ABSTRACT
Ask a Pa'ikwene person about work, any work, and you are likely to be told that it is mahiko, i.e. 'hard and difficult'. This evaluation coexists, however, with another, in which the process of work and productivity is held to be enjoyable, even joyful, and an activity as rewarding in terms of the emotions and communication as in material ones. This chapter is largely about Pa'ikwene work, then; and is to be seen as a contribution to the conversation on the 'everyday' aspects of Lowland Amerindian life. Insofar as it explores the oral dimension of work, the chapter may also be said to be about conversation itself, both in the literal sense and the figurative, that of society being conceived as a 'dialogue' between its members.
