I have insufficient knowledge of linguistics to come to a view on Everett’s arguments, and the disagreements he has with Chomsky. Though he faces a bunch of hurdles, he is eventually able to learn the language and live among the people. 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. They live to a much younger age, have a real danger posed from jungle animals, and die of diseases that have routine cures in the US.

In his book he states although the Pirahas perceive color they do not have simple words for it like we are used to.The Piraha world view isn't compatible with the need for "saving," because they do not have a "fall from grace" mentality -- they accept who they are and manage to live content lives despite their shortcomings.

Thanks Trevor for the link – all the photos in the book are by the same photographer, who presumably accompanied Everett and his family on some of their stays with the Piraha. He mentions, at one point, that the Piraha women douse their fires and run into the jungle to hide when their men are drinking. Everett's scholarly pursuit of the Pirahã language, plus his observation of just how well they've come to function without the concept of god, eventually lead him to lose his faith.He also romanticizes the tribe to fit what he wants to see, painting them in as evidence driven atheists, which just misses the mark to me, based on his description of their spiritualism, and peaceful while glossing over incidents of gang rape and murder.

Unfortunaltly thought, I feel like this dissmisal of ideas could be a main thing holding linguistics back.This "evidential" aspect of language is tied to/explained by the fact that Piraha language and culture are constrained by immediate experience -- facts are only considered facts by the Pirahas if there's an eyewitness, which also helps explain why all efforts to convert Pirahas have failed over more than 200 years. Everett went to the Pirahas as a linguist, to study what he believed to be a language isolate (one that is “not demonstrably related to any living language”), and as a missionary. you could answer, “Yes, at least I heard that he did,” or “Yes, I know because I saw him leave,” or “Yes, at least I suppose he did because his boat is gone. With this volume, I felt privileged to have been given a glimpse into Everett's hard-won insights, gleaned over many years, without having had to sleep among the snakes!

Initially I thought Everett had spent three decades with the Piraha uninterrupted – so that I was, absurdly, disappointed when it turned out he ‘merely’ lived there for periods up to five years at a time. It was still around seventy-two degrees, though humid, far below the hundred-degree-plus heat of midday. Secondly, the author seems to have a hard time differentiating between objective reality and abstract, human ideas. Written with extraordinary acuity, sensitivity, and openness, it is fascinating from first to last, rich with unparalleled insight into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.They have no abstract words for colours, no numbers (not even ‘one, two, many’ which some other languages exhibit), no oral history or creation myths, and most remarkably, women have fewer consonants at their disposal than men. They were less secure, and had real reasons to worry about tomorrow, because their survival depended on an ever-changing external system that was beyond their control. Often when I first opened my eyes, groggily coming out of a dream, a Pirahã child or sometimes even an adult would be staring at me from between the paxiuba palm slats that served as siding for my large hut. Second, they know that danger is all around them in the jungle and that sleeping soundly can leave one defenseless from attack by any of the numerous predators around the village. That said, there are others who defend Whorf and argue that he had real insights and was essentially correct in his theories, even if the Hopi example wasn’t his best.