An edition of Don't sleep, there are snakes (2008)

Don't sleep, there are snakes

life and language in the Amazonian jungle

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  • 5.0 (1 rating) ·
  • 40 Want to read
  • 5 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

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Last edited by MARC Bot
December 20, 2020 | History
An edition of Don't sleep, there are snakes (2008)

Don't sleep, there are snakes

life and language in the Amazonian jungle

  • 5.0 (1 rating) ·
  • 40 Want to read
  • 5 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

A linguist offers a thought-provoking account of his experiences and discoveries while living with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians living in central Brazil and a people possessing a language that defies accepted linguistic theories and reflects a culture that has no counting system, concept of war, or personal property, and lives entirely in the present.

Publish Date
Publisher
Pantheon Books
Language
English
Pages
283

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Don't sleep, there are snakes
Don't sleep, there are snakes: life and language in the Amazonian jungle
2008, Pantheon Books
in English
Cover of: Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes
Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes
2008, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Electronic resource in English

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Discovering the world of the Pirahás
The Amazon
The cost of discipleship
Sometimes you make mistakes
Material culture and the absence of ritual
Families and community
Nature and the immediacy of experience
A teenager named Túkaaga : murder and society
Land to live free
Caboclos : vignettes of Amazonian Brazilian life
Changing channels with Pirahã sounds
Pirahá words
How much grammar do people need?
Values and talking : the partnership between language and culture
Recursion : language as a matrioshka doll
Crooked heads and straight heads : perspectives on language and truth
Converting the missionary.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references.

Published in
New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
305.898/9
Library of Congress
F2520.1.M9 E94 2008

The Physical Object

Pagination
p. cm.
Number of pages
283

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL16797242M
Internet Archive
dontsleeptherear00ever
ISBN 13
9780375425028
LCCN
2008016306
OCLC/WorldCat
212855153
Library Thing
6291124
Goodreads
4420281

Work Description

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Piraha, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil. Everett, then a Christian missionary, arrived among the Piraha 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 Piraha 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 Piraha, 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.From the Hardcover edition.

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
December 20, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 22, 2019 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
July 22, 2017 Edited by Mek adding subject: In library
December 3, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Added subjects from MARC records.
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page