How the Amondawa People of the Brazilian Amazon Organise Time

For the Amondawa people of the Brazilian Amazon, the passage of time has traditionally not been organised around weeks, months, years or a numerically stated age. Linguistic research indicates that their language uses events, environmental cycles and stages of life as temporal reference points. This does not mean living “without time”, but arranging it differently from the system governed by clocks and calendars.

What does it mean not to use weeks, months or years?

Amondawa has no traditional numerical calendar system that continually divides life into units equivalent to our weeks, months and years. Research published in the journal Language and Cognition also found that the language does not conventionally employ spatial metaphors for time in the way English does when saying that a date “is approaching” or an event “is behind us”.

• There is no traditional calendar founded on counting weeks, months and years.
• Activities may be placed in relation to specific events.
• Daylight, night-time and environmental changes provide recognisable reference points.
• The order in which events occur remains fully understood.
• Time does not need to be treated as an independent quantity in order to organise everyday life.

How do events and natural changes replace the calendar?

Researchers describe this as an event-based system of time. Rather than necessarily placing an activity on a particular date, it may be connected to sunrise or sunset, darkness, social activities carried out at certain times, or changes observed in the environment. Later studies involving Indigenous peoples of the Amazon confirmed the importance of environmental, celestial and social indicators in structuring such intervals.

The seasons likewise provide tangible points of reference. The Amondawa recognise periods linked with the dry season and the rainy season, yet these two cycles are not combined into a broader unit equivalent to our “year”. The system begins with an observable occurrence - rain, drought, light or human activity - instead of automatically converting its duration into a number on a calendar.

Why do stages of life also appear in people’s names?

The connection between stages of life and identity is among the most striking features described by researchers. Traditionally, a person’s place in the course of life does not need to be expressed in statements such as “I am 20 years old” or “he is 60 years old”. The system of names and family relationships can reflect changes in age and social position, providing reference points for different life stages without relying on chronological counting in years.

• Numerical age does not hold the same central role it has in calendar-oriented societies.
• Names may change as an individual moves through different stages of life.
• Family relationships form part of this identification system.
• Maturity and social standing may serve as more meaningful markers than a number of years.

Does this mean the Amondawa have no concept of time?

No. This was precisely one of the oversimplifications that emerged when the research attracted attention. The Amondawa recognise that one event happened before or after another, perceive duration and ageing, and observe daily cycles and seasonal changes. What the studies challenge is the assumption that every society must necessarily turn these experiences into an abstract, measurable entity called “time”.

The difference is apparent when comparing “after the rain” with “in three months’ time”. Both expressions can locate events, but only the latter depends on a metric calendar system. Researchers also emphasise that Amondawa speakers can learn Portuguese and its temporal expressions, so there is no cognitive inability to understand weeks, dates or years. It is a linguistic and cultural distinction.

What do the Amondawa reveal about how humans understand time?

The Amondawa have become significant to linguistics because they demonstrate that some seemingly universal ways of organising time are connected to cultural technologies such as numbers, clocks and calendars. The research identified a language with a limited number system, no traditional calendar and temporal intervals constructed mainly from environmental and social events.

The case also helps distinguish between two ideas that may seem identical to people who live by schedules: experiencing the progression of events and measuring that progression numerically. The Amondawa observe days, nights, seasons, growth and social change, but traditionally do not need to convert each of these experiences into hours, months or years. This distinction makes their language especially relevant to understanding how much of our way of speaking about time arises from human experience, and how much has been shaped by the cultural tools used to measure it.