Don't Sleep, There are Snakes
eBook - ePub

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

About this book

Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahãs, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world.Everett describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Pirahã language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Everett's views are most recently discussed in Tom Wolfe's bestselling The Kingdom of Speech.Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book.

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Yes, you can access Don't Sleep, There are Snakes by Daniel Everett in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Linguistics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Some Notes on the Language as Used in This Book
  6. Preface
  7. Prologue
  8. Part One: LIFE
  9. 1. Discovering the World of the Pirahãs
  10. 2. The Amazon
  11. 3. The Cost of Discipleship
  12. 4. Sometimes You Make Mistakes
  13. 5. Material Culture and the Absence of Ritual
  14. 6. Families and Community
  15. 7. Nature and the Immediacy of Experience
  16. 8. A Teenager Named Túkaaga: Murder and Society
  17. 9. Land to Live Free
  18. 10. Caboclos: Vignettes of Amazonian Brazilian Life
  19. Part Two: LANGUAGE
  20. 11. Changing Channels with Pirahã Sounds
  21. 12. Pirahã Words
  22. 13. How Much Grammar Do People Need?
  23. 14. Values and Talking: The Partnership between Language and Culture
  24. 15. Recursion: Language as a Matrioshka Doll
  25. 16. Crooked Heads and Straight Heads: Perspectives on Language and Truth
  26. Part Three: CONCLUSION
  27. 17. Converting the Missionary
  28. Epilogue: Why Care about Other Cultures and Languages?
  29. Acknowledgments