Imprensa: "A people lost for words" (Pirahã)

[Etnolinguistica.Org]

Matéria da revista NewScientist
(http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925431.500.html)

----------------------------
*A people lost for words*

18 March 2006
Kate Douglas
Magazine issue 2543
 They've no myths, numbers or colours and few words for past or present - no
wonder the Pirahã people defy our most cherished ideas about language

"HOW was your world created?" asks the young anthropologist in Portuguese.
He awaits the translation into Pirahã. "The world is created," replies one
of the assembled men in his own language. "Tell me how your god made all
this?" the anthropologist presses on. "All things are made," comes the
answer. The interview lurches on for a few more minutes, until suddenly, the
question-and-answer session is overtaken by a deluge of excited banter as
the assembled Pirahã vie to be heard.

"I've cracked it," says the anthropologist as he hands his tape recording to
Dan Everett a few weeks later. "Here is the Pirahã creation myth." Everett
is dubious. In the past three decades, the linguist from the University of
Manchester, UK, has spent a total of seven years living with the Pirahã in
the Amazon rainforest and is one of just three outsiders, along with his
ex-wife and a missionary ...
(Acesso ao conteúdo integral do artigo -- 2532 palavras -- é restrito a
assinantes da revista.)

---------------------------
Etnolinguistica.Org
Setor de Etnolingüística, Museu Antropológico/UFG
Av. Universitária, 1166, Setor Universitário
74605-010 Goiânia, Goiás, BRASIL
http://www.etnolinguistica.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/etnolinguistica/attachments/20060330/270b1d91/attachment.htm>