Re: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture

Hi,
I have run across some of these studies before the very comprehensive
New Yorker article. I included some reference to them in our soon to be
finished book on the emotional aspects of math, because of the lack of
number words in the Pihara language. I find the strong reliance on
singing as a mode of communication particularly interesting
These findings certainly support Tomasello's cultural theory of language
acquisition.
Vera
Peter Smagorinsky wrote:

>Echoes of Scribner and Cole?
>
>The Piraha challenge: an Amazonian tribe takes grammar to a strange place
>Science News, Dec 10, 2005 by Bruce Bower
>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_24_168/ai_n16029317
>
>When Daniel L. Everett and his wife Keren Everett started spending 6 to 8
>months each year with the Piraha people of Brazil's Amazon rain forest in
>1977, they hoped to decipher a language that had long stumped missionaries
>in the region. By 1980, the two outsiders spoke the native tongue well
>enough to field an intriguing proposal from villagers: to teach them to
>count and to read. The villagers hoped that counting would prevent them from
>getting cheated when trading Brazil nuts and other goods for products such
>as tobacco and whiskey ferried through the area by Portuguese riverboat
>owners.
>
>So for the next few months, Daniel Everett--alinguist affiliated with the
>University of Manchester in England and the Max Planck Institute for
>Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany--and Keren Everett, a
>missionary with linguistic training, ran evening classes in math and
>literacy for the forest dwellers. However, although the Piraha know volumes
>about hunting and jungle survival, the group flunked both courses. None of
>the roughly 30 people who regularly attended classes learned to count to 10.
>None learned to add 3+1, or even 1+1.
>
>Reading lessons ended abruptly when, after weeks of painstaking work, the
>students managed to read a Piraha word aloud and in unison. Everyone
>laughed. Daniel Everett asked what was so funny, and his students responded
>that what they had just said sounded like their word for sky. That's
>correct, Everett replied. The Piraha immediately became agitated and asked
>to stop the lessons.
>
>"Their motivation for attending literacy classes turned out to be, according
>to them, that it was fun to be together and I made popcorn," Everett says.
>
>Piraha problems with reading, writing, and arithmetic stemmed not from
>slow-wittedness but from a cultural conviction about how to converse,
>Everett proposes. From the villagers' perspective, talking should concern
>only knowledge based on one's personal, immediate experience. No Piraha
>refers to abstract concepts or to distant places and times.
>
>As a result, Piraha grammar bucks all sorts of linguistic conventions,
>according to Everett. The language lacks words for quantities, contains no
>standard words for colors, shows no sign of expanding or combining sentences
>through the use of clauses, rarely uses pronouns, employs just two tenses,
>and features only a few kinship terms, which refer mainly to living
>relatives.
>
>Moreover, the Piraha tell no creation myths and don't make up stories or
>draw pictures. They believe in spirits that they directly encounter at
>times, "but there's no great god who created all the spirits, in the Piraha
>view" Everett says.
>
>Cultural mandates to express only one's immediate experience and to shun
>outsiders' knowledge have kept the Piraha population, which now amounts to
>around 200 people, from learning other languages despite more than 200 years
>of regular contact with Brazilians and various Amazonian groups, he adds.
>
>Yet despite the simplicity of its grammar, the Piraha language matches other
>languages in complexity, Everett says. The villagers communicate almost as
>much by singing, whistling, and humming as they do with spoken words, he
>reports. Moreover, they convey a rich spectrum of emotions as they speak by
>systematically varying syllable intonations.
>
>Everett lays out his argument for culture as a prime force in shaping the
>unusual Piraha language in the August-October CurrentAnthropology. The eight
>scientific responses published with his article range from supportive to
>incredulous.
>
>Everett expected criticism. His findings challenge the influential theory
>that all spoken languages draw on common grammatical rules. Proponents of
>that premise believe that the human brain comes equipped with grammar
>networks, as a biological consequence of Stone Age evolution.
>
>Instead, Everett champions an approach that held sway in the first half of
>the 20th century. Influential anthropologists and linguists of that era
>argued that cultural values mold how people talk, just as a language's
>expressive power shapes a culture's traits. If that's the case, basic
>elements of grammar can differ from one culture to the next, and cultural
>and social forces continually alter the fundamental rules of language.
>
>"It took me 27 years to work up the courage to say these things about Piraha
>grammar," says Everett. Now, he's standing his ground.
>
>COUNTED OUT In a particularly surprising twist, the Piraha language--unlike
>any other recorded tongue--employs no numbers or other quantity terms,
>Everett contends. It lacks words that would translate as all, many, most,
>few, each, and every.
>
>Words for whole and part are used only to describe specific experiences,
>such as a person's plans to trade a whole snakeskin. If a piece of the skin
>is removed before the transaction, villagers still i say that "the whole
>thing" was traded because they're referring to the entire skin that was
>available at the time of the exchange.
>
>
>
>Peter Smagorinsky
>The University of Georgia
>Department of Language and Literacy Education
>125 Aderhold Hall
>Athens, GA 30602-7123
>smago@uga.edu /fax:706-542-4509/phone:706-542-4507/
>http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
>Behalf Of Anton Yasnitsky
>Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:00 AM
>To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>Subject: RE: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture
>
>... Also, Wikipedia article "Pirahã people"
>provides a bunch of quite relevant articles, fyi:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_people#References
>
>
>--- "Hallam,Teresa A" <thallam@uakron.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>>You may be interested in a blog posting on Dan Everett and the Piraha
>>in the New Yorker. It contains links to the slide show, his most
>>important paper, responses and discussion of his paper, and a segment
>>from an NPR Weekend Edition. The link to the blog posting is:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004387.html
>
>
>>Teresa Hallam
>>thallam@uakron.edu
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
>>[mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf
>>Of Mike Cole
>>Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 10:26 PM
>>To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: Language and Culture
>>
>>I am trying to get the whole article available,
>>David. So far, not successfully. There are also
>>important articles in academic journals. I have
>>written about Gordon's work on number, but what
>>this article makes clear is that he was a tiny
>>part of a much larger, much more important
>>picture.
>>If anyone can get the electronic version to
>>distribute, please do!!
>>mike
>>
>>On 4/16/07, David Preiss <davidpreiss@uc.cl>
>>wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi Peter et al,
>>>How great you and Mike fwed this. I read the
>>>
>>>
>>article and it is amazing.
>>
>>
>>>There
>>>are three parts I loved the most: first, the
>>>
>>>
>>depiction of the
>>
>>
>>>intellectual and personal biography of
>>>
>>>
>>Everett. What an unusual and
>>
>>
>>>carismatic chracter. He is an outsider enough
>>>
>>>
>>to challenge the givens
>>
>>
>>>of American cog sci an has the training
>>>
>>>
>>needed to do so. Everett
>>
>>
>>>stroke me as a new romantic in an unromantic
>>>
>>>
>>science. And, second, I
>>
>>
>>>loved the way the journalist depicted the
>>>
>>>
>>researcher that came "down
>>
>>
>>>there" to test Chomsky´s hypotheses and how
>>>
>>>
>>evident was the whole
>>
>>
>>>experimental procedure was so alien to the
>>>
>>>
>>culture that was of no use
>>
>>
>>>there. Last but not least, I loved the
>>>
>>>
>>comeback of Sapir and how
>>
>>
>>>fitting was Everett depictions of the Piraha
>>>
>>>
>>to the thinking of
>>
>>
>>>contemporary cultural psychologists such as
>>>
>>>
>>Tomasello and Mike
>>
>>
>>>himself. There are many issues there that can
>>>
>>>
>>be nicely framed in a
>>
>>
>>>CHAT perspective- Thanks to the New Yorker
>>>
>>>
>>for being there for al of
>>
>>
>>>us!
>>>David
>>>
>>>Peter Smagorinsky escribió:
>>>
>>>
>>>>a colleague reports:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Dear Colleagues,
>>>>
>>>>I recommend to you a recent article in The
>>>>
>>>>
>>New Yorker about peoples
>>
>>
>>>living
>>>
>>>
>>>>in the Amazon whose language seems to defy
>>>>
>>>>
>>Chomsky's ideas that all
>>
>>
>>>>languages follow certain structural
>>>>
>>>>
>>features (universal grammar). A
>>
>>
>>>>linguist Dan Everett who has lived with the
>>>>
>>>>
>>Piraha off and on for
>>
>>
>>>>many
>>>>
>>>>
>>>years
>>>
>>>
>>>>writes that their language which is
>>>>
>>>>
>>described as sounding like "a
>>
>>
>>>profusion
>>>
>>>
>>>>of exotic birds, a melodic chattering
>>>>
>>>>
>>scarcely discernible, to the
>>
>>
>>>>uninitiated, as human speech" does not
>>>>
>>>>
>>follow Chomsky's universal
>>
>>
>>>grammar.
>>>
>>>
>>>>The article is very engaging and might be
>>>>
>>>>
>>useful in stimulating
>>
>>
>>>>student discussion of the relationship
>>>>
>>>>
>>between language and culture.
>>
>>
>>>>Look for "The Interpreter" by John
>>>>
>>>>
>>Colapinto in the April 16th New
>>
>>
>>>Yorker
>>>
>>>
>>>>magazine.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>Professor Michelle Commeyras
>>>>Department of Language and Literacy
>>>>
>>>>
>>Education University of Georgia
>>
>>
>>>>706-542-2718
>>>>pulane@uga.edu (currently being forwarded
>>>>
>>>>
>>to pulane@gmail.com)
>>
>>
>>>>http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/clinic/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>>>xmca mailing list
>>>>xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>--
>>>David D. Preiss Ph.D.
>>>Profesor Auxiliar / Assistant Professor
>>>
>>>
>>Pontificia Universidad
>>
>>
>>>Católica de Chile Escuela de Psicología.
>>>Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860.
>>>Macul, Santiago de Chile.
>>>Chile
>>>
>>>Teléfono: (56-2) 354-4605
>>>Fax: (56-2) 354-4844.
>>>Web: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>>xmca mailing list
>>>xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>
>>>
>>>
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Received on Wed Apr 18 11:21 PDT 2007