Language emerged among the Ach through the influence of

“Language” emerged among the Aché through the influence of colonizers, missionaries, Bible translators, activists, anthropologists, the media, and the State. As an object, it now circulates in books, cellphones, political debates, at cultural events, on the radio, and even the Internet. It emerged at a time when the disappearance of the linguistic phenomenon to which ache djawu is now retrospectively believed to refer – the distinct ways in which the Aché communicated verbally in the forest – is imminent.
Acknowledgements Research reported in this article was generously supported through grants 83440 and 86273 from the DOBES program of the Volkswagen Foundation and by my colleagues Eva-Maria Rößler and Warren M. Thompson, as well as by the Department of Anthropology, the Latin American Institute, and the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. The article and earlier version thereof have benefitted greatly from comments by Guilherme Orlandini Heurich, Casey High, Paul V. Kroskrity, Teruko V. Mitsuhara, Warren M. Thompson, and C. Jason Throop. I alone remain responsible for the use I have made of their advice.
Introduction Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are used extensively as the flame retardants in various polymers, including construction materials, electronics, furnishings, plastics, polyurethane foams, and textiles (Alaee et al., 2003). PBDEs have been detected in many test samples, human serum, adipose tissue, and breast milk (Shaw et al., 2012, Wang et al., 2012). The influence of PBDEs on animals and human beings has been a topic of widespread concern. PBDEs have been revealed to affect estrogen/androgen interference (Ceccatelli et al., 2006), thyroid hormone interference (Zhou et al., 2002), and the interference effect of aryl hydrocarbon FIPI (Wahl et al., 2010, Peters et al., 2006) and can cause reproductive toxicity (Huang et al., 2015) and neurotoxicity (Costa et al., 2015, Costa et al., 2016). The neurotoxicity of PBDEs has been paid more attention. Both BDE-47 and BDE-209 receive attention for their widespread application and serious environmental toxicity. The neurotoxicity of these PBDEs has been extensively studied (Hendriks et al., 2012, Henrik et al., 2007, Angela et al., 2017). BDE-47 and BDE-209 can cause neurotoxicity in different ways (Garcia-Reyero et al., 2014). Lucio et al. demonstrated that BDE-47 induced oxidative stress and ensuing apoptotic cell death in mouse cerebellar granule neurons in vitro (Costa et al., 2015). Zhang et al. studied the neurotoxicity of BDE-209 through cultured rat neural stem cells (NSCs) in vitro and found that BDE-209 inhibited NSCs proliferation in vitro and was able to induce apoptosis, which might be associated with the activation of nuclear factor-κB (nF-κB) pathways (Zhang et al., 2016). However, the neurotoxicity caused by their inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity has rarely been reported. AChE is closely related to the development and maturation of cells, and promotes the development of neurons and the regeneration of nerves (Zhang et al., 2016). In the human body, AChE, mainly distributed in the nervous system tissue, can quickly catalyze the hydrolysis of neurotransmitter acetylcholine and lead to the termination of nerve impulse transmission, so that the normal physiological function of the human body is guaranteed. AChE is one of the most important enzymes in the nervous system. Any substance affecting AChE activity may lead to neurotoxicity (Mrdaković et al., 2016). In the study of formaldehyde on the neurotoxicity of the process, Zendehdel et al. found that AChE activity and neurotoxicity are inseparable (Zendehdel et al., 2016). Neurotoxicity induced by PBDEs have been paid more attention. Molecular docking, using the three-dimensional structure of two molecules, investigates whether they can be combined, and predicts the binding mode of the complex. Thermodynamics usually considers that the stable conformation of biomolecules is the lowest conformation of free energy; hence, the purpose of molecular docking is to find the lowest energy conformation of ligands and receptors in their active region (Chen et al., 2006). Additionally, docking procedure aims to identify the correct binding poses within the binding site of the proteins (Mascarenhas and Ghoshal, 2008). The interaction between hydroxy polybrominated diphenyl ethers (OH-PBDEs) and estrogen receptors was studied through molecular docking. For example, Lu et al. (Lu et al., 2014) found that OH-PBDEs could bind to the estrogen receptor and explain their binding patterns.