Created page with "{{short description|Ethnic group in the Amazon Rainforest}} {{Infobox ethnic group |image = |group = Pirahã |population = 800 |popplace = Brazil |languages = Pirahã |religions = Animism<ref>{{cite web |title= From Threatened Languages to Threatened Lives |url= http://www.astronom.cz/jch/cestina/daniel-everett.htm |author= Everett, Daniel}}</ref> |related = }} The '''Pirahã''' (pronounced {{IPA-xx|piɾaˈh..." Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
BennyHubbs95 (talk | contribs) m small enhance section to improve readability and corrected details for clarity |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{short description|Ethnic group in the Amazon Rainforest}} | {{short description|Ethnic group in the Amazon Rainforest}} | ||
{{Infobox ethnic group | {{Infobox ethnic group | ||
|image | | image = Aqui Mora o Povo Indígena Pirahã.jpg | ||
|group | | caption = A Pirahã family in 2018 | ||
|population | | group = Pirahã | ||
|popplace | | native_name = {{lang|myp|Híaitíihi, Hiáitihí}} | ||
|languages | | native_name_lang = myp | ||
|religions | | population = 900 | ||
|related | | total_year = 2024 | ||
| popplace = {{Flag|Brazil}} | |||
| languages = [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] | |||
| religions = [[Animism]]<ref>{{cite web |title= From Threatened Languages to Threatened Lives |url= http://www.astronom.cz/jch/cestina/daniel-everett.htm |author= Everett, Daniel|website=astronom.cz|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209063845/http://www.astronom.cz/jch/cestina/daniel-everett.htm|archive-date=9 February 2018}}</ref> | |||
| related = other [[Mura people]] | |||
}} | }} | ||
The '''Pirahã''' ( | The '''Pirahã''' ({{IPA|pt|piɾaˈhɐ̃}}){{efn|According to Daniel Everett, it is pee-da-HAN.{{sfnp|Everett|2008|loc=Preface}}}} are an [[indigenous peoples in Brazil|indigenous people]] of the [[Amazon rainforest]] in Brazil. They are the sole surviving subgroup of the [[Mura people]] and are [[hunter-gatherers]]. They live mainly on the banks of the [[Maici River]] in [[Humaitá, Amazonas|Humaitá]] and [[Manicoré]] in the state of [[Amazonas (Brazilian state)|Amazonas]]. {{As of|2024}}, they numbered 900 individuals.<ref>Instituto Socioambiental do Brazil</ref> The name ''Pirahã'' is an [[exonym]]; the Pirahã [[endonym|call themselves]] the '''{{lang|myp|Híaitíihi}}''' or '''{{lang|myp|Hiáitihí}}''',<ref name="Amazonian isolates 2">{{cite book |editor-last=Epps |editor-first=Patience |editor-last2=Michael |editor-first2=Lev |title=Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin |date=2023 |isbn=978-3-11-043273-2}}</ref> roughly translated as "the straight ones".<ref name="Pullum">{{cite web | url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001387.html | title = The Straight Ones: Dan Everett on the Pirahã | last = Pullum | first = Geoffrey K. | publisher = Language Log | date = 26 August 2004 | access-date = 2007-06-22 }}</ref> | ||
The Pirahã speak the [[Pirahã language]]. They call any other language "crooked head".<ref name="Colapinto"/> Members of the Pirahã can [[whistled language|whistle their language]], which is how Pirahã men communicate when hunting in the jungle. | The Pirahã speak the [[Pirahã language]]. They call any other language "crooked head".<ref name="Colapinto"/> Members of the Pirahã can [[whistled language|whistle their language]], which is how Pirahã men communicate when hunting in the jungle. | ||
== Culture == | == Culture == | ||
As far as the Pirahã have related to researchers, their culture is concerned solely with matters that fall within direct personal experience, and thus there is no history beyond living memory. Pirahã have a simple [[kinship]] system that includes ''baíxi'' (parent, grandparent, or elder), ''xahaigí'' (sibling, male or female), ''hoagí'' or ''hoísai'' (son), ''kai'' (daughter), and ''piihí'' (stepchild, favorite child, child with at least one deceased parent, and more).<ref name="Everett 2008">{{cite book | title=Don't Sleep, there are Snakes | publisher=Pantheon Books | | According to the linguistic anthropologist and former Christian missionary [[Daniel Everett]], <blockquote>The Pirahã are supremely gifted in all the ways necessary to ensure their continued survival in the jungle: they know the usefulness and location of all important plants in their area; they understand the behavior of local animals and how to catch and avoid them; and they can walk into the jungle naked, with no tools or weapons, and walk out three days later with baskets of fruit, nuts, and small game.<ref name="Colapinto"/></blockquote> | ||
As far as the Pirahã have related to researchers, their culture is concerned solely with matters that fall within direct personal experience, and thus there is no history beyond living memory. Pirahã have a simple [[kinship]] system that includes ''baíxi'' (parent, grandparent, or elder), ''xahaigí'' (sibling, male or female), ''hoagí'' or ''hoísai'' (son), ''kai'' (daughter), and ''piihí'' (stepchild, favorite child, child with at least one deceased parent, and more).<ref name="Everett 2008">{{cite book | title=Don't Sleep, there are Snakes | publisher=Pantheon Books | last=Everett |first=Daniel L. | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-375-42502-8 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dontsleeptherear00ever }}</ref>{{rp|pages=86–87}} | |||
Daniel Everett states that one of the strongest Pirahã values is no coercion; one does not tell other people what to do.<ref name="Edge"/> There appears to be no [[social hierarchy]]; the Pirahã have no formal leaders. Their social system is similar to that of many other hunter-gatherer bands in the world, although rare in the Amazon because of a history of horticulture before Western contact (see [[History of South America#Amazon|history of the Amazon]]). | Daniel Everett states that one of the strongest Pirahã values is no coercion; one does not tell other people what to do.<ref name="Edge"/> There appears to be no [[social hierarchy]]; the Pirahã have no formal leaders. Their social system is similar to that of many other hunter-gatherer bands in the world, although rare in the Amazon because of a history of horticulture before Western contact (see [[History of South America#Amazon|history of the Amazon]]). | ||
Although the Pirahã use canoes every day for fishing and for crossing the river beside which they live, when their canoes wear out, they use pieces of bark as temporary canoes. Everett brought in a master builder who taught and supervised the Pirahã in making a canoe | Although the Pirahã use canoes every day for fishing and for crossing the river beside which they live, when their canoes wear out, they use pieces of bark as temporary canoes. Everett brought in a master builder who taught and supervised the Pirahã in making a canoe so that they could make their own. However, when they needed another canoe, they said that "Pirahã do not make canoes" and told Everett he should buy them a canoe. The Pirahã rely on neighboring communities' canoe work and use those canoes for themselves.<ref name="Edge"/> | ||
Pirahã build simple huts where they keep a few pots, pans, knives, and machetes. They make only scraping implements (for making arrowheads), loosely woven palm-leaf bags, bows, and arrows.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They take naps of 15 minutes to, at the most, two hours throughout the day and night, and [[Segmented sleep|rarely sleep through the night]].<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=xvii, 13,70,79}} | Pirahã build simple huts where they keep a few pots, pans, knives, and machetes. They make only scraping implements (for making arrowheads), loosely woven palm-leaf bags, bows, and arrows.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They take naps of 15 minutes to, at the most, two hours throughout the day and night, and [[Segmented sleep|rarely sleep through the night]].<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=xvii, 13,70,79}} | ||
| Line 27: | Line 31: | ||
They do not store food in any quantity, but generally eat it when they get it.<ref name="Colapinto"/> Pirahã have ignored lessons in preserving meats by salting or smoking.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They cultivate [[manioc]] plants that grow from spit-out seeds and make only a few days' worth of manioc flour at a time.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They trade [[Brazil nut]]s and sex for consumables or tools, e.g. machetes, gunpowder, powdered milk, sugar, whiskey. Chastity is not a cultural value.<ref name="Edge"/> They trade Brazil nuts, wood, and ''[[sorva]]'' (rubbery sap used in chewing gum) for soda-can pull-tabs, which are used for necklaces.<ref name="Colapinto"/> Men wear T-shirts and shorts that they get from traders; women sew their own plain cotton dresses.<ref name="Colapinto"/> | They do not store food in any quantity, but generally eat it when they get it.<ref name="Colapinto"/> Pirahã have ignored lessons in preserving meats by salting or smoking.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They cultivate [[manioc]] plants that grow from spit-out seeds and make only a few days' worth of manioc flour at a time.<ref name="Colapinto"/> They trade [[Brazil nut]]s and sex for consumables or tools, e.g. machetes, gunpowder, powdered milk, sugar, whiskey. Chastity is not a cultural value.<ref name="Edge"/> They trade Brazil nuts, wood, and ''[[sorva]]'' (rubbery sap used in chewing gum) for soda-can pull-tabs, which are used for necklaces.<ref name="Colapinto"/> Men wear T-shirts and shorts that they get from traders; women sew their own plain cotton dresses.<ref name="Colapinto"/> | ||
Their decoration is mostly necklaces, used primarily to [[Apotropaism|ward off spirits]].<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=74}} The concept of drawing is alien to them and when asked to draw a person, animal, tree, or river, the result is simple lines.<ref name="PG-SOM">Gordon, Peter. [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2004/10/15/1094492.DC1/Gordon.SOM.pdf Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia, Supporting Online Materials], p. 5. Science, 2004.</ref> However, on seeing a novelty such as an airplane, a child may make a model of it, which may be soon discarded.<ref> | Their decoration is mostly necklaces, used primarily to [[Apotropaism|ward off spirits]].<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=74}} The concept of drawing is alien to them and when asked to draw a person, animal, tree, or river, the result is simple lines.<ref name="PG-SOM">Gordon, Peter. [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2004/10/15/1094492.DC1/Gordon.SOM.pdf Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia, Supporting Online Materials], p. 5. Science, 2004.</ref> However, on seeing a novelty such as an airplane, a child may make a model of it, which may be soon discarded.<ref name="Colapinto"></ref> | ||
{{anchor|Religion}}According to Everett, the Pirahã have no concept of a supreme spirit or god;<ref>Everett, Daniel. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100516170022/http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/Daniel_Everett_Endangered_Languages_and_Lost_Knowledge#fullprogram "Endangered Languages and Lost Knowledge"]}}, ''The Long Now Foundation'', San Francisco, March 20, 2009. For the relevant info, see transcript of the talk or play chapter 8 of the video at 33:40.</ref> however, they do believe in spirits that can sometimes take on the shape of things in the environment. These spirits can be jaguars, trees, or other visible, tangible things including people.<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=112,134–142}} Everett reported one incident where the Pirahã said that "''Xigagaí'', one of the beings that lives above the clouds, was standing on a beach yelling at us, telling us that he would kill us if we go into the jungle." Everett and his daughter could see nothing and yet the Pirahã insisted that ''Xigagaí'' was still on the beach.<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=xvi–xvii}} | |||
== History == | |||
The Pirahã, a subgroup of the [[Mura people]], encountered traders, missionaries, and government officials over centuries. Despite this, they resisted fully adopting outsiders' culture. They have historically been highly resistant to outside cultural influence and language, including Portuguese, though they interact with Portuguese speakers for trade. The first European contact with the Pirahã was led by [[Pedro Teixeira]] along with 70 soldiers and roughly 1,200 Indigenous people in 47 large canoes. He was the first European to travel up the entire length of the [[Amazon River]], known as "O Conquistador da Amazônia" ([[English language|English]] for ''The Conqueror of the Amazon''). | |||
===Adoption of Western culture=== | === Adoption of Western culture === | ||
A 2012 documentary called ''The Grammar of Happiness'' which aired on the [[Smithsonian Channel]], reported that a school had been opened for the Pirahã community where they learn [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and mathematics. According to [[Fundação Nacional do Índio|FUNAI]] the school is the responsibility of the [[Ministry of Education (Brazil)|Ministry of Education of Brazil]].<ref>{{cite AV media |title=The Grammar of Happiness |medium=television documentary |publisher=Smithsonian Channel |url=http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/141519/the-grammar-of-happiness |date=2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118143428/http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/141519/the-grammar-of-happiness |archive-date=2013-11-18 }}</ref> In addition to a formal school being introduced to the culture, the documentary also reported that the Brazilian government installed a modern medical clinic, electricity and television in the remote area. | A 2012 documentary called ''The Grammar of Happiness'', which aired on the [[Smithsonian Channel]], reported that a school had been opened for the Pirahã community where they learn [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and mathematics. According to [[Fundação Nacional do Índio|FUNAI]] the school is the responsibility of the [[Ministry of Education (Brazil)|Ministry of Education of Brazil]].<ref>{{cite AV media |title=The Grammar of Happiness |medium=television documentary |publisher=Smithsonian Channel |url=http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/141519/the-grammar-of-happiness |date=2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118143428/http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/141519/the-grammar-of-happiness |archive-date=2013-11-18 }}</ref> In addition to a formal school being introduced to the culture, the documentary also reported that the Brazilian government installed a modern medical clinic, electricity, and television in the remote area. | ||
== Language == | == Language == | ||
{{Main|Pirahã language}} | {{Main|Pirahã language}} | ||
Anthropological linguist [[Daniel Everett]], who wrote the first Pirahã grammar, claims that there are related pairs of curiosities in their language and culture.<ref name="Colapinto">{{cite magazine | url = http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all | title = The Interpreter—Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language? | last = Colapinto | first = John | author-link = John Colapinto | magazine = [[The New Yorker]] | date = 16 April 2007 | access-date = | Anthropological linguist [[Daniel Everett]], who wrote the first Pirahã grammar, claims that there are related pairs of curiosities in their language and culture.<ref name="Colapinto">{{cite magazine | url = http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all | title = The Interpreter—Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language? | last = Colapinto | first = John | author-link = John Colapinto | magazine = [[The New Yorker]] | date = 16 April 2007 | access-date = 2024-02-14 }}</ref> | ||
After working with the language for 30 years, Everett states that it has no [[relative clause]]s or [[ | After working with the language for 30 years, Everett states that it has no [[relative clause]]s or [[Recursion|grammatical recursion]]. Everett points out that there is recursion of ideas: that in a story, there may be subordinate ideas inside other ideas. He also pointed out that different experts have different definitions of recursion.<ref name="Edge">{{cite web|url=http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/everett07/everett07_index.html |title=Recursion and Human Thought: Why the Pirahã Don't Have Numbers |first=Daniel L. |last=Everett |others=Includes discussion by the ''Reality Club''|work=Edge.org|date=11 June 2007 |access-date=6 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808091528/https://www.edge.org/conversation/recursion-and-human-thought |archive-date=8 August 2019|department=Conversation |publisher=[[Edge.org|Edge Foundation, Inc.]]}}</ref> If the language lacks grammatical recursion, then it is proposed as a counterexample to the theory proposed by Chomsky, Hauser and Fitch (2002) that recursion is a feature which all human languages must have. | ||
Pirahã is perhaps second only to [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] in [[New Guinea]] for the distinction of having the fewest [[phoneme]]s of any of the world's languages. Women sometimes pronounce ''s'' as ''h'', reducing the inventory further still.<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=178–179.}} Everett states that Pirahã, Rotokas, and Hawaiian each have 11 phonemes. | Pirahã is perhaps second only to [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] in [[New Guinea]] for the distinction of having the fewest [[phoneme]]s of any of the world's languages. Women sometimes pronounce ''s'' as ''h'', reducing the inventory further still.<ref name="Everett 2008" />{{rp|pages=178–179.}} Everett states that Pirahã, Rotokas, and Hawaiian each have 11 phonemes. | ||
| Line 48: | Line 55: | ||
The language does not have words for precise numbers, but rather concepts for a small amount and a larger amount. | The language does not have words for precise numbers, but rather concepts for a small amount and a larger amount. | ||
The language may have no [[color terms|unique words for colors]], contradicting Berlin and Kay's hypothesis on the [[Basic_Color_Terms:_Their_Universality_and_Evolution|universality of color-naming]]. There are no unanalyzable root words for color; the recorded color words are all compounds like ''mii sai''<ref name="Edge"/> or ''bii sai | The language may have no [[color terms|unique words for colors]], contradicting Berlin and Kay's hypothesis on the [[Basic_Color_Terms:_Their_Universality_and_Evolution|universality of color-naming]]. There are no unanalyzable root words for color; the recorded color words are all compounds like ''mii sai''<ref name="Edge"/> or ''bii sai'', "blood-like", indicating that colors in the language are adjectival comparisons that are not consistently applied.<ref>{{cite web|last=Everett |first=Daniel |url=http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000427/current.pdf |title=CULTURAL CONSTRAINTS ON GRAMMAR IN PIRAHÃ: A Reply to Nevins, Pesetsky, and Rodrigues |publisher=LingBuzz |date=2007 |access-date=2018-03-07}}</ref> | ||
It is suspected that the language's entire [[pronoun]] set | It is suspected that the language's entire [[pronoun]] set was recently borrowed from one of the [[Tupí–Guaraní languages]], and that before that the language may have had no pronouns whatsoever. Many linguists, however, find this claim questionable due to lack of evidence. However, if there had been pronouns at an earlier stage of Pirahã, this would not affect Everett's claim of the significance of the system's simplicity today. There are few Tupi–Guaraní loanwords in areas of the lexicon more susceptible to borrowing (such as nouns referring to cultural items, for instance). | ||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
* [[Keren Everett]], Everett's ex-wife and the most fluent non-Pirahã in their language | |||
* [[Linguistic relativity]] | * [[Linguistic relativity]] | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
| Line 63: | Line 72: | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
{{refbegin}} | {{refbegin}} | ||
*{{cite journal | first = | *{{cite journal | first = Celeste | last = Biever | date = 19 August 2004 | url = https://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6303 | title = Language may shape human thought | journal = New Scientist | access-date = 15 December 2014 }} | ||
*{{cite | *{{cite journal | first = Bruce | last = Bower | url = https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pirah%C3%A3-challenge | url-access = subscription | title = The Piraha challenge: an Amazonian tribe takes grammar to a strange place | journal = Science News | date = 4 December 2005 | doi = 10.2307/4017032 | jstor = 4017032 | access-date = 10 December 2005 }} | ||
*{{cite journal | url = http://daneverettbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/soas.pdf | title = Documenting Endangered Languages: The View from the Brazilian Amazon | journal = Language Documentation and Description | volume = 1 | pages = 140–158 | date = 2003 | last = Everett | first = Daniel L. }} | *{{cite news | first = Brian | last = Butterworth | url = https://www.theguardian.com/life/feature/story/0,,1331672,00.html | newspaper = The Guardian | title = What happens when you can't count past four? | date = 21 October 2004 | access-date = 15 December 2014 }} | ||
*{{cite journal | | *{{cite magazine | url = http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto | title = The Interpreter: Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language | first = John | last = Colapinto | magazine = The New Yorker | date = 16 April 2007 | access-date = 2024-02-14 }} (a lengthy article about the Pirahã and Daniel Everett's work with them, with accompanying [http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/04/16/slideshow_070416_piraha Slideshow]. Correction appended online.) | ||
*{{cite news | url = http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article362380.ece | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060614054822/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article362380.ece | url-status = dead | archive-date = June 14, 2006 | newspaper = The Independent | date = 7 May 2006 | title = Unlocking the secret sounds of language: Life without time or numbers | first = Elizabeth | last = Davies | access-date = 15 December 2014 }} | |||
*{{cite journal | first = Kate | last = Douglas | url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925431.500-a-people-lost-for-words.html | title = A people lost for words | date = 18 March 2006 | url-access = subscription | journal = New Scientist | access-date = 15 December 2014 }} | |||
*{{cite journal | url = http://daneverettbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/soas.pdf | title = Documenting Endangered Languages: The View from the Brazilian Amazon | journal = Language Documentation and Description | volume = 1 | pages = 140–158 | date = 2003 | last = Everett | first = Daniel L. | author-link = Daniel Everett }} | |||
*{{cite journal | first = Daniel | last = Everett | year = 2005 | title = Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã: Another look at the design features of human language | journal = Current Anthropology | volume = 46 | issue = 4 | pages = 621–46 | url = http://www.pnglanguages.org/americas/brasil/PUBLCNS/ANTHRO/PHGrCult.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070325211641/http://www.pnglanguages.org/americas/brasil/PUBLCNS/ANTHRO/PHGrCult.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2007-03-25 | doi = 10.1086/431525 | hdl = 2066/41103 | s2cid = 2223235 | hdl-access = free }} | |||
*{{cite web | last = Everett | first = Daniel | title = Cultural Constraints on Grammar in PIRAHÃ: A Reply to Nevins, Pesetsky, and Rodrigues (2007) | year = 2007 | url = http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000427 |website=lingBuzz}} (reply to 2007 version of Nevins et al.) | |||
*{{cite journal | first = Daniel | last = Everett | year = 2009 | title = Pirahã Culture and Grammar: a Response to some criticisms | journal = Language | volume = 85 | issue = 2 | pages = 405–442 | url = http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/dlevere/docs/Reply%20in%20Language%202009.pdf | doi = 10.1353/lan.0.0104 | s2cid = 59069607 | url-status = dead | archive-url = http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20091024061250/http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/dlevere/docs/Reply%20in%20Language%202009.pdf | archive-date = 2009-10-24 }} | *{{cite journal | first = Daniel | last = Everett | year = 2009 | title = Pirahã Culture and Grammar: a Response to some criticisms | journal = Language | volume = 85 | issue = 2 | pages = 405–442 | url = http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/dlevere/docs/Reply%20in%20Language%202009.pdf | doi = 10.1353/lan.0.0104 | s2cid = 59069607 | url-status = dead | archive-url = http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20091024061250/http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/dlevere/docs/Reply%20in%20Language%202009.pdf | archive-date = 2009-10-24 }} | ||
*{{cite | * {{cite book|last=Gonçalves|first=Marco Antonio Teixeira|url=https://archive.org/details/nomes-e-cosmos|title=Nomes e cosmos: uma descrição da sociedade e da cosmologia Mura-Pirahã|publisher=[[Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro]]|year=1988|location=Rio de Janeiro|language=Portuguese|trans-title=Names and cosmos: a description of Mura-Pirahã society and cosmology}} | ||
* {{cite book|last=Gonçalves|first=Marco Antonio Teixeira|url=https://archive.org/details/um-mundo-inacabado|title=Um mundo inacabado: cosmologia e sociedade Pirahã (povo da Amazônia meridional)|publisher=[[Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro]]|year=1995|location=Rio de Janeiro|language=Portuguese|trans-title=An unfinished world: Pirahã cosmology and society (people of the southern Amazon)}} | |||
*{{cite journal | first = Peter | last = Gordon | author-link = Peter Gordon (psychology professor) | year = 2004 | title = Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia | journal = Science | volume = 306 | issue = 5695 | pages = 496–9 | doi = 10.1126/science.1094492 | pmid = 15319490 | bibcode = 2004Sci...306..496G | s2cid = 8941874 }} | |||
*{{cite journal | last1 = Hauser | first1 = M. | last2 = Chomsky | first2 = N. | last3 = Fitch | first3 = W. T. | year = 2002 | title = The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? | journal = Science | issue = 5598| pages = 1569–79 | doi = 10.1126/science.298.5598.1569 | volume = 298 | pmid = 12446899 }} | |||
*{{cite journal | last1 = Nevins | first1 = Andrew | first2 = David | last2 = Pesetsky | first3 = Cilene | last3 = Rodrigues | year = 2007 | title = Pirahã Exceptionality: a Reassessment | journal = The Buzz (LingBuzz) | url = http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000411 }} (2007 version of article) | *{{cite journal | last1 = Nevins | first1 = Andrew | first2 = David | last2 = Pesetsky | first3 = Cilene | last3 = Rodrigues | year = 2007 | title = Pirahã Exceptionality: a Reassessment | journal = The Buzz (LingBuzz) | url = http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000411 }} (2007 version of article) | ||
*{{cite journal | | **{{cite journal | first1 = Andrew | last1 = Nevins | first2 = David | last2 = Pesetsky | first3 = Cilene | last3 = Rodrigues | year = 2009 | title = Pirahã exceptionality: A Reassessment | journal = Language | volume = 85 | issue = 2 | pages = 355–404 | doi = 10.1353/lan.0.0107 | url = https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/94631/1/Nevins-2009-PIRAHA%20EXCEPTIONALIT.pdf | hdl = 1721.1/94631 | s2cid = 15798043 | hdl-access = free }} | ||
*{{cite journal | last1 = | *{{cite journal | first1 = Andrew | last1 = Nevins | first2 = David | last2 = Pesetsky | first3 = Cilene | last3 = Rodrigues | year = 2009 | title = Evidence and Argumentation: a Reply to Everett (2009) | journal = Language | volume = 85 | issue = 3 | pages = 671–681 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/362672 | doi = 10.1353/lan.0.0140 | s2cid = 16915455 | url-access = subscription }} | ||
*{{cite news | title = Life without numbers | last = Strauss | first = Stephen | newspaper = The Globe and Mail | date = 20 August 2004 | url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-without-numbers/article1139810/ | access-date = 15 December 2014 }} | |||
*{{cite news | title=Brazil's Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time | last=von Bredow | first=Rafaela | newspaper=[[Spiegel Online]] | date=3 May 2006 | url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/brazil-s-piraha-tribe-living-without-numbers-or-time-a-414291.html | access-date=15 December 2014 }} | *{{cite news | title=Brazil's Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time | last=von Bredow | first=Rafaela | newspaper=[[Spiegel Online]] | date=3 May 2006 | url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/brazil-s-piraha-tribe-living-without-numbers-or-time-a-414291.html | access-date=15 December 2014 }} | ||
{{refend}} | {{refend}} | ||
Latest revision as of 07:33, 29 March 2026
Híaitíihi, Hiáitihí | |
|---|---|
 A Pirahã family in 2018 | |
| Total population | |
| 900 (2024) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Brazil | |
| Languages | |
| Portuguese, Pirahã | |
| Religion | |
| Animism[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Mura people |
The Pirahã (pt)[lower-alpha 1] are an indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. They are the sole surviving subgroup of the Mura people and are hunter-gatherers. They live mainly on the banks of the Maici River in Humaitá and Manicoré in the state of Amazonas. As of 2024[update], they numbered 900 individuals.[3] The name Pirahã is an exonym; the Pirahã call themselves the Híaitíihi or Hiáitihí,[4] roughly translated as "the straight ones".[5]
The Pirahã speak the Pirahã language. They call any other language "crooked head".[6] Members of the Pirahã can whistle their language, which is how Pirahã men communicate when hunting in the jungle.
Culture[edit | edit source]
According to the linguistic anthropologist and former Christian missionary Daniel Everett,
The Pirahã are supremely gifted in all the ways necessary to ensure their continued survival in the jungle: they know the usefulness and location of all important plants in their area; they understand the behavior of local animals and how to catch and avoid them; and they can walk into the jungle naked, with no tools or weapons, and walk out three days later with baskets of fruit, nuts, and small game.[6]
As far as the Pirahã have related to researchers, their culture is concerned solely with matters that fall within direct personal experience, and thus there is no history beyond living memory. Pirahã have a simple kinship system that includes baíxi (parent, grandparent, or elder), xahaigí (sibling, male or female), hoagí or hoísai (son), kai (daughter), and piihí (stepchild, favorite child, child with at least one deceased parent, and more).[7](pp86–87)
Daniel Everett states that one of the strongest Pirahã values is no coercion; one does not tell other people what to do.[8] There appears to be no social hierarchy; the Pirahã have no formal leaders. Their social system is similar to that of many other hunter-gatherer bands in the world, although rare in the Amazon because of a history of horticulture before Western contact (see history of the Amazon).
Although the Pirahã use canoes every day for fishing and for crossing the river beside which they live, when their canoes wear out, they use pieces of bark as temporary canoes. Everett brought in a master builder who taught and supervised the Pirahã in making a canoe so that they could make their own. However, when they needed another canoe, they said that "Pirahã do not make canoes" and told Everett he should buy them a canoe. The Pirahã rely on neighboring communities' canoe work and use those canoes for themselves.[8]
Pirahã build simple huts where they keep a few pots, pans, knives, and machetes. They make only scraping implements (for making arrowheads), loosely woven palm-leaf bags, bows, and arrows.[6] They take naps of 15 minutes to, at the most, two hours throughout the day and night, and rarely sleep through the night.[7](ppxvii, 13,70,79)
They do not store food in any quantity, but generally eat it when they get it.[6] Pirahã have ignored lessons in preserving meats by salting or smoking.[6] They cultivate manioc plants that grow from spit-out seeds and make only a few days' worth of manioc flour at a time.[6] They trade Brazil nuts and sex for consumables or tools, e.g. machetes, gunpowder, powdered milk, sugar, whiskey. Chastity is not a cultural value.[8] They trade Brazil nuts, wood, and sorva (rubbery sap used in chewing gum) for soda-can pull-tabs, which are used for necklaces.[6] Men wear T-shirts and shorts that they get from traders; women sew their own plain cotton dresses.[6]
Their decoration is mostly necklaces, used primarily to ward off spirits.[7](pp74) The concept of drawing is alien to them and when asked to draw a person, animal, tree, or river, the result is simple lines.[9] However, on seeing a novelty such as an airplane, a child may make a model of it, which may be soon discarded.[6]
According to Everett, the Pirahã have no concept of a supreme spirit or god;[10] however, they do believe in spirits that can sometimes take on the shape of things in the environment. These spirits can be jaguars, trees, or other visible, tangible things including people.[7](pp112,134–142) Everett reported one incident where the Pirahã said that "Xigagaí, one of the beings that lives above the clouds, was standing on a beach yelling at us, telling us that he would kill us if we go into the jungle." Everett and his daughter could see nothing and yet the Pirahã insisted that Xigagaí was still on the beach.[7](ppxvi–xvii)
History[edit | edit source]
The Pirahã, a subgroup of the Mura people, encountered traders, missionaries, and government officials over centuries. Despite this, they resisted fully adopting outsiders' culture. They have historically been highly resistant to outside cultural influence and language, including Portuguese, though they interact with Portuguese speakers for trade. The first European contact with the Pirahã was led by Pedro Teixeira along with 70 soldiers and roughly 1,200 Indigenous people in 47 large canoes. He was the first European to travel up the entire length of the Amazon River, known as "O Conquistador da Amazônia" (English for The Conqueror of the Amazon).
Adoption of Western culture[edit | edit source]
A 2012 documentary called The Grammar of Happiness, which aired on the Smithsonian Channel, reported that a school had been opened for the Pirahã community where they learn Portuguese and mathematics. According to FUNAI the school is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education of Brazil.[11] In addition to a formal school being introduced to the culture, the documentary also reported that the Brazilian government installed a modern medical clinic, electricity, and television in the remote area.
Language[edit | edit source]
Anthropological linguist Daniel Everett, who wrote the first Pirahã grammar, claims that there are related pairs of curiosities in their language and culture.[6]
After working with the language for 30 years, Everett states that it has no relative clauses or grammatical recursion. Everett points out that there is recursion of ideas: that in a story, there may be subordinate ideas inside other ideas. He also pointed out that different experts have different definitions of recursion.[8] If the language lacks grammatical recursion, then it is proposed as a counterexample to the theory proposed by Chomsky, Hauser and Fitch (2002) that recursion is a feature which all human languages must have.
Pirahã is perhaps second only to Rotokas in New Guinea for the distinction of having the fewest phonemes of any of the world's languages. Women sometimes pronounce s as h, reducing the inventory further still.[7](pp178–179.) Everett states that Pirahã, Rotokas, and Hawaiian each have 11 phonemes.
Their language is a unique living language (it is related to Mura, which is no longer spoken). John Colapinto explains, "Unrelated to any other extant tongue, and based on just eight consonants and three vowels, Pirahã has one of the simplest sound systems known. Yet it possesses such a complex array of tones, stresses, and syllable lengths that its speakers can dispense with their vowels and consonants altogether and sing, hum, or whistle conversations."[6] Peter Gordon writes that the language has a very complex verb structure: "To the verb stem are appended up to 15 potential slots for morphological markers that encode aspectual notions such as whether events were witnessed, whether the speaker is certain of its occurrence, whether it is desired, whether it was proximal or distal, and so on. None of the markers encode features such as person, number, tense or gender."[9]
Curiously, although not unprecedentedly,[12] the language has no cardinal or ordinal numbers. Some researchers, such as Peter Gordon of Columbia University, claim that the Pirahã are incapable of learning numeracy. His colleague, Daniel L. Everett, on the other hand, argues that the Pirahã are cognitively capable of counting; they simply choose not to do so. They believe that their culture is complete and does not need anything from outside cultures. Everett says, "The crucial thing is that the Pirahã have not borrowed any numbers—and they want to learn to count. They asked me to give them classes in Brazilian numbers, so for eight months I spent an hour every night trying to teach them how to count. And it never got anywhere, except for a few of the children. Some of the children learned to do reasonably well, but as soon as anybody started to perform well, they were sent away from the classes. It was just a fun time to eat popcorn and watch me write things on the board."[8]
The language does not have words for precise numbers, but rather concepts for a small amount and a larger amount.
The language may have no unique words for colors, contradicting Berlin and Kay's hypothesis on the universality of color-naming. There are no unanalyzable root words for color; the recorded color words are all compounds like mii sai[8] or bii sai, "blood-like", indicating that colors in the language are adjectival comparisons that are not consistently applied.[13]
It is suspected that the language's entire pronoun set was recently borrowed from one of the Tupí–Guaraní languages, and that before that the language may have had no pronouns whatsoever. Many linguists, however, find this claim questionable due to lack of evidence. However, if there had been pronouns at an earlier stage of Pirahã, this would not affect Everett's claim of the significance of the system's simplicity today. There are few Tupi–Guaraní loanwords in areas of the lexicon more susceptible to borrowing (such as nouns referring to cultural items, for instance).
See also[edit | edit source]
- Keren Everett, Everett's ex-wife and the most fluent non-Pirahã in their language
- Linguistic relativity
Notes[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Everett, Daniel. "From Threatened Languages to Threatened Lives". astronom.cz. Archived from the original on 9 February 2018.
- ↑ Everett (2008), Preface.
- ↑ Instituto Socioambiental do Brazil
- ↑ Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev, eds. (2023). Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-043273-2.
- ↑ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (26 August 2004). "The Straight Ones: Dan Everett on the Pirahã". Language Log. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Colapinto, John (16 April 2007). "The Interpreter—Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Everett, Daniel L. (2008). Don't Sleep, there are Snakes. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-375-42502-8.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Everett, Daniel L. (11 June 2007). "Recursion and Human Thought: Why the Pirahã Don't Have Numbers". Conversation. Edge.org. Includes discussion by the Reality Club. Edge Foundation, Inc. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gordon, Peter. Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia, Supporting Online Materials, p. 5. Science, 2004.
- ↑ Everett, Daniel. "Endangered Languages and Lost Knowledge"[usurped], The Long Now Foundation, San Francisco, March 20, 2009. For the relevant info, see transcript of the talk or play chapter 8 of the video at 33:40.
- ↑ The Grammar of Happiness (television documentary). Smithsonian Channel. 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-11-18.
- ↑ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2004-08-26). "Language Log: The Straight Ones: Dan Everett on the Pirahã". Itre.cis.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ↑ Everett, Daniel (2007). "CULTURAL CONSTRAINTS ON GRAMMAR IN PIRAHÃ: A Reply to Nevins, Pesetsky, and Rodrigues" (PDF). LingBuzz. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- Biever, Celeste (19 August 2004). "Language may shape human thought". New Scientist. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- Bower, Bruce (4 December 2005). "The Piraha challenge: an Amazonian tribe takes grammar to a strange place". Science News. doi:10.2307/4017032. JSTOR 4017032. Retrieved 10 December 2005.
- Butterworth, Brian (21 October 2004). "What happens when you can't count past four?". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- Colapinto, John (16 April 2007). "The Interpreter: Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2024-02-14. (a lengthy article about the Pirahã and Daniel Everett's work with them, with accompanying Slideshow. Correction appended online.)
- Davies, Elizabeth (7 May 2006). "Unlocking the secret sounds of language: Life without time or numbers". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- Douglas, Kate (18 March 2006). "A people lost for words". New Scientist. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- Everett, Daniel L. (2003). "Documenting Endangered Languages: The View from the Brazilian Amazon" (PDF). Language Documentation and Description. 1: 140–158.
- Everett, Daniel (2005). "Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã: Another look at the design features of human language" (PDF). Current Anthropology. 46 (4): 621–46. doi:10.1086/431525. hdl:2066/41103. S2CID 2223235. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-03-25.
- Everett, Daniel (2007). "Cultural Constraints on Grammar in PIRAHÃ: A Reply to Nevins, Pesetsky, and Rodrigues (2007)". lingBuzz. (reply to 2007 version of Nevins et al.)
- Everett, Daniel (2009). "Pirahã Culture and Grammar: a Response to some criticisms" (PDF). Language. 85 (2): 405–442. doi:10.1353/lan.0.0104. S2CID 59069607. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-24.
- Gonçalves, Marco Antonio Teixeira (1988). Nomes e cosmos: uma descrição da sociedade e da cosmologia Mura-Pirahã [Names and cosmos: a description of Mura-Pirahã society and cosmology] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - Gonçalves, Marco Antonio Teixeira (1995). Um mundo inacabado: cosmologia e sociedade Pirahã (povo da Amazônia meridional) [An unfinished world: Pirahã cosmology and society (people of the southern Amazon)] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - Gordon, Peter (2004). "Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia". Science. 306 (5695): 496–9. Bibcode:2004Sci...306..496G. doi:10.1126/science.1094492. PMID 15319490. S2CID 8941874.
- Hauser, M.; Chomsky, N.; Fitch, W. T. (2002). "The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?". Science. 298 (5598): 1569–79. doi:10.1126/science.298.5598.1569. PMID 12446899.
- Nevins, Andrew; Pesetsky, David; Rodrigues, Cilene (2007). "Pirahã Exceptionality: a Reassessment". The Buzz (LingBuzz). (2007 version of article)
- Nevins, Andrew; Pesetsky, David; Rodrigues, Cilene (2009). "Pirahã exceptionality: A Reassessment" (PDF). Language. 85 (2): 355–404. doi:10.1353/lan.0.0107. hdl:1721.1/94631. S2CID 15798043.
- Nevins, Andrew; Pesetsky, David; Rodrigues, Cilene (2009). "Evidence and Argumentation: a Reply to Everett (2009)". Language. 85 (3): 671–681. doi:10.1353/lan.0.0140. S2CID 16915455.
- Strauss, Stephen (20 August 2004). "Life without numbers". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- von Bredow, Rafaela (3 May 2006). "Brazil's Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
External links[edit | edit source]
- Google map of the location where Daniel Everett lived with the Pirahã[citation needed]
- A Conversation with Augusto and Yapohen Pirahã A conversation with Jose Augusto and Yapohen Pirahã, who represent the leadership of the Pirahã tribe. (Portuguese with English subtitles.)