Monday, December 01, 2008

Pg. 99: Daniel Everett's "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel Everett.

About the book, from the publisher:
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.

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.
Read more about Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes at the Knopf website.

Daniel L. Everett is the Chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University.

The Page 99 Test: Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes.

--Marshal Zeringue