Language: The Cultural Tool Book

This is a groundbreaking and controversial new theory about how we talk. Like other tools language was invented can be reinvented or lost and shows significant variation across cultures. It's as essential to survival as fire - and like fire is found in all human societies. "Cognitive Fire" presents the bold and controversial idea that language is not an innate component of the brain as has been famously argued by Chomsky and Pinker. Rather it's a cultural tool which varies much more across different societies than the innateness view suggests. Fusing adventure anthropology linguistics and psychology and drawing on Everett's pioneering research with the Amazonian Pirahas "Cognitive Fire" argues that language is embedded within - and is inseparable from - its specific culture. This book is like a fire that will generate much light. And much heat.Read More