Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett is not without its flaws (he first went to live among the Pirahã as a missionary, after all), but it shows a unique perspective. Very few people have lived among this isolated group, and fewer still have been able to learn their language. I found it an absolutely fascinating read. I liked learning about how language and culture intertwine, and hearing the story of people I would have never encountered otherwise. The audiobook was especially good because Everett is possibly the only person in the world who speaks the Pirahã language and is literate. It was cool to hear the language pronounced (even by a non-native speaker).
Are there any other similar books folks can recommend me that are written by anthropologists or others that have spent time living immersed in a culture that is unable to or uninterested in writing their own story? I specifically don’t want books that are based on a lot of secondhand research and a handful of interviews. I want books by authors writing about a people they have a personal, long-standing relationship with!
Mostly looking for accounts of small, ancient cultures that retain older traditions and ways of life to some degree! Hoping to also find something that doesn’t exoticize and genuinely has a respect for the people it writes about as both individuals and fellow humans and as a culture.
Thanks in advance!
by IReadBooksSometimes
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Are you looking for modern books, or for really immersive books?
E. E. Evan’s-Pritchard wrote one of the first ever ethnographies while living with the Azande people. It was foundational to the study of anthropology, but was written in the 30’s.
Margaret Mead’s studies amongst the people of Samoa and Papua New Guinea made he one of the most important cultural anthropologists of the century. Coming of Age in Samoa was hugely influential. Bronislaw Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific is also foundational, but lacks a little compared to Mead (in my opinion).
Lila Abu-Lughod’s Veiled Sentiments became one of the first ethnographies written by a woman that focused on women’s lives. She spend years living amongst a Bedouin tribe studying a sort of secret language of poetry that women used to communicate when they couldn’t express their feelings outright.
Sudhur Venkatesh spent so long with the Chicago street gang that he was researching that his book is literally called “Gang Leader for a Day”.