Posted by: jango on: October 6, 2009
download the latest from http://www.python.org/download/
Unzip it, change to that directory and run ./configure –prefix=< Your custom python install path>
then make,make install
You have new version of python at <Your custom python install path>/bin (ie <Your custom python install path>/bin/python will be the new python) . without disturbing the existing version