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filawless's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.0
I had high hopes for this book. I expected an account of living in the Amazon, day to day life and learning to speak an endangered language. Instead the book is very heavy on the linguistic theory and reads quite research heavy. I think for someone interested in linguistics it would be very interesting but it fell short of what I wanted from it.
rsyngh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
3.5
iteechesinglish's review against another edition
informative
3.0
This book really felt like three books condensed into one. The first is an account of the author's experiences living among the Piraha in the Amazon and how those experiences affect his life and faith. The second is an account of the culture of the Piraha. The third is a linguistic argument against Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar.
I didn't really know how to feel about this book. Parts of it had me sitting on the edge of my seat because of some of the harrowing experiences the author encounters. Parts of it left me feeling very confused about some of his claims. I decided to just average everything out to a safe 3 star for the book overall.
The account of the author's life gave a personal touch to the book and probably made it more engaging than if it had been completely academic treatise, but some of the stories he includes seem totally random and don't seem to contribute to the point he's making in any meaningful way. I like travel stories, so I didn't mind this, but it seemed a bit disorienting. Perhaps that was intentional?
I felt very confused and conflicted about his accounts of Piraha culture. First of all, he explains that the Piraha have no word for "sorry," but then translates them as saying "sorry." Maybe it was a creative translation, but it made me distrust the accuracy of the translations. He talks about how the Piraha are a peaceful people with a strong ethic of community, but then goes out of his way to recount stories of violence and neglect. As other female readers seem to have observed, I sense that the value of woman's life among the Piraha is less than that of a man's. Everett explains how once an older man got lost in the jungle and the entire village searched for him for 3 days, but later recounts how "if a woman has no female relatives in her village, she may be forced to give birth alone," and tells the story of a woman who was left to die on the beach without assistance while giving birth. Another passage states "aggression is observed from time to time, from mild to severe (Keren witnessed a gang rape of a young unmarried girl by most of the village men). But aggression is never condoned and it is very rare." WHAT? How does that statement make any coherent sense??? Contradictory depictions like these made me question Everett's reliability as an observer of Piraha culture. Everett is clearly enamored of the Piraha and holds their culture in high esteem. I am sure that the Piraha, like any culture on earth, are made up of many wonderful people. But it was hard to swallow his depiction of their culture as somehow superior when tempered with accounts like these. I understand his desire to make readers question what makes a culture truly sophisticated, but why do we need to bring talk of superiority into it at all? Why can't we acknowledge differences without talking about who is better?
The linguistics section of the book seemed more coherent and it's obvious that Everett is trained as a linguist, not an anthropologist. I thought his arguments against universal grammar were consistent and persuasive, although I don't have a strong opinion about Noam Chomsky's theory in either direction so I didn't feel strongly about it. There were some interesting observations about the interplay of culture and language and it was fun to learn a little bit about a language that is so different from English.
Overall I was really drawn to this book because of my previous experiences teaching overseas and my interest in linguistics. It is worth reading if you have an interest in the subject, despite some head scratching flaws.
I didn't really know how to feel about this book. Parts of it had me sitting on the edge of my seat because of some of the harrowing experiences the author encounters. Parts of it left me feeling very confused about some of his claims. I decided to just average everything out to a safe 3 star for the book overall.
The account of the author's life gave a personal touch to the book and probably made it more engaging than if it had been completely academic treatise, but some of the stories he includes seem totally random and don't seem to contribute to the point he's making in any meaningful way. I like travel stories, so I didn't mind this, but it seemed a bit disorienting. Perhaps that was intentional?
I felt very confused and conflicted about his accounts of Piraha culture. First of all, he explains that the Piraha have no word for "sorry," but then translates them as saying "sorry." Maybe it was a creative translation, but it made me distrust the accuracy of the translations. He talks about how the Piraha are a peaceful people with a strong ethic of community, but then goes out of his way to recount stories of violence and neglect. As other female readers seem to have observed, I sense that the value of woman's life among the Piraha is less than that of a man's. Everett explains how once an older man got lost in the jungle and the entire village searched for him for 3 days, but later recounts how "if a woman has no female relatives in her village, she may be forced to give birth alone," and tells the story of a woman who was left to die on the beach without assistance while giving birth. Another passage states "aggression is observed from time to time, from mild to severe (Keren witnessed a gang rape of a young unmarried girl by most of the village men). But aggression is never condoned and it is very rare." WHAT? How does that statement make any coherent sense??? Contradictory depictions like these made me question Everett's reliability as an observer of Piraha culture. Everett is clearly enamored of the Piraha and holds their culture in high esteem. I am sure that the Piraha, like any culture on earth, are made up of many wonderful people. But it was hard to swallow his depiction of their culture as somehow superior when tempered with accounts like these. I understand his desire to make readers question what makes a culture truly sophisticated, but why do we need to bring talk of superiority into it at all? Why can't we acknowledge differences without talking about who is better?
The linguistics section of the book seemed more coherent and it's obvious that Everett is trained as a linguist, not an anthropologist. I thought his arguments against universal grammar were consistent and persuasive, although I don't have a strong opinion about Noam Chomsky's theory in either direction so I didn't feel strongly about it. There were some interesting observations about the interplay of culture and language and it was fun to learn a little bit about a language that is so different from English.
Overall I was really drawn to this book because of my previous experiences teaching overseas and my interest in linguistics. It is worth reading if you have an interest in the subject, despite some head scratching flaws.
paulataua's review against another edition
3.0
I finally got around to this after years of telling myself I ought to read it. I mean this is about the tribe that seems to have a language that doesn’t exhibit Chomsky’s deep structures, and that threw the linguistics community into disarray. I was, however, fairly disappointed on the whole. I am not criticizing the work he has done or the conclusions he has come to professionally, but just felt this book was too shallow a document to satisfy my thirst for deeper knowledge of the Pirahã culture or language.
dyslexzak's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Very interesting story. I’d have liked to hear more about the author losing his faith. That was just mentioned and moved in from quite quickly.
nfiertz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced