Learning about the Piraha tribe. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
| I've been reading about the Piraha, a tribe in the Amazon jungle numbering about 200 people and they have some unique characteristics: No sense of the past or future. They don't even have a past tense in their grammar. There's no folklore, no gods, no stories about their origin. They barely sleep, and usually no more than a few hours at a time. They're worried about snakes sneaking up on them. They frequently interact with spirits. They see them in everyday life almost every day. There's one story about the American living with them who can't see a spirit that's plain as day to all the Piraha right in front of them. They don't plan at all, not even for tomorrow. If there's food, they'll eat it until they're full. They save nothing. They don't eat much, in fact. They'll often go days without food, simply because they don't feel like hunting or gathering any. They don't smoke or preserve meat for themselves. They'll do it sometimes when they know they'll be interacting with other groups, like Brazilians, but they never do it for their own purposes. They know how to. They just don't care to. They often answer, "we don't do that" faced with an alternative method of making tools or doing anything. For instance, when they expressed displeasure at the state of their canoes—"our bark canoes can't carry much, but the other tribes' dugout canoes can carry a lot"—the American linguist living with them got them the tools to make dugout canoes. They actually learned how to and ended up making a very nice dugout canoe. But that was the only one they made. Even though they still complained about the quality of their bark canoes and had the ability to make the better dugout canoes, they had no interest in making them. Why? "We don't do that." They have no words for colors (beyond "light" and "dark"). Instead of green, they'll say something is "like the river." They have words for the numbers 1 and 2, but no others. After that they just say "many." The language has no comparatives. You can't say "this is bigger than that." There's no way to do it. They can't be taught to count or do simple math. Even months of constant tutoring left them unable to count to ten. They have a fluid sense of identity. They often change their names and become a different person. These name changes are often initiated by the spirits they live amongst. There is a total absence of depression, anxiety, or anything that would be classified as a psychological issue. They have extremely high life satisfaction. They laugh a lot and are quite happy. That last part sounds pretty good, but I don't think it's something we can emulate. They are a totally different people with a totally different ancestral history. They are close to aliens compared to most people reading this. There are commonalities, but the differences are stark. The baseline is so different that I don't think we can just cut and paste the things we like. Our ancestors, for whatever reason, may have come from a people who lived that way at some point, but they diverted from it. They chose another way and split off from that root group who continued. I don't really have a "point" this week. It's just a fascinating thing to consider. What do you think about the Piraha? Let me know in the comment section of New and Noteworthy. |
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Mark's Daily Apple 1101 Maulhardt Ave. Oxnard, CA 93033 |
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