Status of the Current Scientific Knowledge on Pirahã

Abstract

This paper is focused on the status of the current scientific knowledge on Pirahã, an isolated Brazilian ethnic group. The aim of this article is to raise suggestions for future research that may help to extend the knowledge on Pirahã, as well as to point out ethical issues involved. For this reason, a systematic literature review of journal articles published between 2018 and 2023 and indexed in Web of Science was performed. This way, 26 relevant articles were found. Furthermore, the content analysis of 17 scientific papers selected according to the exclusion criteria was done in Atlas.ti. Created categories (4 in total), linked to quotations of articles interpreted in this article, comprise generally the Pirahã language and society. Particularly, they are related to the numeral cognition and recursion. These categories refer to the most discussed topics in the current scientific articles on Pirahã and represent research topics for future studies.