Welcome to Daniel L. Everett's Website

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazon Jungle

 

Due to the success of the first editions of Don't sleep there are snakes in hardback (still available in all major bookstores and via Amazon), both in the UK and in the USA, new paperback versions are planned by Profile Books UK (August 2009) and Vintage Paperbacks USA (November 2009).

Non-fiction Award

Don't Sleep There are Snakes has just been named a finalist in the Society of Midland Authors' prize for Adult Non-fiction for 2009.

A few quotes about Don't sleep:

A few quotes about the book: "... fascinating and candid account of life with the Pirahã..." Publishers Weekly (Signature Review)

"... unforgettable" Booklist (American Library Association)

"... Everett’s experiences and findings fairly explode from these pages and will reverberate in the minds of readers." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This is an astonishing book: a work of exploration, into the most distant place and language, but also a revelation of the way language is shaped by thought and circumstance." London Times (daily)

"... destined to become a classic of popular enthnography..." Independent

"... Verdict: Read..." Time Magazine

"... like reading a letter from a wise friend." The Bookbag

"... remarkable... its conjunction of physical and intellectual adventure is irresistible..." London Sunday Times

"... Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes makes the rain forest sound like a magic mushroom." Harper's Magazine

'... compelling, addicting memoir..." Book Group Buzz (blog)

"... highly recommended..." Library Journal (starred review)

"... shares its author's best traits: perseverance, insight, humor and humility. Both the Pirahãs and their
interpreter make splendid company..." Cleveland Plain Dealer

"... a little as if Paul Theroux's The Mosquito Coast had been rewritten by Steve Pinker..." London Sunday Observer

"... One of the most interesting stories you will ever read..." Irish Herald

"... One of the best books I have read." New Scientist

Dan Everett Books

For information on ordering, reviews and general information about books by me, please visit the site (still in progress to a degree), daneverettbooks.com

In the news

Newspapers

Toronto Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, NRC Handelsblad, El Mundo, The Independent, Folha de Sao Paulo, South China Morning News, Finnish newspaper.

Radio

BBC World Service: FORUM

This interview was conducted in March, 2009, and includes my sixty second idea to change the world.

BBC World Service: Outlook

This interview was conducted with me in February, 2008. It is about how the Pirahãs affected me spiritually and other aspects of life among them. (This is a large mp3 file)

National Public Radio

National Public Radio featured my work in 2007.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

I was featured on the program And Sometimes Y.

New Scientist SCI POD

Interview with me about Pirahã (.mp3 file)

BBC Radio - Excess Baggage

On endangered languages

BBC Radio - Excess Baggage

Raising a family in the jungle

BBC Radio - Material World

Debate with Prof. Ian Roberts, Head of Linguistics, University of Cambridge

WGLT Radio (Illinois State University)

My 'home' radio station also interviewed me about recursion.

Magazines

New Scientist

New Scientist recently published pieces by me and other scientists on our favorite books.

New Scientist published an interview (pdf) on my research in January, 2008. There was also a New Scientist article on this work in 2006. A section of that article (pdf) is here.

Veja

The major Brazilian newsmagazine.

Prospect

Covering the Chomsky-Everett controversy.

Der Spiegel

One of the earlier articles on the Pirahãs.

New Yorker

The most substantive story about my work is in the New Yorker.

Newton

The Italian magazine, Newton, carried a nice story.

Gehirn and Geist

The German popular science magazine Gehirn & Geist, (picture here), carried a couple of stories about Pirahã.

Scientific American Mind

Scientific American Mind also interviewed me about this research.

Science News

First article on Pirahã in a science magazine.

Your Manchester

Your Manchester is a new alumni magazine for the University of Manchester.

Video

Long Now Organization

My lecture on endangered languages is available for audio and video download.

 

New Scientist

There is a new video from New Scientist on my work.

 

The Edge

A video of me explaining my research on the EDGE website tries to clear up some of the doubts that people have raised about my claims and works.

Other stuff

There is discussion of my work on LanguageLog. A partial list of other coverage of the Pirahã:CNN , BBC, Pakistan Daily Times, Communist Party of India official paper, and others. This interest began with a study by Peter Gordon in Science. Most of these others are concerned with Gordon's paper.

Research interests

Newest book project

I am currently writing Cognitive Fire: Language as a Cultural Tool for Pantheon (US) and Profile (UK).

Newest paper

Here is a .pdf version my new response to criticisms of my more controversial proposals, to appear in the June 2009 issue of Language. An html version is here.

Making friends all over Boston

If you want to read a footnote that I excised from the paper above about the behavior of some of my critics at Harvard and MIT, including a nice quote from Noam Chomsky about my character, click here.

Linguistics

See the page labeled research for some sample papers in Morphosyntax, Phonology, and Ethnosyntax.

 

Anthropology

See the page on research for sample works, including a new field methods manual, in Anthropological Linguistics and Ethnosyntax.

Cognition

In recent months I have been working extensively with Michael Frank, Ted Gibson, and Evelina Fedorenko, via Gibson's lab at MIT. Our paper appeared in Cognition in 2008 and was selected by Discover Magazine as one of the top 100 science stories of the year.

I am also collaborating in research with folks at Stanford Psychology, including Jennifer Yoon, Nathan Witthoft, and Jonathan Winawer,

Upcoming speaking events

March 20, 2009, I spoke at the Long Now Foundation. My talk may be watched on video, via the Long Now site.

April 16-19, 2009, I spoke at the Linguistics Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara and at the Santa Barbara Symposium on Human Origins.

May 25-28, 2009, I am speaking at a University of Massachusetts conference on recursion.