It is the perfect community if you are always late or like to lie about your age - British scientists have discovered a remote tribe that has no concept of time or dates.
The Amondawa people who live deep in the Amazonian rainforests of Brazil have no watches or calendars and live their lives to the patterns of day and night and the rainy and dry seasons.
They also have no age - and mark the transition from childhood to adulthood to old age by changing their name. A little child will give up their name to a newborn sibling and take on a new one.
The team of researchers, led by University of Portsmouth, said that it is the first time they have been able to prove time is not a deeply entrenched universal human concept, as previously thought.
Professor Chris Sinha said: "We can now say without doubt that there is at least one language and culture which does not have a concept of time as something that can be measured, counted or talked about in the abstract.
"This doesn't mean that the Amondawa are 'people outside time', but they live in a world governed by events rather than the passing of time."
Only discovered in 1986, the Amondawa, about 150 strong, continue their traditional way of life, hunting, fishing and farming.
They also have their own language and have a number system, but it only goes up to four.
Prof Sinha and his team, including a linguist and anthropologist, spent eight weeks with the Amondawa researching how their language conveys concepts like "next week" or "last year".
Prof Sinha said: "We have so many metaphors for time and its passing - we think of time as a 'thing' - we say 'the weekend is nearly gone', 'she's coming up to her exams', 'I haven't got the time', and so on, and we think such statements are objective, but they aren't. We've created these metaphors and they have become the way we think. The Amondawa don't talk like this and don't think like this, unless they learn another language. "
"For these fortunate people time isn't money, they aren't racing against the clock to complete anything, and nobody is discussing next week or next year; they don't even have words for 'week', 'month' or 'year'. You could say they enjoy a certain freedom." He added.
The findings were reported in the journal Language and Cognition.


如果你常常迟到或者喜欢谎报自己年龄，这绝对是一个完美的部落。英国科学家发现了一个遥远的部落。在那里，人们没有时间和日期的观念。


阿莫达瓦的人们居住在巴西亚马逊雨林深处，他们没有手表和日历，只区分白天、黑夜、雨季和旱季。

该部落的人们也没有年龄，而是根据童年到成年的生长阶段变换名字。小孩会把他们的名字让给刚出生的兄弟姐妹，使用一个新名字。

朴茨茅斯大学研究人员表示：这一发现与以往想法不同，它首次证明，时间并不是植根于人类脑中根深蒂固的概念。

克里斯•辛哈教授说："毋庸置疑，现在我们可以说至少有一种语言和文化不存在时间概念，这种概念可以被我们抽象地测量、计数或谈论。

"这并不意味着阿莫达瓦人是'超脱时间以外的人'，这里的人们受事件而不是时间所支配。"

直到1986年，人们才发现阿莫达瓦这个拥有150名健硕成员的地方。在那里，人们仍然延续着打猎、钓鱼和耕种等传统的生活方式。

他们也拥有自己的语言，包含计数体系，然而到4就截止了。

辛哈教授的队友包括一名语言学家和人类学家。他们在阿莫达瓦生活了两个月，研究部落语言如何表达"下周"或"去年"这些时间概念。


辛哈教授说："我们有很多种关于时间和时间流逝的比喻，把时间看做一种'东西'。我们说'周末快结束了'，'她快要考试了'，'我没有时间了'等。我们认为这些陈述很客观，其实不然。我们创造了这些比喻，也造就了自己的思维方式。阿莫达瓦的人并不这样说，也不这样思考，除非他们学习另外一种语言。"


"对这些幸运的人而言，时间并不是金钱，他们不需要争分夺秒地完成任何事情， 也没有人会讨论下周或明年。甚至，他们没有"星期"、"月""年"这些词。你可以说，他们在享受某种自由"，辛哈教授补充说。

该发现发表于《语言与认知》杂志。

• remote [ri´məut] a.遥远的；偏僻的 (初中英语单词)
• concept [´kɔnsept] n.概念；观念；思想 (初中英语单词)
• childhood [´tʃaildhud] n.幼年(时代)；早期 (初中英语单词)
• universal [,ju:ni´və:səl] a.宇宙的；普遍的 (初中英语单词)
• culture [´kʌltʃə] n.修养；文化；饲养 (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
• fortunate [´fɔ:tʃənət] a.幸运的，侥幸的 (初中英语单词)
• journal [´dʒə:nəl] n.日记；日报；杂志 (初中英语单词)
• community [kə´mju:niti] n.团体；社区；公众 (高中英语单词)
• brazil [brə´zil] n.巴西 (高中英语单词)
• previously [´pri:viəsli] ad.预先；以前 (高中英语单词)
• transition [træn´ziʃən, -´si-] n.转变；过渡 (英语四级单词)
• traditional [trə´diʃənəl] a.传统的，习惯的 (英语四级单词)
• fishing [´fiʃiŋ] n.钓鱼；捕鱼；渔业 (英语四级单词)
• weekend [´wi:kend, ,wi:k´end] n.周末休假 (英语四级单词)
• objective [ɔb´dʒektiv] a.客观的 n.目标 (英语四级单词)
• hunting [´hʌntiŋ] n.打猎 (英语六级单词)