Is it possible in our time to be happy without the benefits of civilization, without modern gadgets, living practically in the open air? It turns out you can. This is how the tribes of the Indians living in Asia, Australia, South America and Africa live.
Children of nature
The life of each of them is interesting in its own way. In Brazil there is a pyraha - a tribe whose number is only about seven hundred people. Modern civilization has not touched them. Therefore, people of the Pirah tribe are blissfully confident that nothing can be better than their lives. Perhaps they are right.
In order to relate well to members of your community, it is not necessary to have any vast skills or knowledge. Piraha (the tribe that interests us in the framework of this material) live very simply, they also communicate with each other. In conversation they use only simple phrases, without the use of indirect speech and never talk about what they themselves did not see.
What are they
Interestingly, with its small size, this people does not consider itself a kindred community. The relationship for them ends on the concepts of “father” and “mother, ” that is, those who have given birth to a child, there is also a brother and sister. With the rest they just live nearby. They attach great importance to their names. For them, there is no concept of aging, since they are not familiar with anatomy and believe that they simply move from one body to another. Therefore, every 6-8 years, members of the tribe change their name. The word denoting it contains an indication of age, so that even without seeing a person, we can say who we are talking about, a child or an old man.
Sleepless
Piraha (tribe) have an interesting feature. Members of the tribe do not like to sleep, which makes them very different from modern society, in which it is believed that sleep is good, and the more time you take for it, the better you look. In our world, sleep is attributed to anti-aging and even fat-burning properties. And the Indians of this tribe, on the contrary, think that it has a bad effect on appearance and old age are attributed to him. They believe that the less you sleep, the longer you live. Therefore, they doze, not even going to bed. They sleep there, where they are tired, when they wake up, they immediately begin normal business.
What do
They have a little concern. The structure of the tribe includes only hunters, gatherers. In this way they earn their livelihood. The Indians do not care about stockpiling. It’s harmful to eat a lot, that’s why they reassure themselves if on some day they couldn’t catch any animal for lunch. Although in the Amazon where they live, there is always a lot of living creature and vegetation. They also do not need clothes, because in their habitats it is warm. In their free time, people of this tribe play, make utensils, and babysit children. They keep dogs as pets, which they also enjoy interacting with.
Don't need much
Interestingly, the pyraha is a tribe whose members do not know how to count. For them, there are only two concepts: "one" and "many." Probably because they have everything in common: household items and booty. Also, the Indians of this tribe do not name the colors of the world that surrounds them. Their language allows only two definitions to be given: “light” and “dark”. Although the researchers found that they distinguish colors and shades. But they do not draw paints for drawing and are not carried away by this occupation, like other Indian tribes.
Speech Features
Linguists of the world are still surprised at the unusual language of the Pirah tribe. He is rightfully considered unique. In order to study it, the former missionary Everett had to live with his wife for several years. And although he learned to speak this language, he could not understand how it came about, because it is not like any other language in the world.
It lacks many of the concepts that modern people are used to. It does not contain superfluous words, meaningless, invented to denote what is not in the tribe itself. For example, these Indians are not accepted to say hello or say goodbye, therefore there are no such words as “hello”, “goodbye”. There is no account, therefore there are no numbers, as well as designations of colors. And the alphabet consists of only 7 consonants and three vowels. Despite this, the pirates understand each other perfectly. Even the primitiveness of the language does not prevent them from enjoying communication.
