Dan Everett brings us back in time to Homo erectus to share how language began and why it is the ultimate evolutionary tool to share knowledge.

Dan Everett was born in Southern California. He completed an undergraduate degree in biblical studies from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and his master’s and ScD in linguistics at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil.

Since 1977, he has regularly conducted research on the Pirahã language of Brazil. He has also conducted research on Tzeltal (Mexico), Selish (USA), Arawan (Brazil), Satere (Brazil), Wari’ (Brazil) among many others. He has published 14 books and more than 110 articles, and he has lectured around the world on his research.

He converted to Christianity at 17 years of age and was a committed evangelical Christian until abandoning his faith due to lessons he learned from the Pirahãs (as discussed in book "Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes"). His most recent books are "Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious" (University of Chicago Press) and "How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention" (W.W. Norton/Liveright).

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx