Daniel Everett was a Christian missionary who was de-converted while living among a Brazilian tribe he was trying to convert to Christianity.
The tribe had no creation myth. They didn’t believe that the world had been “made” at all. They didn’t talk or think of such things.
When he told them he had “found Jesus” after his step-mother committed suicide, the tribe burst into laughter. “She killed herself, how stupid,” they replied. Instead of his experience causing them to accept his god, they found it amusing.
Listen more about his story in this video:
I saw this yesterday, I really found it beautiful. Not only can we now say a human society can form and exist without spiritual beliefs, but they freed the mind of the missionary, and he went through that journey towards truth even though he knew his family would reject him, and that that would be quite painful.
These people live in a state of abject happiness because they only expect what reality gives them, and that is what atheism is about. We are free to enjoy life without wondering whether our actions or thoughts are being secretly judged, and we save time and energy to spend on things that make us happy, instead of trying to save our souls.
Fascinating. Their ‘beliefs’ make a lot of sense.
When I was young, I remember hearing a story about a Christian missionary who converted a whole tribe of cannibals to Christianity. I just wondered how the ex-cannibals reacted when they had their first communion.
For most cannibals eating human flesh was not about food but was suppose to allow you to absorb the spirit of the one eaten and thus get the wisdom of the tribe elder or the power of a brave warrior. If you’re already used to think that way then eating Jesus in order to get his spirit into you make sort of sense.
I think that was his point. “Wait a minute, didn’t they just tell us to stop doing this?”
Perhaps it’s an even less politically correct version of “once you go black, you never go back!”. That is, once you absorb the spirit of the God-man by eating his “flesh” and “blood”, why would you ever want or need to eat piddly old human souls again?
Mmmm, sacrilicious.
Communion – methadone of the cannibals ;-)
I have always been facinated by tribal cultures. When researching tribes I have often found thier faiths more compelling than Christian faith. It may not make any more sense, but you could at least see how they got to such reasonings, and often they were as pragmatic to that tribe as ancient leviticus meat laws were to triginosis.
The pirahut(?) tribe living in the moment is not uncommon, not believing in things unseen might well be unique. This book just made my reading list. As an aficondo of primitive cultures I am concerned. The area where he shows the Pirahut(?) as coming from may well have been chopped down for wood and farmland. I sincerley hope this unique culture has not been destroyed for 20th century T.P.
@vorjack, who has immense data at his fingertips. If you can find anything about the pirahut(?) currently I would be quite interested. I no doubt will have to use an inter-library loan just to get the book. This unique culture should be protected.
After a bit of digging, the latest tally of the Pirahã I saw was 389 people in 2006. Not a completely destroyed culture, but on the brink of extinction.
Beautiful story, I might have to read that book too. My TBR pile just keeps on growing.
Thanks.
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The missionaries are a solution in search of a problem.
It’s sad that such a revelation resulted in Everett’s family breaking up: I take this to mean that his new-found atheism resulted in a divorce. If that’s the case, it’s sad that “love” for something imaginary can transcend the person who, almost certainly, loved her without condition.
All in all, it’s a very interesting story.
Yes, it is truly unfortunate that Everett finding his way out of blind faith lead to the break up of his family. In fact, I find it despicable that anyone would ever leave a person they agreed to spend the rest of their life with over something as trivial as no longer sharing the exact same beliefs.
Yes… sad indeed! I wonder if his wife believed that her relationship with him – a person she had spent most of her life with and had a child with – was minor compared to the one with her imaginary friend?
Although, are we assuming that his wife left him? Perhaps in his failed attempts to deconvert her, he discovered he couldn’t be with her any longer.
I don’t know if that would ever be the case. I know many atheists who would have no problem being with someone of faith. For a lot of people it isn’t that big a deal. I don’t include myself in this count, because although I have never tried to have a deep interpersonal relationship with a religious person, I don’t think I’d be able to get past the fact that they can believe in such a ridiculous and unfounded thing. If they can believe that, who knows what they could suddenly start to believe and how it could affect our lives!
Beautiful.
Very interesting!
Boy, this resonates on so many levels. It reminded me of some of Mark Twain’s writings about missionaries (primarliy in China). He didn’t like ‘em, mostly because of the things they did that Daniel Everett had the moral sense to avoid.
Wow, that was fascinating. The Piraha are my new favourite indigenous peoples, because they provide an excellent counter example. A good friend of mine who is a non-practicing Catholic has said that one of the main reasons he still believes in god is that every society and culture that has ever existed has come up with some sort of creator or supreme being(s), and there has to be some kind of truth to it. Now I’ve tried to explain why this is not a good argument, but he remains firm in his stance in spite of the fact that he is normally a very rational person. The Piraha are the perfect counter example! Thanks Daniel :)
Fascinating.
I’m in the middle of my own confusion regarding my faith (raised Catholic) and am on somewhat of a quest to figure it out. This was an excellent listen and I added the book to my wishlist.
Great to hear you’re questioning. Anything in particular I (we?) might be able to help with on your quest?
try this, I liked it a lot. Daniel sent it to me and i’m sure it will be of benifit to you.
http://unreasonablefaith.com/2008/07/23/why-are-you-an-atheist-whats-your-story/
“Gah! This tastes like a fucking cracker!”
This was a good, anti-testimonial? Either way, good story.
@Sam; Welcome to this site. When I first got here, I was in the same boat your in. Keep digging, you’ll find what your looking for. There’s tons of stuff to go over and consider. Good luck.
I f’ing really love this story
“…sailing toward the great abyss with a smile…”
wonderful.
What an excellent story. I’ve never heard of a culture like that.
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I’m so glad to see this here! I’ve been doing quite a lot of work on them recently – I’m in my final year of an English language degree and have done a project about it – and it’s just so interesting. As well as the whole religion thing discussed here, they’re incredibly important linguistically – Piraha has no colour terms, no numbers, one of the simplest kin systems ever documented and many other things. Perhaps most importantly, their language has no recursion, something Noam Chomsky and other Universal Grammar proponents say is the cornerstone of human language, so theories behind language, why we use it and how may have to be completely rethought if anyone actually gives in and believes Everett. At the moment however they seem to be content saying he is wrong, even though he, his ex-wife and children are the only Westerners fluent in Piraha. If anyone wants to find out more about the Piraha and Daniel Everett, read his amazing (and very accessible) book Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes or watch a lecture on them here: http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/Daniel_Everett_Endangered_Languages_and_Lost_Knowledge. I can’t recommend his writing/lectures enough, he has an incredibly accessible style and discusses complex linguistic concepts with ease. His linguistic findings are also peppered with personal anecdotes from his lengthy time in the jungle, which is just lovely.
(Sorry for the massive post, I’ve got a bit obsessed with Daniel Everett lately and am so pleased to read about him on a blog I read every day!)
Im an anthropology buff, and this tribe really intrests me, even more after your post. I had never heard of any tribe without a creation story, or some sort of “faith”, albiet many of thier make more ratioanl sense than our modern ones. At least they serve a purpose (watch out for jaguars, they can eat you).
No color terms (no red, blue, green)
No numbers (not even finger counting)
Thats quite amazing. Why the hell am I only hearing about this now? They dont seem as remote as the Pintanjao, and it seems we know more about them.
Why isn’t there a large campagin to preserve thier native lands, since they are so unique amongst tribal cultures?
An interesting sidepoint, an average tribal person knows more about his surrounding Botany and biology than some PhD’s do. Yet it is with the eye of function and usefulness that all their knowledge comes from. If something has no use, they teach the next generation that it has no purpose, so they don’t bother learning much about it.
You mention biology and botany – in the lecture I linked to, Everett says he’s eaten at least three animals which according to the West are extinct. They’re not, and the Piraha know all about them, their habits, where they live and what they taste like! If they die out, we don’t just lose their language, it’s a whole way of life and lots of important information. Everett also discusses another tribe (can’t remember the name) who make incredibly powerful poisons, and the same thing applies to them as well as tribal knowledge about medicinal plants and stuff.
There is a campaign on that website where you can donate money to protect endangered languages – whether that involves teaching the language, buying the land they live on to prevent building on it, providing them with medical supplies so they don’t die of diseases brought in by outsiders etc. I think it’s called the Rosetta Project.
As an anthropology buff, do you have access to the journal Current Anthropology? That’s where Everett published his original paper on Piraha, it’s very succint and has criticisms on it too. He also has a currently unpublished paper available to download on his own website.
What a great story. Thanks for sharing.
INCORRECT information:
the piraha are actually a very spiritual tribe–believing in both evil and good spirits, with drawings of spirits being one of the few artforms they even create. the fact that they don’t have a creation myth and pragmatically live in the present does not mean they’re atheistic.
david everette was not converted by this tribe. he slowly lost his faith while teaching for nine years at the university of pittsburg before deciding to work with the piraha again.