Showing results for "Politics and the English Language" in Adventure Travel

Daniel Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977 - with his wife and three young children - intending to convert them. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding. The Pirahã have no counting system and no fixed terms for color. They have no concept of war or of personal property.

We arrive in San Jose from a small boat across Lake Petén Itzá. There are few roads into the region. This quiet lakeside hill town has a Mayan and Spanish Language School. After a pleasant walk up the hill from the school, we find botanists preserving the traditional Mayan medicinal plants in gardens where signs help visitors with identification.