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    Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
    Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
    Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle
    Audiobook10 hours

    Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

    Written by Daniel L. Everett

    Narrated by Daniel Everett

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Daniel Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977-with his wife and three young children-intending to convert them. What he found was a language that defies all existing linguistic theories and reflects a way of life that evades contemporary understanding: The Pirahã have no counting system and no fixed terms for color. They have no concept of war or of personal property. They live entirely in the present. Everett became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications, and with the remarkable contentment with which they live-so much so that he eventually lost his faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them.

    Over three decades, Everett spent a total of seven years among the Pirahã, and his account of this lasting sojourn is an engrossing exploration of language that questions modern linguistic theory. It is also an anthropological investigation, an adventure story, and a riveting memoir of a life profoundly affected by exposure to a different culture. Written with extraordinary acuity, sensitivity, and openness, it is fascinating from first to last, rich with unparalleled insight into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 6, 2017
    ISBN9781515989011
    Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

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    Reviews for Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

    4/5

    234 ratings25 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very good book on linguistics and anthropology. I heard the author speak on CBC radio many years ago (but had forgotten his name but remembered most of his stories) and I was delighted to realize I was reading his book about half way in.

      He says perception is learned and the examples he gives to demonstrate this point are compelling. How much do we fail to see simply because we have yet to learn how to perceive it?
    • 4/5
      Wonderful account of a linguist living in one of the most remote communities of Brazil.
    • 5/5
      This book describes the time spent among an isolated Amazonian tribe by a missionary and linguist, but it is about much, much more. The author was sent to learn the language of the Piraha, a tribe that now numbers less than a thousand people, so that he could translate the New Testament into that language to help convert the Pirahas. Over many years, he learned the language and came to appreciate the culture; both of which are extraordinary. His description of his family's life with the Piraha, far into the Amazon jungle, is fascinating, as is his description of Piraha culture.But there is much more to the book than adventure in the Amazon, and discussion of an Amazonian people. In the book, he discusses the ways in which the language came to affect his views about language, to the point where they made him question Noam Chomsky's theory that grammar is innate. His work challenging Chomsky has had wide influence, and his discussion of that work (and of Chomsky's view) is the clearest that I have ever read. Essentially, the author regards language as much more a product of culture (or an interaction with culture) than a matter of genetics -- a revolutionary view. In addition, the book discusses faith, and the challenges to his faith that the author found in the Amazon. All in all, this book made me think really hard about very big themes, despite the fact that it is a relatively easy read. I can't recommend it too highly.
    • 4/5
      I would have appreciated this book more if I were a linguist, as there are chapters that get pretty technical. But there is enough that is anthropological in nature to keep me happy.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic book. So many threads. Yes it is a book about anthropology and linguistics. But along the way it has much to say about life. Very thoughtful book.
    • 3/5
      The subtitle pretty much sums this up: Life and language in the Amazonian Jungle. Everett chronicles his experiences over three decades living among and studying the Piraha, an indigenous tribe. He first went to their villages in 1977, as a Christian missionary and accompanied by his wife and three young children. His mission was to learn their language and translate the New Testament into their native tongue so as to bring Jesus to them. What he found was his life’s work.

      Parts of this book are very enjoyable for even a lay person (and armchair traveler). There is plenty of danger in the Amazonian jungle – anacondas with a body thicker than a grown man’s, jaguars, caimans, piranhas, not to mention distrustful natives, malaria, typhoid fever and tarantulas the size of dinner plates. Everett and his family encountered all these and more. Stories of hunts, of a frantic trip upriver to take his critically ill wife and child to a hospital, or of altercations with unscrupulous merchants trying to buy natural resources with cheap liquor were told with flare and I found them fascinating and illuminating. But Everett is a linguistics professor/researcher, and there were chapters devoted to detailed study of the structure of language and the way it shapes (or is shaped by) a culture. I tended to lose interest in those sections of the book that read like a research paper, and sometimes got to the end of the page only to realize I’d understood what I read about as well as I might understand the Piraha language.
    • 4/5
      American Daniel Everett spent many years, off and on, living among the Pirahã people of the Amazon jungle. Initially he came as a missionary, with the goal of learning their language and culture in order to translate the Bible for them, but became deeply interested in that language and culture for their own sake, and eventually came to regard much about their attitude towards life and belief as superior to his own, ultimately de-converting himself rather than converting the Pirahã.In this book, he describes his own experiences living with and learning about the Pirahã and adjusting to life on the Amazon. He also describes, in depth and with considerable analysis, some of the unique and interesting features of Pirahã society and language. The language, in particular, potentially challenges a lot of conventional wisdom about how human languages work, and, Everett believes, suggests a much more complex interplay between language and culture than linguists usually allow for.The linguistic discussion sometimes gets very technical, and I am in no way expert enough to evaluate whether Everett's take on things is completely right or not, but it is thought-provoking, and there's no question that the language itself is fascinating. As are Everett's observations of the Pirahã culture, although it seemed pretty clear to me that he must be overgeneralizing a bit in places. For instance, he states quite emphatically that the Pirahã are extremely peaceful and non-aggressive among themselves (if not necessarily always with foreigners), but then mentions in passing a couple of details that perhaps call that into question. Although that's probably understandable, really; I don't think there's a society on Earth that's entirely consistent and free of contradiction.In any case, if you can handle the sometimes hard-to-follow linguistic discussions, it's well worth reading, if only for the example it provides of just how diverse human languages and societies can be, and for its look at thought and speech patterns that can be very different from the ones most of us take for granted.
    • 3/5
      I cannot for the life of me remember why I picked up this book, but I think I saw it referenced in an article or interview somewhere. In this mysterious place where I had seen this book discussed, it was most clearly described as a book about a linguist working with a tribe in the remote Amazon. Which it is. What my source did not mention was that the dude was a missionary, and in fact, his primary role was that of a missionary, although as a missionary, his primary task was to learn their language in order to translate the Bible. More on this later.The book starts off with more general information about where he was and what he was learning about the language and culture of this tribe, which is very interesting. The later part of the book is more about the specific linguistic things he was observing, and it gets fairly technical. Some people may want to skim, I am very interested in linguistics so I enjoyed the challenge of trying to puzzle out what he was getting at. The missionary stuff is a bit odd throughout. After explaining the missionary angle (briefly) it doesn't come up a lot, which seems somewhat unusual to me, except in some awkward mentions of Christianity, like when he tells the story of how he, being the head of a Christian household, uses corporal punishment on his children, but the tribe was really judgy about it, so he stopped, ha ha. I don't even have a strong opinion on this issue, but the way he told the story was weird. Then at the very end of the book, he explained how he eventually became an atheist (or I think he says a "non theist," I'm not sure if that means something specific), and seems to put that change in philosophy squarely on the fact that the people in the tribe are perfectly content and happy without Christianity or any religion that addresses the afterlife. It seemed very extreme to me, like this dude had to go all the way to the Amazon to meet a happy, content, ethical atheist? I know tons of those. I think part of the oddness might be that he was trying to write a book about linguistics, and didn't want it to turn into a big discussion of religion and evangelism so he made the decision to downplay those parts ... but that seems weird too, as if he somehow incidentally became a missionary in the Amazon.
    • 5/5
      A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil. Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, Everett's life-changing tale is riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.
    • 3/5
      Overall, this is an interesting book about language and culture. The book focuses on the interesting story of the author's experiences with a tribe in Brazil's Amazon and his attempts to understand their language and the implications of what he learned on the field of linguistics.
      Unfortunately, there are also long sections of the book that go into great detail regarding intricacies of linguistics - mind-numbing for the average reader.
    • 4/5
      A fascinating look at an Amazonian culture and its language, by a linguist who lived with them as a missionary. This is a great book for anyone interested in obscure languages and what they may tell us about human cognition.

      The main thing I wished when reading this book was more information about the women's lives -- a throwaway line about how the women don't seem to use one phoneme has me hoping some female anthropologist or linguist will go live with them and write another book about them.
    • 4/5
      I am not a linguist, so a fair bit of this book sailed over my head.

      However, the parts I understood were fascinating, as were the anthropological parts. Everett went to live with the Pirahã as a missionary and a linguist. He wanted to convert them and learn their grammar. What ensued is riveting though not particularly well-written. Everett seems to be saying that a large portion of what Chomsky says and the linguistic community has accepted as true for quite some time may not be true, and the entire discipline of linguistics will be turned on its ear if his claims are verifiable. I love science in the field, especially when it goes against everything we think we know. I really enjoyed reading about Everett's interior journey from missionary to atheist as well. It's a rare, and to my eye, admirable missionary who allows himself to be converted by the tribe he meddles with.

      Highly recommended for people who like this sort of thing.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely fascinated by this book. Given to me by my mother after she got it for Christmas and also adored it, I can see I will be recommending it to others - and of course Richard is also in line to read it soon.

      It's divided into unequal halves - the long half recounting the story of working and living with the Pirahã indians of the Brazilian Amazon, and the shorter half going into more detail about the linguistic theories and findings that this work has brought or helped to bring about. I could have wished for more of the second half, though some other reviews I've read have indicated this might be more than a general audience would be interested in.

      Part of the fascination is the sheer huge difference in culture that the Pirahã represent - a culture where, Everett's theory developed over twenty years goes, the principle of immediacy of experience is all-important. They will and can only talk about experiences had either by they themselves, or by others who are still alive and trustworthy. This is a cultural constraint (so when Everett tries to tell them about the Bible, they ask whether he has met Jesus himself or not) but, Everett's radical claim is, this also shapes their language in a very striking fashion.

      I could also have wished for more direct information or feedback from Everett's family - his wife Keren makes an appearance in some discussions, as do their children, but it would have been great to have got their view on what it was like to grow up somewhere like that, and particularly their view on whether they think Everett's theories of this language match their experience. After all, how better to study a language (in some ways) than to chuck a 4 year old child into the environment and bring them up bilingual?
    • 2/5
      Meh? White missionary man goes to hang out with those primitive brown people in the jungle and learns a lesson and has wacky hijinks along the way! At least for part of the book... I guess if you are into linguistics, this book would be better. But I'm not.

      The first part of the book was largely short stories about the author's life with the Piraha, their attitudes, customs, lives. And if it had ended there, I probably would have liked it a whole lot better.

      The middle part of the book was all about linguistics, grammar and culture. I liked some of the discussion he had about the effect of culture on grammar (the easy part), but when he got more technical and was talking deeper about theories with grammar and linguistics, I think my eyes glazed over.

      At the end, he briefly mentions his conversion to atheism (he originally went to the Piraha as a missionary, primarily to learn their language and translate the Bible), which might have been more interesting if he fleshed out descriptions or explanations of what led to his de-conversion and more about the fallout (both internal and external) that it had in his life.

      The writing is not great (or just plain crap). On top of that, some of the descriptions are inconsistent (Everett repeatedly refers to how peaceful the Piraha are, and then mentions violent acts they commit, like a gang rape; he mentions that they don't have a word for "sorry" and then turns around and translates something as "sorry").

      I don't know, the book was uneven at best and mind-numbingly boring at worst, but it wasn't terrible or anything. I'm not sure what the point the author was trying to make was. If he wanted to just tell a story, the entire linguistics section needed to be removed or pared down by quite a bit. If this was about the linguistics, maybe it needed a better title.
    • 3/5
      The narrator is not someone I would like in real life, I'm pretty sure. Or he was at the beginning of his missionary trip, I guess I'm not really sure "who" he is now, since I haven't finished the book yet and it goes through his multi-decade experiences with the Piraha people in the Amazon. So I'm not particularly liking the book for that reason. But it's really interesting to read about the tribe he lives with. I'm enjoying it for that reason, and the mix of linguistics and anthropology is awesome.

      So I wasn't terribly thrilled with this book overall. It just wasn't put together well. Something that was apparently a long process for him during his life with the Piraha - questioning his faith and apparently eventually coming out as an atheist, was relegated to basically an epilogue and never mentioned otherwise. Also there's this one chapter that gets pretty deeply into linguistics theory, and it seems out of place. That sort of thing could have been discussed all along and used to illuminate various conversations and findings, but instead he crams it all into one chapter that feels like textbook.

      All in all, it's too jumpy. I kept wanting more examples or more integration. He's not very clear on some things, for instance, when he says that the Piraha all see Spirits that he can't see when he's staring at an empty beach, but later he says they interpret things he *can* see as spirits, such as trees or animals. So what exactly happened on the beach?

      Overall, glad I read it for the interesting bits.
    • 4/5
      This is a must read for anybody interested in endangered cultures or language theory. I must say that as part of my undergrad in English I studied Chomsky's theories about language and grammar. I very much disliked them, but I could not define why. I dereived a great amount of pleasure out of Mr. Everett's novel theories, which in fact trampled Chomskian approach to language. Add to this the marvel of discovering a culture in which material wealth is not important, and you have the most interesting book in decades.
    • 3/5
      The author writes an interesting account of his years as a missionary in the Amazon jungle, working with a tribe that had been studied and missionized for centuries, but no one had been able to sort out the anomalies of their life and their language. The adventures are interesting, but on the whole, it's a little sluggish reading. The author does manage to avoid the trap that so often snares anthropologists. He manages to work toward accepting their culture as it is, without judgment, without the usual finger pointing and criticism of his own culture, as though all Western ideas are inherently inferior if they are different. There is a touch of that in the final chapter, but overall, he presents a much more objective view than usually seen. The book is worthwhile reading just for the challenges it raises to contemporary conventional wisdom in linguistics, particularly the Chomsky school. Also, the lack of a creation myth among the Pirahã tribe is an interesting challenge to traditional views about religion and culture.
    • 3/5
      Fantastic Subject, But Poorly PresentedI first got wind of Daniel Everett's work on the Piraha from a fantastic article that appeared in the New Yorker a few years ago (see the link below if you're interested). I was immediately and deeply intrigued: the article presented a captivating glimpse into what by all accounts was groundbreaking work--work that had the potential to upend the current framework in which we think about language, culture, and the mind. After reading the article, I was hungry for more information and specifics about the Piraha people and their language, and a few years later, when I saw that Daniel Everett had published a book, I eagerly picked up a copy, excited to delve deeper into his work. The good news is that "Don't Sleep There Are Snakes" does indeed provide much more detail, both about the Piraha culture and the language. At the end of the book, the reader has a much better idea of what the Piraha are all about and what lessons they can teach us. And this is what I ultimately wanted to get out of the book. The bad news is that Everett is not much of a writer, or even a particularly good storyteller. None of the narrative grace of the New Yorker article is present in this book, and before long, this gets irritating. Which is a shame, because Everett's story is such a fascinating one, one that could by all means make for a fantastic book. But Everett's style is clumsy and ham-handed; the individual chapters do not connect well with one another, and even within the chapters paragraphs can seem poorly pieced together. Perhaps not everyone will agree with my opinions here, but I think one should be aware going into this book that Everett is no prose master. Part of the problem with the book's style is a conflict of aims. On the one hand, the book is written for a general audience, and I think it does a very good job in this regard. It presents all its information (even the more difficult academic bits) in an easy-to-follow manner, with plenty of examples to illustrate its points. There's nothing wrong with this approach in itself, but it flounders in this case because of the book's less than stellar composition. On the other hand, the book is also trying to present years of academic research and, more importantly, to make a point, and a controversial one at that. And here its general-audience presentation works against it. Everett's discussions of conceptual issues in linguistics are just too watered down to carry any weight. His arguments against Chomsky (which I'm very sympathetic to) are mostly just knocking down straw men, and do not give a honest presentation and refutation of Chomsky's and others' views. Even Everett's arguments for his own ideas come off as superficial, lacking the rigor and precision they would need to really convince (me, at least). In addition, Everett's discussions of his actual research stop short of full detail, and still left me with further questions. All this being said, however, I still think this is a worthwhile book. Sometimes the content of a subject matter can outshine even the worst of presentations. And Everett's work really is fascinating, in more ways than one. If you're interested in language, culture, and the connections between the two (as well as those with psychology, philosophy, and more), this book is definitely of interest. Just don't go in expecting a flawless work. (The New Yorker article about Everett and his work can be accessed here.)
    • 3/5
      A very good description of how perception of the environment shapes language which again reflects back upon the perception of the environment, creating a culture. Good book. Well written.
    • 3/5
      Interesting to learn about yet another language and the expressions it contains, as well as get a glimpse into a group I knew very little about.I love that "Don't sleep. There are snakes" is the way to say goodnight. It reminds me of my girlfriend, whose daughter insisted that instead of "goodnight" her family say, "Goodbye. Goodnight. No monsters."
    • 5/5
      This book was totally fantastic. Everett's studies counter huge amounts of what was thought to be the basic intrinsic qualities of human language and culture and it's also a great story about him personally having to challenge a lot of what had gone unquestioned for himself in his life. GREAT GREAT GREAT
    • 2/5
      This could ahve been a great book; It couls and should have been a fascinating story of life and redemption among the Amazonian peoples. Or perhaps a scholarly exploration of linguistics and anthropological discovery. Instead it's a badly written mishmash that desperately needs a good editor.The author was a missionary, sent to learn the language of a remote Amazonian tribe and introduce them to God (is his god, not their own already robust ones) He lived on and off, both alone and with his family, in the jungle for periods across a decade. He discovered athiesm or at least, that the christian god isn't automatically the god for everyone. So far so good. However the book is so unfocused, one minete concentrating on difficult to reproduce phonetic renderings of the local dialect and then trying to be a personal memoir, next moment trying to be a discourse on anthropology. Sadly it's not well written enough to be any of these things. Also, the most interesting and provocative moments are completely glossed over which is deeply unsatisfying.Could have, should have, would have. Didn't.
    • 5/5
      The author, Daniel Everett, worked for a long time in with an Amazonian tribe called the Pirahã, trying to learn their language. He originally went there as a Christian missionary, intending to translate the Bible into their language.The first section of the book talks about Pirahã culture and the difficulties he and his family (wife; three young children) had in adjusting to life in the jungle. Lots of amusing anecdotes about his own misunderstandings, etc., but you can tell he really admires them.The second section is more technical, talking about the Pirahã language. I'd heard of it a few times before reading this; apparently it has some pretty rare features and lacks some features previously thought to be common to all languages, which is why noone had ever had any luck translating the Bible into it. There's some hard-going (for me) stuff about whether or not it fits into various linguistic theories, and some interesting sections on the effect language can have on culture and mindset.I really enjoyed this book. His respect for the Pirahã really comes through, and his initial religious motivations don't intrude too much.
    • 3/5
      I found this book so irritating that I just skimmed that last half of it. I have a life-long interest in the subjects, Amazonia and linguistics and anthropology, however both the poor writing style and author's unaccountable choices of what to tell, what to leave out, overcame my interest in the subjects. There is no doubt in my mind that Daniel Everett's knowledge of a peculiar indigenous people's language and culture is unique and that his life among them in the world's most prolific and diverse biosphere was immensely interesting. I found his style of telling it flat, his prose meager, and his time line jumbled without any overriding sense of purpose. In the end, my experience of the book was extremely frustrating. It takes an unusual alchemist to turn the gold of such experiences into the leaden account in "Don't Sleep, There Snakes".
    • 4/5
      Excellent study of indigenous behavior. Compelling read. You never can predict the natives when viewing them through your perception.