Pirahã - The World's Best Atheists?

Any linguists familiar with the Pirahã tribe? Pretty interesting.

A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter : The New Yorker
　
From the above article:

"Inspired by Sapir’s cultural approach to language, he hypothesized that the tribe embodies a living-in-the-present ethos so powerful that it has affected every aspect of the people’s lives. Committed to an existence in which only observable experience is real, the Pirahã do not think, or speak, in abstractions—and thus do not use color terms, quantifiers, numbers, or myths. Everett pointed to the word xibipío as a clue to how the Pirahã perceive reality solely according to what exists within the boundaries of their direct experience—which Everett defined as anything that they can see and hear, or that someone living has seen and heard. "When someone walks around a bend in the river, the Pirahã say that the person has not simply gone away but xibipío—‘gone out of experience,’ " Everett said. "They use the same phrase when a candle flame flickers. The light ‘goes in and out of experience.’ "

"To Everett, the Pirahã’s unswerving dedication to empirical reality—he called it the "immediacy-of-experience principle"—explained their resistance to Christianity, since the Pirahã had always reacted to stories about Christ by asking, "Have you met this man?" Told that Christ died two thousand years ago, the Pirahã would react much as they did to my using bug repellent. It explained their failure to build up food stocks, since this required planning for a future that did not yet exist; it explained the failure of the boys’ model airplanes to foster a tradition of sculpture-making, since the models expressed only the momentary burst of excitement that accompanied the sight of an actual plane. It explained the Pirahã’s lack of original stories about how they came into being, since this was a conundrum buried in a past outside the experience of parents and grandparents."

Who else has an "unswerving dedication to empirical reality"? Sounds like philosophical naturalism. Hmm, I wonder where Richard Dawkins' family comes from?

Seriously, any comments on the Pirahã are welcome. Anybody think they might "undermine Chomsky"?

I wonder about their contributions to literacy. Given their cultural stance on the immediate, flashbacks and flashforwards would not be seen in their literature. In fact, it would be almost impossible for them to tell stories or even have an oral tradition which is the foundation of written literacy and the epic poems.

__________________
Virgin Theotokos, rejoice!
O Mary, Full of Grace;
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
For thou hast borne the Savior of our souls.

+ + + + +

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory Forever!
O Giver of Life, Glory to Thee!


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I have a cupboard in the kitchen. There are many things in that cupboard, but the importnat one is the dog biskets. Even the less bright dog knows they are in there even when it is closed and they can not be seen.

One other thing is the 2 burner griddle that is used to cook bacon. Both dogs can see far enough into the future to know that when bacon is cooked they will eventually get some. They plan to be sure they are there when that happens (even though I am very careful that is one gets somethgin both do). I'll have to check to see if the older and brighter dog makes the link to the griddle coming out and eventual bacon for dogs.