A Review of Daniel Everett, Dark Matter of the Mind

Now up at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/37643210/A_Review_of_Daniel_Everett_Dark_Matter_of_the_Mind.

Abstract: Everett’s core assertion is simple: There is no language without culture. Culture is the dark matter of the mind. Everett defines culture as: “... an abstract network shaping and connecting social roles, hierarchically structured knowledge domains, and ranked values. Culture is dynamic, shifting, reinterpreted moment by moment. Culture is found only in the bodies (the brain is part of the body) and behaviors of its members. Culture permeates the individual, the community, behaviors, and thinking.” The book, which is at heart a work of philosophy, is based on Everett’s work among the Pirahã and contains many examples from his work there, including a crucial argument about recursion and fascinating examples about evidentials. However, I strongly suspect that computation will play a major role in constructing the new accounts of language and culture that Everett’s work calls for. In this I probably differ from Everett, who is skeptical about computation.