Reddit reviews Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

He wrote a book called, "Don't Sleep there are Snakes". It was a tough read because he's a linguist and goes into great detail about it.

Edited for werds: thanks Timmetie.

"Don't Sleep, there are snakes" by Dan Everett - it's a fascinating book about a linguist/missionary who went to work with a tribe of Piraha speakers in the Amazon. Loses his religion, and discovers a language that doesn't really fit into the orthodox view of linguistics and is causing a whole lot of debate.

The Drunkard's Walk - is a great book on how misconceptions of probability rule your life. It's a fun introduction to probability theory and has all sorts of WTF moments in it.

Edit: oh and possibly my favorite book I've read all year is David Attenborough's autobiography A life on air - it's full of all sorts of amazing, hilarious, and insightful anecdotes of Attenborough's 40-odd years of making nature documentaries, and contains lots of interesting info about the state-of-the art in TV making over time (e.g. "we could only run that type of camera for 20 seconds, or it would overheat and catch fire"). Great stuff.

I don't know the correct term for this, or even much about it at all, but I do know that other languages to this to a far greater extent than English. For example, I remember [reading about] (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0375425020) an Amazonian tribe that can apparently have entire conversations using only pitch.

I also know that people in the Canary Islands used to use [whistles to communicate] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbo_Gomero_language), which I assume is the same phenomenon.

The part I remember most from Everett's book Don't Sleep, There are Snakes, is when he is describing to the Piraha people how his step-mother committed suicide. The group he was talking to immediately bursts into laughter:

>When I asked them why are you laughing, they said: “She killed herself. That’s really funny to us. We don’t kill ourselves. You mean, you people, you white people shoot yourselves in the head? We kill animals, we don’t kill ourselves

Maybe someone on the verge could benefit from this book. The Piraha live in what most Westerners would consider 'a shit-hole', yet they are described as some of the happiest, carefree people on earth.

re: remote tribes believing in a higher power

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes is a book about the Pirahã people of the Amazon. They have no religion or myths.

Edit: Also, Paul never met Jesus.

I read a great Linguistics/Travelogue book called Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes about living with an Amazonian tribe and studying their language, and he came up with a similar conclusion.

Anybody interested in this stuff should read "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes" by Daniel Everett. The tribe isn't exactly uncontacted but it's an excellent insight into how a pre-agricultural culture lives. One of my favourite books in fact.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0375425020

Give him a counter example written by someone with credibility.

>every society has made up a religion

Actually, this isn't true

But even if it isn't, what about someone like me who never believed in the supernatural? I mean, I've been called "demon spawn" but I'd never thought it was accurate.