There is a brazilian tribe (piranhã) that knows no concept of quantity besides one, two an
d many. Also, in their language, verbs are not flexed related to time. This is probably du
e to their lifestyle that needs no long planning, discussions about the past or managing m
ultiple instances of the same resources.
Basically every single claim about Pirahã (not Piranha) needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. There's just not enough people who have studied the language and the claims are so strong and unparalleled that we really ought to have more evidence between making any conclusive statements.
Hmmm... I stand corrected. Although I lived in the Amazon region for a few years (1993 to 2002 in Rondônia), never formally studied any native language and mostly blindly believed the wikipedia article on Pirahã people[0] and probably mixed things from the Hopi language time controversy.
Thanks for such info.
Ironically, my English was mostly learnt from people from Europe who came there to conduct researches. This is amazing and sad at the same time. But the fact that some tribes can whistle names, words and entire phrases and use such skill to communicate while hunting in the jungle is something I was told from an native speaker, can't remember what tribe or language it was; probably Caripuna or Suruí.
I'm not claiming that what Everett et al. are saying is wrong, just that the claims are so spectacular that I'd like to see more evidence before I believe them.
