Module 11 Blog

One of the most significant ties between the Pirahans’ language and culture is the emphasis on immediacy of experiences. In their culture, they do not see any need to speak about the past or anything that is not relevant to the current moment. Because of this, their language does not have many ways to speak about the past and the focus tends to be on whatever is currently happening. They also only speak of things they have witnessed and they have no use for information that hasn’t been acquired by firsthand experience. When Everett tried to explain Jesus to the Piraha, they asked him about what Jesus looked like and he revealed to them that he had never seen Jesus and no one he knew had ever seen Jesus. This lack of firsthand experience immediately caused the Piraha to lose interest and caused Everett to start questioning his faith. Everett claims that the Piraha “made [him] question concepts of truth that [he] had long adhered to and lived by” (Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes 272). They demanded evidence of him that he could not give, and this lack of evidence opened up Everett’s eyes to his own disbelief in Jesus. His respect for the Piraha people, his devotion to science, and his inability to come up with proof that God exists all led Everett to renounce his faith, more influenced by the Piraha culture than they were by his.