Daniel Everett: Living Among the Pirahã

Daniel Everett is a linguist and anthropologist whose work has challenged long-standing beliefs about human language and cognition.

In 1977, Dan journeyed deep into the Amazon rainforest as a Christian missionary to live among an indigenous tribe of hunter-gatherers known as the Pirahã.

He is the author of several acclaimed books, including "Don't Sleep, There are Snakes" and "How Language Began". 

Outline

0:00 Episode highlight
1:43 First arrival in the Amazon
4:00 Unique attributes of the Pirahã language
6:53 Noam Chomsky's influence on Linguistics
12:05 Lessons from raising Children in the Jungle
24:31 The Failure of Missionary Work
36:53 Everett's most controversial paper
49:51 How UG took over Linguistics
57:44 The Future of the Pirahã