Missionaries using secret audio devices to evangelise Brazil's isolated peoples | Hacker News Reader

Missionaries using secret audio devices to evangelise Brazil's isolated peoples

theguardian.com

15 pointsaxiologist8 comments

I've recently read up on the Pirahã tribe and their unique language: apparently it doesn't have recursion. They also don't have words for colours or numbers.

A missionary called Daniel Everett tried to convert them to Christianity but ended up becoming an atheist and linguist.

Conversion certainly didn't go as expected in this case.

This is a nice documentary about them: https://youtu.be/9tKbVBePxyU

Evangelical hubris in action, using tech to commit spiritual poisoning of defenseless people.

It is just a cult trying to spread, like every other past, current and future cult.

Cause converting the heathen has, historically, gone so well.

Also kind of funny how you’d need to know both English and the cultural iconography of late 20th century America to have any hope of accidentally using that device for its intended purpose… including the version that’s ostensibly in Portuguese and Spanish.

I don't think you need to know the iconography. Leave a 3yo with a device that can play sounds for a few minutes and you'll learn about all the functionality you never expected on top of the standard one. I'd expect the same to happen here. A simple interface which doesn't allow destroying the contents should be good enough.

If it plays enjoyable sounds it invites discovery… being harangued by a postmodern zealot actively misinterpreting Saul of Tarsus hardly counts.

If someone knows neither Spanish nor Portuguese and attempts to use this they might get as far as discovering the flashlight functionality… they won’t want (or need) to proceed further.

Though my real critique isn’t the UX, it’s the hypocrisy inherent in thinking that handing an uncontacted tribe your “good-news-in-a-box” is, in any fashion, spreading the actual message of the Nazarene.

cultural genocide of the native population, who should be left alone from the apocalyptic fantasies of the evangelicals. Hope the Brazilian comes down hard on these churches

They won't unfortunately. The government is too soft on religious extremists, in fact they're in the government itself all the way to the top.

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