Reddit reviews The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
No one's really answered your question - the idea that the vocabulary or structure of a language reflects a culture is called the Sapir-Whorf Thesis. The consensus of linguists today is that it is FALSE. The opposite of true. This tends to surprise non-linguists.
https://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/sapir.cfm
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
There's a book called "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax" which debunks the lie that the Inuit supposedly have lots of words for snow (they don't). https://www.amazon.com/Eskimo-Vocabulary-Irreverent-Essays-Language/dp/0226685349
Basically this is a myth that won't die.
The answer to your question is no, language omissions don't give an indication of a culture's mindset.
Many of these stories are blown out of proportion. For example, 'wasta' is mosly used with the meaning 'clout' in colloquial Arabic.
The Hans Wehr dictionary contains a number of auto-antonyms/antagonyms that might seem confusing, but they usually pose no problems to native speakers because context acts as a natural filter. Fore more information see:
Some links: Language Log; Wikipedia entry; Geoff Pullum's book.
Everything you want to know about this topic can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Eskimo-Vocabulary-Irreverent-Essays-Language/dp/0226685349