For Everett, Pirah is evidence that culture plays a crucial and previously unacknowledged role in the creation of language.Everett's life with the Pirah cost him dearly. Everett learned that Pirah does not use what are supposed to be universal aspects of grammar, an observation that runs counter to linguistic dogma about how culture, the brain and language connect. He also explains his discoveries about the language findings that have kicked off more than one academic brouhaha. In this fascinating and candid account of life with the Pirah, Everett describes how he learned to speak fluent Pirah (pausing occasionally to club the snakes that harassed him in his Amazonian "office"). Everett dropped the stick and said, "I drop the xii." "Xi xi big k ob i," his new friend replied, meaning "stick it ground falls." Thus began 30 years of dedication to the Pirah and their native tongue, a mystifying system of sound and rules unrelated to any other language in the world.
First, he tapped his own chest and said, "Daniel," then he pointed at the animal being cooked on the fire. After being greeted by a happy, chattering crowd, he walked over to a man cooking on a small fire. Dan Everett's life as a field linguist began when he entered a Pirah village in the Amazonian jungle in December 1977. Their work is painstaking, and no matter how smart or how educated they are, their projects must begin with the most elementary communicative tactics they point at a rock or a tree or a bird, and whether they are in Australia's Western Desert, the remote islands of Indonesia or the jungles of Brazil, their interlocutor will respond, "rock" or "tree" or "bird" in the native tongue. These scholars venture into isolated communities and wrestle with culture shock, broken tape recorders and dysentery all to learn an unfamiliar language from the ground up. Does language shape the way we see the world? Does the world influence the structure of language? Do we think in words? Such lofty questions pondered in many an ivory tower would go unanswered without the mostly anonymous work of field linguists. SignatureReviewed by Christine KenneallyThe ways language and thought intertwine have long intrigued scientists. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property.
Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. One of the best books I have read."-Lucy Dodwell, New ScientistĪ riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.ĭaniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. "Immensely interesting and deeply moving. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, a life-changing tale set among a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in Brazil that offers a riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.
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