ABSTRACT
To outsiders, daily life in the kindred-based Airo-Pai1 community of Huajoya provides a striking example of conviviality in action. People visit one another freely, bringing gifts of food at any time of the day. Neighbours work sideby-side, discussing their dreams, sharing decisions and opinions, chatting and laughing. Heavy work, such as building gardens and houses, is done communally with the help of large amounts of manioc beer and good humour. One soon realises, however, that such harmony is not automatic, but actively fostered by each person. The Airo-Pai are extremely sensitive to con£ict and indeed they think of themselves as people who are, as they say, easily inclined to anger. Achieving a highly desired state of communal well-being, which they describe as 'living well', is only possible if men and women learn to fear both their own and other people's anger (cf. Kidd, Lagrou, Overing, Rosengren, Santos-Granero, this volume).
