ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the dynamics of a particular experiential state, which I here term 'helplessness', among the Piro people of Peruvian Amazonia, to shed light on the specific Piro conception of the human condition, and of the place of humanity in the cosmos. It draws on and extends a larger body of work concerned to develop a phenomenological account of the lived world of these people (Gow 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 1997, in press).