A linguist in the Amazon jungle lost his faith in God

Abstract

This article presents the difficulties encountered by an evangelist, later converted into an anthropologist, when conducting an academic study of the Pirahá ethnic group living in the Amazon rainforest. Following twenty years of cohabitation with the Pirahá, this evangelist/anthropologist was able to confirm what previous missionaries had reported: the Pirahá were entertained by the biblical account and they were even interested in it but only as a mere story. The author examines the linguistic difficulties that prevent the Pirahá, subjected to an almost unique language contrasting Chomsky's universal grammar, from assigning any spiritual or salvific category to the Word of God. The author also describes the evangelist/anthropologist’s return, a few years later, to the jungle and the way he is reunited with the Pirahá but this time without his faith and god.