One thing struck me in the article....
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The tribe, which lives on a tributary river to the Amazon, has been in contact with other Brazilians for 200 years and regularly sells nuts to, and shares their women with, Brazilian traders who stop by.
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A tribe with no understanding of numbers will have a hell of a time selling nuts. By the pound? By the bag?
Either they are cheated or they are better at numbers then they say.
While language and culture play a big part in mental development, counting is almost elementary. You may not have language for it, but its part of what makes us intelligent. I'd be almost tempted to say the researchers may well be wrong or the people themselves are somehow geneticly lacking in whatever part of the brain deals with numbers.
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Not only do the Piraha not count, but they also do not draw," Gordon wrote. "Producing simple straight lines was accomplished only with great effort and concentration, accompanied by heavy sighs and groans."
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Something just doesn't seem right here. You have a tribe of only 200 people, who don't seem to have any desire to assimilate, can't count, can't speak other languages beyond a few words, can't draw, and have no words for colors. Before I changed all my theories on human development, I'd take a much closer look and see if the issue is specific to them and not the human condition at large. You can't judge humanity based on an idiot savant or a autistic, and such a condition may well be at work here.