Daniel L. Everett's Books

Dark Matter of the Mind

The Culturally Articulated Unconscious

By: Daniel L. Everett

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Dark Matter of the Mind

The Culturally Articulated Unconscious

By: Daniel L. Everett

Is it in our nature to be altruistic, or evil, to make art, use tools, or create language? Is it in our nature to think in any particular way? For Daniel L. Everett, the answer is a resounding no: it isn’t in our nature to do any of these things because human nature does not exist—at least not as we usually think of it. Flying in the face of major trends in Evolutionary Psychology and related fields, he offers a provocative and compelling argument in this book that the only thing humans are hardwired for is freedom: freedom from evolutionary instinct and freedom to adapt to a variety of environmental and cultural contexts. Everett sketches a blank-slate picture of human cognition that focuses not on what is in the mind but, rather, what the mind is in—namely, culture. He draws on years of field research among the Amazonian people of the Pirahã in order to carefully scrutinize various theories of cognitive instinct, including Noam Chomsky’s foundational concept of universal grammar, Freud’s notions of unconscious forces, Adolf Bastian’s psychic unity of mankind, and works on massive modularity by evolutionary psychologists such as Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Jerry Fodor, and Steven Pinker. Illuminating unique characteristics of the Pirahã language, he demonstrates just how differently various cultures can make us think and how vital culture is to our cognitive flexibility. Outlining the ways culture and individual psychology operate symbiotically, he posits a Buddhist-like conception of the cultural self as a set of experiences united by various apperceptions, episodic memories, ranked values, knowledge structures, and social roles—and not, in any shape or form, biological instinct. The result is fascinating portrait of the “dark matter of the mind,” one that shows that our greatest evolutionary adaptation is adaptability itself.

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395

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022652678X

ISBN 13

9780226526782

How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention

By: Daniel L. Everett

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How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention

By: Daniel L. Everett

A Buzzfeed Gift Guide Selection “Few books on the biological and cultural origin of humanity can be ranked as classics. I believe [this] will be one of them.” — Edward O. Wilson At the time of its publication, How Language Began received high acclaim for capturing the fascinating history of mankind’s most incredible creation. Deemed a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” by Tom Wolfe (Harper’s), Daniel L. Everett posits that the near- 7,000 languages that exist today are not only the product of one million years of evolution but also have allowed us to become Earth’s apex predator. Tracing 60,000 generations, Everett debunks long- held theories across a spectrum of disciplines to affi rm the idea that we are not born with an instinct for language. Woven with anecdotes of his nearly forty years of fi eldwork amongst Amazonian hunter- gatherers, this is a “completely enthralling” (Spectator) exploration of our humanity and a landmark study of what makes us human. “[An] ambitious text. . . . Everett’s amiable tone, and especially his captivating anecdotes . . . , will help the neophyte along.”— New York Times Book Review

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Page Count

309

Publisher

Liveright Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

087140477X

ISBN 13

9780871404770

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

By: Daniel Everett

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Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

By: Daniel Everett

Although Daniel Everett was a missionary, far from converting the Pirahãs, they converted him. He shows the slow, meticulous steps by which he gradually mastered their language and his gradual realisation that its unusual nature closely reflected its speakers' startlingly original perceptions of the world. Everett describes how he began to realise that his discoveries about the Pirahã language opened up a new way of understanding how language works in our minds and in our lives, and that this way was utterly at odds with Noam Chomsky's universally accepted linguistic theories. The perils of passionate academic opposition were then swiftly conjoined to those of the Amazon in a debate whose outcome has yet to be won. Everett's views are most recently discussed in Tom Wolfe's bestselling The Kingdom of Speech. Adventure, personal enlightenment and the makings of a scientific revolution proceed together in this vivid, funny and moving book.

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Page Count

327

Publisher

Profile Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1847651224

ISBN 13

9781847651228

Linguistic Fieldwork

A Student Guide

By: Jeanette Sakel,Daniel L. Everett

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Linguistic Fieldwork

A Student Guide

By: Jeanette Sakel,Daniel L. Everett

A handy beginner's guide to linguistic fieldwork - from the preparation of the work to the presentation of the results.

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521837278

ISBN 13

9780521837279

Wari

By: Daniel L. Everett,Barbara Kern

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Wari

By: Daniel L. Everett,Barbara Kern

This is the first major study of any Chapakuran language and makes an important contribution to linguistic theory. This study is especially timely as the Chapakuran languages of Western Brazil and Eastern Bolivia are endangered, and less than 2,000 known speakers of Wari and its related dialects are left in existence.

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Page Count

518

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

113498409X

ISBN 13

9781134984091

Language

The Cultural Tool

By: Daniel L. Everett

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Language

The Cultural Tool

By: Daniel L. Everett

A bold and provocative study that presents language not as an innate component of the brain—as most linguists do—but as an essential tool unique to each culture worldwide. For years, the prevailing opinion among academics has been that language is embedded in our genes, existing as an innate and instinctual part of us. But linguist Daniel Everett argues that, like other tools, language was invented by humans and can be reinvented or lost. He shows how the evolution of different language forms—that is, different grammar—reflects how language is influenced by human societies and experiences, and how it expresses their great variety. For example, the Amazonian Pirahã put words together in ways that violate our long-held under-standing of how language works, and Pirahã grammar expresses complex ideas very differently than English grammar does. Drawing on the Wari’ language of Brazil, Everett explains that speakers of all languages, in constructing their stories, omit things that all members of the culture understand. In addition, Everett discusses how some cultures can get by without words for numbers or counting, without verbs for “to say” or “to give,” illustrating how the very nature of what’s important in a language is culturally determined. Combining anthropology, primatology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and his own pioneering—and adventurous—research with the Amazonian Pirahã, and using insights from many different languages and cultures, Everett gives us an unprecedented elucidation of this society-defined nature of language. In doing so, he also gives us a new understanding of how we think and who we are.

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Page Count

356

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307907023

ISBN 13

9780307907028

Language

The Cultural Tool

By: Daniel Leonard Everett

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Language

The Cultural Tool

By: Daniel Leonard Everett

A bold and provocative study that presents language not as an innate component of the brain--as most linguists argue--but as a tool unique to each culture worldwide, and as essential to human society as fire.

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356

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307378535

ISBN 13

9780307378538

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

By: Daniel L. Everett

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Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

By: Daniel L. Everett

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.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307386120

ISBN 13

9780307386120

Dark Matter of the Mind

The Culturally Articulated Unconscious

By: Daniel L. Everett

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Dark Matter of the Mind

The Culturally Articulated Unconscious

By: Daniel L. Everett

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Page Count

395

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022652678X

ISBN 13

9780226526782

Linguistic Fieldwork

A Student Guide

By: Jeanette Sakel,Daniel L. Everett

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Linguistic Fieldwork

A Student Guide

By: Jeanette Sakel,Daniel L. Everett

A handy beginner's guide to linguistic fieldwork - from the preparation of the work to the presentation of the results.

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

193

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521837278

ISBN 13

9780521837279

Book's by Daniel L. Everett

Dark Matter of the Mind

Dark Matter of the Mind

How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention

How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

Linguistic Fieldwork

Linguistic Fieldwork

Wari

Wari

Language

Language

Language

Language

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

Dark Matter of the Mind

Dark Matter of the Mind

Linguistic Fieldwork

Linguistic Fieldwork

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