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Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle (Vintage Departures) ペーパーバック – イラスト付き, 2009/11/3
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Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, a life-changing tale set among a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in Brazil that offers a riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.
"Immensely interesting and deeply moving.... One of the best books I have read."—Lucy Dodwell, New Scientist
A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.
Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics.
- 本の長さ320ページ
- 言語英語
- 出版社Vintage
- 発売日2009/11/3
- 寸法13.21 x 1.8 x 20.17 cm
- ISBN-100307386120
- ISBN-13978-0307386120
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商品の説明
レビュー
"Absorbing.... Shares its author's best traits: perseverance, insight, humor and humility. Both the Pirahas and their interpreter make splendid company."—The Plain Dealer
"Immensely interesting and deeply moving.... One of the best books I have read."—Lucy Dodwell, New Scientist
"A story of language and faith along the sweeping banks of the Maici River.... Verdict: Read."—Time
"Destined to become a classic of popular enthnography."—The Independent, London
"A genuine and engrossing book that is both sharp and intuitive; it closes around you and reaches inside you, controlling your every thought and movement as you read it.... Impossible to forget."—Sacramento Book Review
"Three stars.... [A] spiritual adventure story."—People
"A fascinating look into the lives of the Piraha, an Amazonian community of hunter-gatherers."—The Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes makes the rain forest sound like a magic mushroom."—Harper's Magazine
"A riveting account of a Christian missionary 'converted' to the viewpoint of the Amazonian Indians he had intended to evangelize."—The Huntsville Times
"Vivid.... The book is fascinating.... May serve to bring the furor of linguistics and language research to readers who otherwise never catch sight of it."—Science
"In this fascinating and candid account of life with the Pirahã, Everett describes how he learned to speak fluent Pirahã (pausing occasionally to club the snakes that harassed him in his Amazonian "office"). He also explains his discoveries about the language-findings that have kicked off more than one academic brouhaha."--Publishers Weekly (Signature Review)
"Rich account of fieldwork among a tribe of hunter-gatherers in Brazil . . . introduce[s] non-specialists to the fascinating ongoing debate about the origin of languages. . . . Everett's experiences and findings fairly explode from these pages and will reverberate in the minds of readers."—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Dan Everett has written an excellent book. First, it is a very powerful autobiographical account of his stay with the Pirahã in the jungles of the Amazon basin. Second, it is a brilliant piece of ethnographical description of life among the Pirahã. And third, and perhaps most important in the long run, his data and his conclusions about the language of the Pirahã run dead counter to the prevailing orthodoxy in linguistics. If he is right, he will permanently change our conception of human language."—John Searle, Slusser Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
"Dan Everett is the most interesting man I have ever met. This story about his life among the Pirahãs is a fascinating read. His observations and claims about the culture and language of the Pirahãs are astounding. Whether or not all of his hypotheses turn out to be correct, Everett has forced many researchers to reevaluate basic assumptions about the relationship among culture, language and cognition. I strongly recommend the book."—Edward Gibson, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
抜粋
“Look! There he is, Xigagaí, the spirit.”
“Yes, I can see him. He is threatening us.”
“Everybody, come see Xigagaí. Quickly! He is on the beach!”
I roused from my deep sleep, not sure if I was dreaming or hearing this conversation. It was 6:30 on a Saturday morning in August, the dry season of 1980. The sun was shining, but not yet too hot. A breeze was blowing up from the Maici River in front of my modest hut in a clearing on the bank. I opened my eyes and saw the palm thatch above me, its original yellow graying from years of dust and soot. My dwelling was flanked by two smaller Pirahã huts of similar construction, where lived Xahoábisi, Kóhoibiíihíai, and their families.
Mornings among the Pirahãs, so many mornings, I picked up the faint smell of smoke drifting from their cook fires, and the warmth of the Brazilian sun on my face, its rays softened by my mosquito net. Children were usually laughing, chasing one another, or noisily crying to nurse, the sounds reverberating through the village. Dogs were barking. Often when I first opened my eyes, groggily coming out of a dream, a Pirahã child or sometimes even an adult would be staring at me from between the paxiuba palm slats that served as siding for my large hut. This morning was different.
I was now completely conscious, awakened by the noise and shouts of Pirahãs. I sat up and looked around. A crowd was gathering about twenty feet from my bed on the high bank of the Maici, and all were energetically gesticulating and yelling. Everyone was focused on the beach just across the river from my house. I got out of bed to get a better look—and because there was no way to sleep through the noise.
I picked my gym shorts off the floor and checked to make sure that there were no tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, or other undesirables in them. Pulling them on, I slipped into my flip- flops and headed out the door. The Pirahãs were loosely bunched on the riverbank just to the right of my house. Their excitement was growing. I could see mothers running down the path, their infants trying to hold breasts in their mouths.
The women wore the same sleeveless, collarless, midlength dresses they worked and slept in, stained a dark brown from dirt and smoke. The men wore gym shorts or loincloths. None of the men were carrying their bows and arrows. That was a relief. Prepubescent children were naked, their skin leathery from exposure to the elements. The babies’ bottoms were calloused from scooting across the ground, a mode of locomotion that for some reason they prefer to crawling. Everyone was streaked from ashes and dust accumulated by sleeping and sitting on the ground near the fire.
It was still around seventy- two degrees, though humid, far below the hundred- degree- plus heat of midday. I was rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I turned to Kóhoi, my principal language teacher, and asked, “What’s up?” He was standing to my right, his strong, brown, lean body
tensed from what he was looking at.
“Don’t you see him over there?” he asked impatiently. “Xigagaí, one of the beings that lives above the clouds, is standing on the beach yelling at us, telling us he will kill us if we go to the jungle.”
“Where?” I asked. “I don’t see him.”
“Right there!” Kóhoi snapped, looking intently toward the middle of the apparently empty beach.
“In the jungle behind the beach?”
“No! There on the beach. Look!” he replied with exasperation.
In the jungle with the Pirahãs I regularly failed to see wildlife they saw. My inexperienced eyes just weren’t able to see as theirs did.
But this was different. Even I could tell that there was nothing on that white, sandy beach no more than one hundred yards away. And yet as certain as I was about this, the Pirahãs were equally certain that there was something there. Maybe there had been something there that I just missed seeing, but they insisted that what they were seeing, Xigagaí, was still there.
Everyone continued to look toward the beach. I heard Kristene, my six- year- old daughter, at my side.
“What are they looking at, Daddy?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see anything.”
Kris stood on her toes and peered across the river. Then at me. Then at the Pirahãs. She was as puzzled as I was.
Kristene and I left the Pirahãs and walked back into our house. What had I just witnessed? Over the more than two decades since that summer morning, I have tried to come to grips with the significance of how two cultures, my European- based culture and the Pirahãs’ culture, could see reality so differently. I could never have proved to the Pirahãs that the beach was empty. Nor could they have convinced me that there was anything, much less a spirit, on it.
As a scientist, objectivity is one of my most deeply held values. If we could just try harder, I once thought, surely we could each see the world as others see it and learn to respect one another’s views more readily. But as I learned from the Pirahãs, our expectations, our culture, and
our experiences can render even perceptions of the environment nearly
incommensurable cross- culturally.
The Pirahãs say different things when they leave my hut at night on their way to bed. Sometimes they just say, “I’m going.” But frequently they use an expression that, though surprising at first, has come to be one of my favorite ways of saying good night: “Don’t sleep, there are snakes.” The Pirahãs say this for two reasons. First, they believe that by sleeping less they can “harden themselves,” a value they all share. Second, they know that danger is all around them in the jungle and that sleeping soundly can leave one defenseless from attack by any of the numerous predators around the village. The Pirahãs laugh and talk a good part of the night. They don’t sleep much at one time. Rarely have I heard the village completely quiet at night or noticed someone sleeping for several hours straight. I have learned so much from the Pirahãs over the years. But this is perhaps my favorite lesson. Sure, life is hard and there is plenty of danger. And it might make us lose some sleep from time to time. But enjoy it.
Life goes on.
I went to the Pirahãs when I was twenty- six years old. Now I am old enough to receive senior discounts. I gave them my youth. I have contracted
malaria many times. I remember several occasions on which the Pirahãs or others threatened my life. I have carried more heavy boxes, bags, and barrels on my back through the jungle than I care to remember. But my grandchildren all know the Pirahãs. My children are who they are in part because of the Pirahãs. And I can look at some of those old men (old like me) who once threatened to kill me and recognize some of the dearest friends I have ever had—men who would now risk their lives for me.
This book is about the lessons I have learned over three decades of studying and living with the Pirahãs, a time in which I have tried my best to comprehend how they see, understand, and talk about the world and to transmit these lessons to my scientific colleagues. This journey has taken me to many places of astounding beauty and into many situations I would rather not have entered. But I am so glad that I made the journey—it has given me precious and valuable insights into the nature of life, language, and thought that could not have been learned any other way.
The Pirahãs have shown me that there is dignity and deep satisfaction in facing life and death without the comfort of heaven or the fear of hell and in sailing toward the great abyss with a smile. I have learned these things from the Pirahãs, and I will be grateful to them as long as I live.
著者について
登録情報
- 出版社 : Vintage; Illustrated版 (2009/11/3)
- 発売日 : 2009/11/3
- 言語 : 英語
- ペーパーバック : 320ページ
- ISBN-10 : 0307386120
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307386120
- 寸法 : 13.21 x 1.8 x 20.17 cm
- Amazon 売れ筋ランキング: - 1,276位洋書 (洋書の売れ筋ランキングを見る)
- カスタマーレビュー:
著者について
著者の本をもっと発見したり、よく似た著者を見つけたり、著者のブログを読んだりしましょう
-
トップレビュー
上位レビュー、対象国: 日本
レビューのフィルタリング中に問題が発生しました。後でもう一度試してください。
出版社: Vintage (2009/11/3)
ISBN-10: 0307386120 のレビュー
翻訳書の評判がいいので、この原書を読んでみた。
第1部は、みごとな文化人類学者の記録である。
著者は、キリスト教のミッショナリーとしてブラジル奥地のピダハンの村に滞在する。キリスト教宣教師というのは、現地の文化を破壊しまくった悪行が名高いが、著者は実に禁欲的である。現地の慣習・俗信・生業など人々のくらしを構成するものにできるだけ干渉しない。違法行為と思われるもの、近代社会の人権意識に反することも、そのまま受け入れる。殺人や同性愛も、淡々と、時にユーモラスに描かれる。そして、(ここがジレンマであるが)そのままの社会にキリスト教を布教しようとする。読んでいけば、それが不可能なことが判るのだが、著者の努力が客観的にクールに描かれる。
例外的に著者が干渉するのは、飲酒や酒の販売(ブラジルの法律でも規制されている)と医療行為である。その、善意の医療行為が受け入れられないエピソードが最大の読みどころであった。
さて、第2部である。ピダハンの言語が分析される。
この部分、アメリカで論争を巻き起こしたそうで、著者の〈言語は環境に規定される〉という主張が多くの反論を招いた。
しかし、わたしは読んでいって、それほど例外的な事例ではないし、論争が起こるようなことなのかと、疑問をもった。著者が描く、ピダハンの言語生活は、外の社会との交際が少ない世界では、よくある事例ではないだろうか。つまり、言語そのものではなく、閉鎖的な社会に共通することではないだろう。
たとえば、ピダハンが録音された聖書の内容と、声を出して読んだ読み手の人格を区別できない、というエピソード。これなど、現代日本社会でも、よくあることで、小説の登場人物と作者を区別できずに批判するレビューなど、このアマゾンにもたくさん見られる。
以上、第2部も第1部に劣らず楽しめたが、第1部だけでも手に取る価値のある内容だった。文章は読みやすく平明でユーモラス。言語学者が難解な文章を書いていては学者失格だし、文化人類学の本というものは、その社会を知らない外の読者に見聞したことがらを伝えるのが目的であるから、難しい文章では価値がない。
索引14ページ。
著者自身と家族も項目に載っている。著者や家族が現地社会に及ぼす影響にも充分自覚的である。そして、これも本書の読みどころだが、著者がキリスト教の信仰を捨てたことについても書かれている。つまり、本書に登場する家族と著者は別れてしまったのですね。(ピダハン社会もすごいが、3歳、6歳、9歳の子を連れ込む著者の家族もすごい。夜にはこどもに『指輪物語』や『ナルニア』を読んで聞かせるという話もすごい。やっぱり、そうとうインテリの両親ではないでしょうか)
著者は言語学者であり、なおかつ、キリスト教の伝道師としてこの地へ入ったという。こういう考え方で暮らしている部族がキリスト教など受け入れるはずがないと確信して読んでいたが、ついに著者も棄教に至ってしまったという。家族間にも亀裂が入ったようで、大変気の毒ではあるが、当然の帰結ではないかとおもわされた。アマゾンの彼らが信じるのは直接の体験か、身近な人の体験なのだから、遠い昔に亡くなって、著者があったこともないキリストの話など聞かされても疑わしいものでしかないだろう。
こういう社会があるのかと目からうろこで大変楽しく読ませてもらった。残念なのは、せっかく家族ぐるみでアマゾンに移住しながら、家族と異文化の接触はどうだったのか、あまり記述がないことである。幼い子供の目から見たアマゾンの部族社会はどうだったのだろうか。また言語学的考察が多く、それは著者が言語学者である以上仕方がないことだが、少し私には難しかった。とはいっても、異次元トリップのような読書体験であった。これこそ読書の醍醐味。
言語学に理解と関心のある読者には、Piraha語の言語学的な特異性が興味深い。著者はPiraha語を学び新約聖書を翻訳する目的で送り込まれた宣教師だったが、Piraha語が言語学の大御所Chomsky教授による言語学統一理論に乗らない反例であったため、著者の学会発表は注目されMITでPhDを取得した。耳目を疑うほどのユニークな言語である。
著者は布教には失敗する。それはPiraha族が(1)自分が見たか、(2)見た人の経験談、しか信じない文化を持つからだ。会ったことがないJesusの話は全く説得力が無かった。同じ理由でPiraha族には創世物語は無く、過去や将来に悩むこともない。病や死は日常茶飯事で恐れたり悩んだりすることではなく、心配・恐れ・絶望はほぼ無い。1日ずつ精一杯生きて、笑いが絶えない幸せな彼らに「神を信じれば恐れが消えて幸せになれる」と言っても空しいと著者は悟る。
著者と同様に我々も、現代社会と文化を深く見直す必要があると感じた。
Sad to know that religion did not serve as a way to help his family happy, but became a burden to be open-minded and accepting.
他の国からのトップレビュー
The author is no starry-eyed romantic but intelligent and insightful . He obviously knew these people very well and this knowledge forms his conclusions .
I recommend this book to anyone interested in either other societies- or our own .