Word: townsend
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...first language barrier to be cracked was that of the Cashibo Indians, who live along the Aguaytia River. There the linguists had a lucky start. Near the village of Pucallpa, they found a Cashibo named Gregorio Estrella, who had lived on the coast and learned Spanish. Recalls one of Townsend's team: "Gregorio led us to his tribe. They were so pleased when they found we wanted to live just the way they did that they built a house for us." As a starter, the linguists began asking the names of everyday things: banana, fire, water, house...
With the rest of the languages, Townsend's linguists did not always have the luck to find a Spanish-speaking interpreter. But their approach was always the same: gain the confidence of the Indians by living with them and sharing their food (including such exotic dishes as monkey stew and roast tapir). Once a team had learned a language, it set about publishing a simple reading primer...
Away With the Boa. By now, Townsend, with headquarters in a group of 35 buildings on Lake Yarinacocha, six miles north of Pucallpa, has a staff of 108 (with 30 children, many of them born at Yarina-ocha). Townsend's teams cover the jungle in six airplanes, keep in touch with headquarters by radio...
This summer, Townsend's efforts to teach the natives Christian ethics landed him in trouble with the Roman Catholic Church in Peru. The apostolic vicar for the jungle area, Monsignor Buenaventura Uriarte, boomed: "Townsend's institute is engaged in an active and purposeful campaign to convert our jungle Indians to evangelistic Protestantism." Methodist Townsend, a member of Los Angeles' Church of the Open Door, vigorously denied any sectarianism, but the cry was taken up by the conservative press in Lima. For a while, it looked as if Townsend's good works were...
Last week the Peruvian Minister of Education announced that a special Cabinet meeting, presided over by President Manuel Odria, had decided that the Linguistic Institute's research and teaching among the Indians would continue with the full backing of the Peruvian government. Townsend had promised to use the Catholic version of the Bible in his religion course, and the government would increase its financial aid to the Church's own jungle missions. Said Townsend: "Of course, when I see a jungle Indian worshiping a boa constrictor, I want to teach him to worship the Lord instead...