“The baby will die. There is no mother to nurse her,” we were told. “Keren and I will take care of the baby,” I volunteered. “OK,” the Pirahãs responded, “but the baby will die.” The Pirahãs know death and dying when they see it. I understand this now. But I was committed to helping that baby. Our first problem was to feed the child. We made some diapers for the baby out of old sheets and towels. We tried to give it a bottle (we always kept baby bottles in the village for possible infant sicknesses),
