Is it possible in our time to be happy without the benefits of civilization, without modern gadgets, living almost under the open sky? It turns out you can. This is how Indian tribes live in Asia, Australia, South America and Africa.
Children of Nature
The life of each of them is interesting in its own way. In Brazil, there is a Pirahã, a tribe of only about seven hundred people. Modern civilization has not touched them. Therefore, the people of the Piraha tribe are in a blissful confidence that nothing can be better than their life. They may be right.
It is not necessary to have any extensive skills or knowledge in order to treat members of your community well. Piraha (the tribe that interests us within 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 have not seen themselves.
Who are they
Interestingly, despite their small number, this nation does not consider itself a kindred community. Kinship for them ends with the concepts of "father" and "mother", that is, those who gave birth to a child also have a brother and sister. The rest of them just live next to each other. bigthey give meaning to their names. For them, the concept of aging does not exist, since they are not familiar with anatomy and believe that they are simply moving 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, you can tell who it is about, a child or an old man.
Sleepless
Piraha (tribe) have an interesting feature. The members of the tribe do not like to sleep, which is very different from modern society, in which it is believed that sleep is good, and the more time you spend on it, the better you look. In our world, sleep is credited with 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 is attributed to it. They believe that the less you sleep, the longer you will live. Therefore, they doze off without even going to bed. They sleep where they are tired, waking up, they immediately begin their usual activities.
What do they do
They have few worries. The composition of the tribe includes only hunters, gatherers. This is how they earn their own food. The Indians don't care about stockpiling. It is harmful to eat a lot, and this is how they calm themselves if on some day they failed to catch any animal for lunch. Although in the Amazon, where they live, there is always a lot of living creatures 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, babysitchildren. They keep dogs as pets, which they also enjoy interacting with.
Don't need much
Interestingly, the Pirahã is a tribe whose members cannot count. For them there are only two concepts: "one" and "many". Probably because they have everything in common: both household items and prey. Also, the Indians of this tribe do not name the colors of the world that surrounds them. Their language allows only two definitions: "light" and "dark". Although the researchers found that they distinguish colors and shades. But they do not make paints for drawing and are not fond of this occupation, like other Indian tribes.
Features of speech
Linguists of the world are still surprised by the unusual language of the Piraha tribe. It is rightfully considered unique. In order to study it, the former missionary Everett had to live with his wife in the tribe for several years. And although he learned to speak the language, he could not understand how it came into being, because it is not like any other language in the world.
It lacks many concepts that modern people are used to. It does not contain superfluous words that mean nothing, invented to denote what is not in the tribe itself. For example, it is not customary for these Indians to say hello or say goodbye, so there are no such words as “hello”, “goodbye”. There is no account, so there are no numbers, as well as color designations. And the alphabet consists of only 7 consonants and three vowels. Despite this, the pirates perfectly understand each other. Even the primitiveness of the language does not prevent themenjoy the conversation.
Forest is a friend
Because the Indians live among the trees on the banks of the river, which give them everything they need in life, their whole existence is connected with it. The feasts cannot explain much of what is happening around them, so they believe that the forest is inhabited by spirits. They talk to them as if they really see them, children play with spirits, and after death the Indians themselves become spirits. The fact that other people do not see spirits, they explain by the fact that they are shown only to the one they came to.
Pirahah avoid encounters with civilization, but she herself comes to them. This tribe was discovered 300 years ago. Until now, people are haunted by their quiet life among nature. But is it necessary to prevent the feasts from living in harmony with nature, offering to exchange such an existence for the opportunity to have modern gadgets?
