Book Review: Don't Sleep, there are Snakes

I wasn't looking for this book. Lucy and myself popped to the library for her to take some books back. I'd been watching some episodes of Bruce Parry's Tribe series and was really interested in finding out a bit more about tribes in Brazil. So I went to the search computer and typed in the inspired term 'Brazil'. Two books came up for the library location that I was at.

Based on the name of the book and the fact that it was the one actually about tribes in Brazil, I chose this one! I don't regret it. It is a fantastic book.

Daniel Everett has spent around 3 decades with a tribe called the Pirahãs (pronounced pee-da-HAN), based in the Brazilian Amazon along the Maici river, North of the Trans-Amazon Highway. This is a book about their lives, culture, and language and as such I felt that it was very powerful. This is a tribe that numbers around 400, so we can say that the language is in danger of becoming extinct, so the fact that Everett has spent around 3 decades with them, specifically studying their language, is fantastic. But he didn't just document their language and let it be. He's used what he's learnt to change the way scholars in the field think about language, because while they have only 3 vowels and 8 consonants for men (7 for women), they use language in a wonderfully efficient way. I won't give away any secrets, because I don't want to take away the excitement of discovering the language usage of this tribe.

The book is seperated into two sections; life and language. Life looks at their day to day life and how Daniel learnt many lessons for living with and as part of the Pirahã tribe. Language looks at the way they use language. But it's not that much in depth that it cannot be understood by lay people. I consider myself a lay person of language study and feel that Everett builds up his argument very well so that all readers can keep up.

It's wonderful reading about this tribe and how they use and love their environment. They have no desire to import any external culture or technology into their culture or way of life and this is brilliant to read. While you may get the initial idea that this tribe is basic and composed of unintelligent members, I can say that I came away with the feeling that I wanted to be part of this tribe, or at least visit them. If you liked the tribe in the film Avatar, than you may understand what I mean when I say that they're similar. They are so adept at their way of life, they appreciate their way of life, they are happy with their way of life. All of this means that they don't wish to change or 'evolve' their way of life to 'keep up with the Jones's or the Kardashians!

I would recommend reading this book because it provides so much on so many levels. Everett writes well, so much so that even though I have been struggling with concentration; I have been able to get through this book within a reasonable time period - I imagine that others, if so including, could easily get through this book in one reading.


 

 

Own or Loan:         Loan
Read Again:           Yes
Recommend:         Yes
Overall out of Five:4