Plenty of human languages get by with a palette of dark/black, light/white, and red. It's likely that the only we have such a large palette of basic color terms

Plenty of human languages get by with a palette of dark/black, light/white, and red. It's likely that the only we have such a large palette of basic color terms is that we have a large dying/painting industry and can thus compare specific shades easily. Guy Deutscher has a great chapter on this in "Through the Language Glass". http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/