Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã

Abstract

The Piraha˜ language challenges simplistic application of Hock- ett’s nearly universally accepted design features of human lan- guage by showing that some of these features (interchangeability, displacement, and productivity) may be culturally constrained. In particular, Piraha˜ culture constrains communication to nonab- stract subjects which fall within the immediate experience of in- terlocutors. This constraint explains a number of very surprising features of Piraha˜ grammar and culture: the absence of numbers of any kind or a concept of counting and of any terms for quanti- fication, the absence of color terms, the absence of embedding, the simplest pronoun inventory known, the absence of “relative tenses,” the simplest kinship system yet documented, the ab- sence of creation myths and fiction, the absence of any individ- ual or collective memory of more than two generations past, the absence of drawing or other art and one of the simplest material cultures documented, and the fact that the Piraha˜ are monolin- gual after more than 200 years of regular contact with Brazilians and the Tupi-Guarani-speaking Kawahiv.