This book is a very interesting read if you are interested in how our mindset and knowledge of the world can have an impact on our mental well being. Daniel Everett used to be a Christian missionarie and linguist and got supported by a Christian group to learn to language of the Pirahã with the goal of translating the bible in their language.
Realizing that the task was impossible and hence the words of god weren't accessible to everyone, he completely lost his faith and became an atheist.
What make this book relevant to this website is what we can learn about the nature of happiness from the life of those people. First of all, the Pirahã live according to what Dan call "the immediacy of experience". Whatever they see, they believe. What ever you tell them you saw, they believe (Lies isn't a concept that they grasp very well). On the other end, if you tell them a story that someone else told to you, their is no way they believe you. So those people don't have any creation myths. They know nothing about their past. Everything in their life is about the present. If on a good day they catch more fish than needed, they might eat all of it anyway on the first day. If they have to spent the next few days without eating, so be it. They have little worry about the future.
They don't know how to write, read nor even count. That's it. They don't have any concept of numbers! Because of that, how old they should expect to live is unknown to them. 20 years? 200 years? 2000 years? They have no idea. Hence, their anxiety related to death must be greatly reduced.
Daniel Everett also describe the Pirahã as the most happy people he ever encounter. They keep laughing all the time. Their house (which aren't build to last anyway) can be blown by a storm and they will burst into laughter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Everett#Don.27t_Sleep_There_are_Snakes:_Life_and_Language_in_the_Amazonian_Jungle
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0375425020
