, apsychologist and biologist specializing on the diversity of linguisticstructures at Australian National University in Canberra. “But this study hasbroken open the seal on the perfume bottle.”