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続きです。







The Pidahan live hunter-gatherer lives, and have their own specific language. Presently, only 400~500 people use the language. It has been faced with an extinct crisis. The writer, Daniel L. Everett, headed for the place to study this unique language. But his true purpose was to propagate Christianity towards them.

He originally belonged to SIL International and was charged with a mission to translate the Bible into the Pidahan language. He has been studying it for over 30 years since he was dispatched there in 1977. He is a linguist professor and this book is about linguistics. The theory of linguistics is above my head but I have a lot of interests in his understanding of the Pidahan culture though his linguistic study. He mastered their language and achieved the translation of the Bible in the Pidahan language, but in fact, he abandoned Christianity. He was actually converted to an atheism because of influences from the Pidahan culture. He was a missionary to enlighten the Pidahan but conversely he was enlightened.



People, who speak minority languages, usually exchange their language into official languages because of economical reasons. For the Pidahan, economical problems are not important. Their lives are complete. Even if their life span is 45 years which is almost half of a life span of people who live in developed countries, they do not complain about this. They are not afraid of death, and they do not have a story of the creation of heaven and earth--- and they do not have a Heaven and a Hell. Therefore, they don’t need to ask for their salvation. They just leave from this world without discontent.



Hunter-gatherer lives are not always more severe than agricultural ones. Even now, food producers who live more comfortable lives than hunter-gatherers exist only in developed nations. The Pidahan have abundant fruits from the Amazon River. According to the writer, a family has to work about 42 hours a week to hunt and gather. But, they allot a portion of the work to each family member, so each member works 15~20 hours a week. Furthermore, they do not think of it as toil. Hunting and gathering are a kind of pleasure for them.



In my view, for people who think cultural transformation or development is essential, they have to have strong wills to deal with difficulty with the development, such as confliction or entanglements. But for people who have sufficiency and stability on their present lives, there is no need to suffer the agony in development. Capitalism continually incites people’s desire, and then it is maintained by continually satisfying people’s demands.　If desires are a driving force for human development, it seems like an endless journey. The resulting question is which is acceptable, agony with development or stagnation with stability?