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
