The Amondawa tribe in the Amazon rainforest lives without a conventional calendar and does not use time units such as weeks, months or years.
According to a study by the University of Portsmouth, reported by the Times of India, members of the community describe time through natural events, environmental changes and stages of human life rather than numbers and dates.
The Amondawa easily distinguish between day and night, as well as between the rainy season and dry periods, which serve as their primary reference points. However, the abstract concept of a week or a year as an independent unit of measurement does not exist in their language.
Data published by Australian Geographic indicates that the language also lacks the common practice of mapping spatial concepts onto time. Speakers do not refer to the past as something behind them or the future as something ahead.
Life stages and identity
Age in the tribe is not measured by the number of years a person has lived. Instead, individuals progress through distinct life stages, during which their names may change. When a younger child is born into a family, an older sibling may pass on their previous name to the newborn and take a new name for themselves.
Researchers emphasized that this structure does not mean the Amondawa lack an understanding of time or event sequence. They fully comprehend the order in which events occur, but the practice of measuring time numerically never developed in their culture.
The findings challenge the assumption that all human societies perceive time in the same manner. Scientists noted that counting years and months is not a universal human trait, but rather the result of specific cultural and technological developments, including calendars and numerical systems.
The Amondawa are an indigenous people inhabiting the Amazon basin in South America. While most modern cultures rely on clocks and written calendars to organize daily activity, traditional Amazonian communities often rely on seasonal patterns and environmental indicators.
Lost Maya stronghold
In a separate archaeological finding reported alongside the study, researchers in the Mexican jungle discovered evidence of the lost Maya city of Sak Balam, the final stronghold of the civilization following the Spanish conquest.
The city was established in 1586 by the Lakandon Chol tribe and survived for more than a century before falling to colonial forces in 1695. Archaeologists identified a 16-metre wall matching Spanish historical descriptions of public structures in Sak Balam as key evidence of the site.
