On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Charles Haynes <charles.hay...@gmail.com> wrote: > Currently reading "Don't Sleep There Are Snakes" by Daniel Everett > about his life among the Pirahã Indians in the Amazon jungle. What > hooked me was the teaser that he had gone there as a missionary to > convert them, and ended up being "converted." But what's got me so I > can't put it down is his fascinating discussion of their language, how > it confounds Chomsky's "universal grammar" and it's relation to the > Sapir-Worf hypothesis. > > For example, they have no counting numbers (not even "one", "two", > "many",) no comparatives (A is "bigger" than B) and refer only to > things that they directly experience or have heard from some living > person who directly experienced it. They have no creation myths, no > birth, death, or adulthood rituals. Marriage is a matter of moving in > with someone, divorce is moving out. > > They're also hunter gatherers and spend something like 50 hours a week > in basic survival activities - per family group! That includes > hunting, fishing, gathering food from the jungle. That works out to > about 2 hours a day of "work" and the rest of the time for other > things. They have more "leisure" time than I do! > > Anyway, I can't put it down. > > -- Charles >
Wow Charles. Must get hold of this book. A human being with no words for numbers? Incredible.... Deepa.
