| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (55 min.) ; 315254479 bytes |
| Summary |
The Grammar Of Happiness follows the story of Daniel Everett amongst the extraordinary 'unconvertible' Amazonian Piraha tribe, a group of indigenous hunter-gatherers whose culture and outlook on life has taken the world of linguistics by storm.As a young ambitious missionary three decades ago, Dan, a red-bearded towering American, decamped to the Amazon rain forest to save indigenous souls. His assignment was to translate the book of Mark into the tongue of the Piraha, a people whose puzzling speech seemed unrelated to any other on Earth. What he learned during his time with the Piraha led him to question the very foundations of his own deep beliefs.As a 'born again' atheist, Dan divorced his devout Christian wife and became estranged from his children. Having lost faith and family, his new life is dominated by the desire to leave behind his legacy. Everett's most controversial claim is that the Piraha language lacks 'recursion' - the ability to build an infinite number of sentences within sentences, regarded by Chomsky-ists as perhaps the most fundamental characteristic of human language.The Grammar Of Happiness interweaves the tale of Everett's attempt to return to the Piraha with the story of his personal journey since the sixties - from drug-taking musician to evangelical missionary to rabblerousing academic. It's the adventurous tale of losing faith but finding happiness.PRODUCTION DETAILS:An Essential Media & Entertainment production with ABC Television and Arte France. Directed by Michael O'Neil |
| Event |
Broadcast 2013-01-21 at 21:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Hunting and gathering societies.
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Indigenous peoples -- Social life and customs.
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Indigenous peoples in popular culture.
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Piraha Indians.
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Language and languages -- Grammar.
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Discovery & exploration.
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Amazon River Region.
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Brazil -- Porto Velho (Rondonia)
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
O'Neil, Michael, director
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Cropper, Linda, cast
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