Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahas, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language & his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers` startlingly original perceptions of the world. He describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Piraha language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds & in our lives, & that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky`s universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Adventure, personal enlightenment & the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny & moving book.