HOW LANGUAGE SHAPES OUR REALITY: ENGLISH vs HOPI

"English is based on a 'the subject verbs the object' linguistic system, while Hopi has subject and object participating in the verbing. The language we think and speak in shapes our Weltansicht, our perception and understanding of the nature of existence, and those who think primarily in terms of the subject (self) acting on objects (things) are more prone to change and take from who and what is around them to their advantage.  

The Weltansicht of traditional people, in which subject and object participate in the verbing, is more likely to foster mutuality and co-operation than competition and arrogation - the spirit of sharing at the heart of the Sacred Giveaway - than is the European Weltansicht, in which every subject, every 'I', is trying to verb the world around her or him, and so inevitably they wind up rivals." (p50 The Circle of Life by James David Audlin)