Dont Sleep There Are SnakesDaniel Everett
Dont Sleep There Are Snakes
by Daniel Everett · first published 2009
4mentions
2recommended by
4HN commenters
2013–2016first – last mentioned
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Anyone interested in the Pirahã should read 'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle' by Daniel Everett ( http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386... ) There's quite a bit about the language, but the backstory of Daniel going over as a missionary and losing his faith (and family) while trying to convert a happy people in no need of religion…
on “What happens when a language has no numbers?” ↗A great book to read in this context: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Sleep-There-are-Snakes/dp/18466... or indeed, any context. It's a fabulous book about the good and bad in societies untouched by civilization, and about one man's attempts to understand a language with no reference points.…
on “Societies with Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness (2013)” ↗Wouldn't be the first time a different land made a different people in modern times. The Pirahã in the Amazon killed a sick infant with alcohol. Why? I'd let Daniel Everett explain... http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386...
on “In a remote corner of Romania, neighbours kill each other over strips of land” ↗…study of language is very important, and the differences that exist should be recorded for scientific study. Maybe it even makes sense to preserve the real outlying communities (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386...) by forcibly cutting them off from the global economy. But major languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese) are redundant standards that should be consolidated ASAP.
on “Can Multilingualism Survive?: How cities preserve and abandon languages” ↗