The missionary who learned a language but lost his faith
Dan Everett travelled to the Amazon to convert the Piraha people. When he learned their language, and heard what they had to say, his worldview fell apart.
Dan Everett was a young Christian missionary, and his talent for linguistics put him on a mission to convert a small indigenous group called the Piraha, who lived in the Brazilian Amazon. He had to communicate with them first, and after arriving in their remote village, he got to work cracking their famously difficult language. Over the years he began to understand them, but the things they told him caused his worldview to fall apart.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Producer: Harry Graham
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo description: Dan Everett as a middle aged man with a red beard and hair and a cream cowboy hat, perches on the bow of a blue wooden boat on a river in the Brazilian Amazon. Courtesy of Dan Everett)
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