Who are the Pirahã and why are they considered one of the happiest peoples in the world

In the middle of the Amazon rainforest live the Pirahã people, who stand out from modern societies due to countless factors. Pirahãs do not have the concept of past and future; believe that sleeping for a long time is harmful; they don’t understand what stress is. Returned missionary Daniel Everett lived with this tribe for a long time, learned the local language and customs, and came to the realization that they may be one of the happiest people in the world.

The team of awesome.club, with the permission of photographer and traveler Alexander Fedorov, decided to publish rare images of what life is like for this indigenous people. We will also share some of the most shocking facts about this tribe, who see the world in a very unique and special way. Check out!

The essence of life of these indigenous people is explained in a very simple way: “Live in the here and now”🇧🇷 In the Pirahã language there is no past or future. According to the people themselves, the most important thing is to live and worry only about the present.

The Pirahã believe that sleeping is harmful, and are scared to think that someone could sleep for 8 hours. They think that if someone sleeps for that long, they might wake up as a totally different person. There is an opinion that this thought is due to the fact that the place where they live is teeming with snakes. Therefore, they sleep in fractions of 30 minutes for no more than two hours in one night.

They distinguish between light and dark colors only. They can confuse red with yellow, as well as green with blue. Also, they don’t have words for colors. They describe them based on the colors of the environment in which they live, such as, for example, “this object has the color of the sky” or “this has the color of plants”.

The local population is only 800 inhabitants.

Many representatives of indigenous tribes hold a certain level of honor and respect for their own culture. But the Pirahã are different. At first, do not conceive the feelings of anger or disappointment🇧🇷 “If Háiohá dropped the fish into the water, that is bad. If there is no fish, there is no food. But why blame the Háiohá?” they would think.

The notions of “century”, “time” and “history” also do not hold any meaning. Most of them have no memories of grandmothers or grandfathers. When asked what life was like for their ancestors, calmly answer: “Same thing”.

Mothers don’t tell their children bedtime stories. In addition, they do not remember any tales: the collective memory is developed from the experience of the oldest representative of the tribe at that time.

The Pirahã also do not recognize the feelings of guilt and shame. A man can leave his woman one day, and she won’t get mad, she’ll just say something like: “It happened because it happened and that’s it. Now I need to find a new man.”

In the language of the Pirahã there are no words to denote left or right, and they do not understand why this would be necessary for other people.

Language numbering is limited. They can differentiate quantities just by using words like “a little”, “a little more” and “a lot”. Since there are no numbers, they cannot count in the way we are used to. Therefore, for example, mothers cannot say exactly how many children they have, but they know the names of each of them.

The Pirahã are not interested in the achievements of modern civilization. Furthermore, they do not understand the way of life in big cities. “How can they eat and sleep so much?” that’s what they would say about it. However, they started using clothes, aluminum crockery, lines, matches and some fishing equipment.

This culture has no religion and does not believe in any God. Although this is common in many indigenous tribes, the Pirahã are not guided by such ideals.

Every year, locals choose a new name for themselves, which must correspond to the life period they are going through.

Because they have a peculiar perception of time, these people do not see the need to store food. Furthermore, the Pirahã do not see food as something very significant. If they don’t find food, they can leave it to eat the next day.

All Pirahã are considered equal, as there is no social hierarchy.🇧🇷 Perhaps this is one of the reasons researchers have noticed the incredible vitality of these people. In the tribe, there is no envy, hatred, theft, conspiracies or intrigues.

They don’t say “thank you”, “sorry” or “please”. In other words, they have no way of expressing courtesy. The Pirahã do not consider this a necessity, as they are all very warm and friendly with one another.

Daniel Everett, now a linguist, visited the Pirahã tribe with the initial aim of converting them to his religion. He lived for a long time with his family among the indigenous people and learned many life lessons from these people, who “are always smiling” and do not believe in human sins. After a while, Everett became an atheist and changed his worldview. These Indians don’t understand how you can believe in someone that no one has ever seen and let that person influence your life so much.

Another interesting feature is that they do not suffer from psychological disorders or depression🇧🇷 According to Everett, the Pirahã maintain a surprising level of satisfaction with life, also considering that they do not use illegal substances or antidepressants.

For the reasons mentioned above, and many others, this tribe is considered one of the happiest people in the world🇧🇷 According to some scholars, while some people waste time thinking about the past or worrying about the future, the Pirahã live in the present, always keeping a smile on their face.

Do you think that indigenous tribes are, according to modern notions, “backwards in time” or do you think that their life principles have something to teach us? Comment!