MIND MOVES:The Pirahas were such a happy people that the man who wanted to convert them was instead converted, writes Terry Lynch
NUGGETS OF wisdom regarding mental wellbeing sometimes surface from apparently unlikely sources.
Don't sleep, there are snakesis Daniel Everett's account of his 30-year relationship with the Piraha tribe in Brazil's Amazonian jungle.
A linguist and a missionary, Everett wanted both to study their unique language and to convert them to Christianity. Containing considerable detail regarding the complexity and minutiae of language and the author's struggle to learn the Piraha language, the book also includes many interesting observations on mental wellbeing which grabbed my attention.
Everett was repeatedly struck by the Piraha's pervasive happiness and contentment. They were the happiest people he had ever encountered, a view echoed by visiting psychologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Brain and Cognitive Science Department.
The Pirahas have no psychologists, mind or brain doctors, no counsellors or mood-altering medication. Yet they experience no worry, suicide, extreme anxiety, panic attacks, depression or other mental health problems.
Their teenagers are very happy, always accepting responsibility for themselves and their actions. Devoid of angst, depression and insecurity, teenagers are highly productive and conforming community members.
This apparently primitive tribe have achieved levels of happiness and contentment which elude supposedly sophisticated societies. How can this be? How have they managed this? Can we learn from them?
Their psychological wellbeing is not due to a lack of pressure in their lives. They live alongside many dangerous reptiles, mammals, bugs and other creatures as well as numerous life-threatening illnesses. They frequently experience threats of violence from outsiders who invade their land.
Everett notes that when he is with the Pirahas, "with a much easier life than the Pirahas themselves have, I still find that there is plenty for me to get worked up about. The thing is, I do get worked up, but they do not."
Pirahas live by the immediacy of experience principle. Anything that is not experienced directly by them or by someone they have met is largely irrelevant to them. Hence, they have no creation myths, no stories or mythology from their past, where they come from or how the world was created, as these have no relevance to the here and now. Everett's attempts to convert them to Christianity therefore failed totally.
Truth to the Pirahas is also linked to the immediacy of experience; "catching a fish, rowing a canoe, laughing with your children, loving your brother, dying of malaria".
By making the immediate their focus of attention, at a single stroke they eliminate huge sources of worry, fear and despair that plague so many people in Western societies. They talk about experiences they live daily, not ones outside their realm of experience.
The Pirahas laugh about everything, including themselves and their own misfortunes. They are very confident about everything they do. They like to show affection. They accept the way things are, by and large.
Seeing death as a natural part of life, they do not fear it. Their faith is in themselves, their community and their environment.
They live one day at a time. Their test of knowledge is not whether it is true, but whether it is useful and practical in their everyday lives. They are intuitively mindful of, aware of and attuned to themselves, their surroundings, their environment.
One gets the impression of a people living totally in harmony with and at one with themselves and their environment.
There is an ethos of autonomy and independence, each person including children taking responsibility for and care of themselves. They experience a deep sense of belonging within their culture and community. They value both the nuclear family and their wider community.
They share a common experience of brotherhood. Each Piraha is important to every other Piraha. Everyone has responsibility for the community, and everyone is cared for by the community. All community members are respected, including children, the elderly and the disabled.
They have built their culture around what is useful for their survival. They do not worry about what they do not know, nor do they think they can or do know it all.
Pirahas do not have a concept of either "poor" or "rich". They are satisfied with their material lives. Owning little, they share rather than accumulate.
Fully satisfied within their own ways of living, they rarely adopt the ways of their visitors. But the Pirahas are not an insular people. Happy to meet and engage with strangers, they listen enthusiastically to the stories visitors recount, frequently interpreting these accounts as utterly hilarious. They have a real knack for seeing the funny side of life.
Everett ultimately lost his own faith. He comments: "Let us ask ourselves if it is more sophisticated to look at the universe with worry, concern and a belief that we can understand it all, or to enjoy life as it comes. Perhaps it is the presence of these concerns which makes a society primitive, and their absence which renders a culture more sophisticated. If this is true, then the Pirahas are a very sophisticated people."
Perhaps our levels of happiness and wellbeing might also be enhanced by a greater employment of some of the practices outlined above.
• Terry Lynch is a psychotherapist and GP in Limerick