Dan Everett : Losing Religion to the Amazonian Pirahã Tribe

Professor Daniel Everett, author of Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes, discusses the importance of preserving dying languages. He describes his experience living with the Piraha people in Brazil, and explores what Piraha, both the people and the language, can teach us about human nature.

On this video he explains the idea of "xibipiio," a way of life he encountered while studying the language of the Amazonian Piraha tribe. Everett, a former Christian missionary, was challenged to rethink his faith after learning the Piraha's concept of experiential liminality.

Complete video at:

http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/Daniel_Everett_Endangered_Languages_and_Lost_Knowledge

The language of the Pirahã, a world without time or number

Linguist Daniel Everett thinks that the language of the Pirahã - an indigenous tribe from Brazil - contradicts the theory that all languages share a single, innate grammar. Their language has no fixed words for numbers or colours.