But, he knows, if such cultural concerns can influence grammar and language then the whole linguistic system of a-cultural grammar (elaborated by people like Pinker in the Language Instinct and McWhorter in The Tower of Babel) has to be overthrown. His perplexing objective was “to convince happy, satisfied people that they are lost and need Jesus as their personal savior. Everett said in the interview that he was so upset with them and still to this day, doesn’t understand why they thought that was okay when they could have tried more ways to save him. I can heartily recommend this book – if you are not a language nut, you can skip the sections where Everett ponders on Chomsky's theories of language development - but if you are, you will find it fascinating, and there is so much else to enjoy in Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes.

I realize that this is wholly unfair to everyone who likes to think they understand a culture because they lived as part of one for awhile. What I can say is that I personally found this book a fascinating window into the language and wider culture of the Pirahã.

And yet as certain as I was about this, the Pirahas were equally certain that there was something there. But the bulk of the text is devoted to really trying to understand their culture, which he does through the “immediacy of experience” principle. I remember reading what must have been a portion or a summation of this in The New Yorker a couple of years ago.

Xipoogi and Xahoabisi thought the clean, nice-smelling, and colorfully dressed Brazilian women were gorgeous.In another blog about this book I found an interesting comment that, “linguistics is populated by a deeply factionalized group of scholars who tend to dismiss their opponents as frauds.

Also, the part about the author losing his faith is only 15 pages long and it's probably the worst chapter in the whole book. The SIL had great faith that the sacred words of the scriptures alone were all that was needed to illuminate the wicked souls of the heathens and inspire them to convert to the one true faith.I had gone to the Pirahãs to tell them about Jesus…, to give them an opportunity to choose purpose over pointlessness, to choose life over death, to choose joy and faith over despair and fear, to choose heaven over hell.