Description
A Christian missionary, Daniel Everett arrived in remotest Brazil with his wife and young family in 1977, intending to convert a small tribe of Amazonians called the Piraha. Instead, he found a language that defies Chomsky's linguistic theory and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding: the Piraha have no counting system and no fixed terms for colour. They have no concept of war or of personal property. They live entirely in the present.
Everett is the first outsider to learn their language. Over time, he came to understand the remarkable contentment with which they live: so much so that he eventually lost his faith.
ISBN:9781846680403
