After many years, Elliot finds that the Pirahas and their culture change him, not the other way round, as he reassesses his attitudes to language, religion, life and death. Everett realizes that these people have a peaceful happy culture and they don't need Christianity, loses his own faith, eventually divorces his wife and somehow in the midst of all this graduates Phd. Everett comes to respect this world view so much that he begins to analyze exactly why he felt he needed Christianity in the first place, and he eventually reaches the conclusion that any kind of subjective belief system that makes judgmental and far-reaching claims about the universe without any evidence to back it up is unnecessary and often harmful.

They are a group of indigenous people who have maintained a language and culture distinct in many, fascinating ways. If you enjoyed this book, you'll find another fascinating clash of cultures in Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson. Everett's theory is that someone has to feel like they are missing something in their life before they see a need for a belief system and the "redemption" it promises (in other words, you have to feel a need to be "saved" before you will agree to be "saved").The fact that Everett went there to convert the Pirahã to Christianity but ended up losing his own faith was an impressive plot twist. This was when, for the first time, my limited understanding (and belief) of Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar (UG) was challenged. That was a bit of a bummer, because the missionary-losing-his-faith story was the main thing that drew me into the book. It will take him some time to come to terms with the fact that “two cultures … could see reality so differently.

He even said himself that he wouldn’t have fully learned their language without being immersed in their culture and he wouldn’t have understood their culture fully without learning their language. Everett said in the interview that he was so upset with them and still to this day, doesn’t understand why they thought that was okay when they could have tried more ways to save him.It seems impossible to me that some languages don’t have words for colours and no numbers, to me they are basic ways of communication between people! Then, his stepmother committed suicide, he saw the light, accepted Jesus, and his life became better. They are a happy, productive, well-balanced people who live a life free from anxiety, depression, obsession with sin and punishment, and other Western constructs that one could argue have done more harm than good in our society. However their different culture, stresses/tones, and singing in conversation makes their language one of the hardest to learn.

This book is controversial and interesting in several ways, whether you're a linguist or not, religious or not. For linguists like Everett, this disputed fact could cause the next Kuhn-eque scientific revolution in the field of linguistics. I find linguistics fascinating, I enjoy reaing about cultures with entirely different ways of viewing the world from our own, and the book simply has to be packed with engaging stories.Voice wasn't just a way for organizing information in a sentence, a la Chomsky, it was an everyday expression of belief. He has held appointments in linguistics and/or anthropology at the University of Campinas, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Manchester, and Illinois State University. It is true that they don’t have most of the luxuries of 21st century American life, but they do have other things. Then, 4 pages later, Everett relays the story of a Piraha woman who is struggling through a breech birth, alone, on the beach.