Daniel Everett, a Christian missionary, arrived among the Pirahã in 1977-with his wife and 3 small children-intending to convert them. What he discovered was a vocabulary that defies all existing linguistic ideas and reflects a way of lifestyle that evades modern understanding: The Pirahã have no counting system and no set terms for color. They haven’t any concept of war or of personal property. They live completely in the present. Everett became enthusiastic about their language and its own social about Don’t Rest, YOU WILL FIND Snakes: Existence and Vocabulary in the Amazonian Jungle and linguistic implications, and with the amazing contentment with which they live-so very much so that he eventually lost his trust in the God he’d hoped to present to them.

Over three decades, Everett spent a complete of seven years among the Pirahã, and his account of this lasting sojourn can be an engrossing exploration of vocabulary that questions modern linguistic theory. It is also an anthropological investigation, an adventure story, and a riveting memoir of the life profoundly suffering from exposure to a different culture. Written with remarkable acuity, awareness, and openness, it is fascinating from 1st to last, rich with unparalleled understanding into the character of language, thought, and lifestyle itself.